So, here's my summary: the next time that you're invited to attend a conference with a bunch of Sun Fellows and Distinguished Engineers, accept :) They throw a good party.
I had a lot of fun getting to hang out with my colleague and co-author, Nalini. We ate good food, drank good wine, and gave good poster sessions :) We saw the milky way through a star-laden sky above the beach where dinner was served one night. We had warm days, and cool breezes, and hung out with more famous people than you can shake a stick at. I gave a presentation on the work that we had done -- it was not my finest delivery of a presentation, but the audience was intimidating. My presentation was on some persona development that we had done, and was not necessarily what they wanted to hear. I quit talking with more than 13 minutes left in the 45-minute time slot, and then I took questions until we'd used up that time plus a few minutes more. That was a lot more fun than going over the slides. And they were, in all, a very receptive audience to the message that I was trying to deliver.
I had to run right after my talk so that my family and I could catch our flight out on time. But before I got away, one director ran out after me and stopped me to chat. We talked for a few minutes, and then he asked if I was in a hurry -- so I told him that I was on my way to the airport. He laughed, and said, "Oh -- you're just going to drop a bomb like that, and then run before the fallout hits the ground?" ... That's good right?