Dreamforce

Dreamforce is Salesforce.com's annual user conference, and is the biggest week of the year for Appirio, Ryan's startup-- this year 18,000 customers and prospects descended on Moscone center, and Ryan was fully occupied for the week with the booth, the speaking opportunities, and of course throwing the best party at Dreamforce-- a VIP event at the historic San Francisco Mint.

Since Eunice's non-profit is a Salesforce customer, she was also up at the event-- although she spent most of her time at the fancy hotel where Ryan's company put him up, catching up on the 4 years of sleep deprivation she's endured since our boys were born. (Ryan was only at the hotel a few hours a day, so Eunice had to make sure the room was put to good use!)

One highlight of the week was Ryan's 15 minutes of fame on stage with Appirio's customer, Avon. It was flattering to be asked by Avon to get on stage in front of 10,000 people and help demonstrate the application we'd built for them while Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff bantered with our client.

Then Marc turned to Ryan and asked some questions about how the app was built. The only problem: that wasn't in the script, and Ryan didn't have a microphone! Ryan gestured grandly to indicate that the customer was supposed to do the talking, but Benioff came back 2 more times with questions, until the client said "Marc, he doesn't have a mic!"

It was definitely one of Ryan's most frustrating professional moments-- to have the opportunity to share a cool story but to be unable to do so! This video captures a little bit of the absurdity/humor of having a 6'5" guy pantomiming on stage.

Another highlight of the week was when Adam (who works at Salesforce) hosted a panel.... with Ryan as one of the panelists! The Nichols boys rocked the house (as much as possible given that it was a 7:30am session after the night with all the big parties). With Eunice in the audience showing her support, it was definitely a family affair to remember. You can catch the audio here, and learn a little big about what the Nichols boys are up to these days!

And where were the boys through all of this? Po Po to the rescue! Terry came out for the week from St. Louis, taking care of Spencer's pre-school drop-off and pick-up, entertaining Tyler, cooking up a storm, and putting the boys to bed at night. The boys had a great time hanging out with their grandmother while their parents were a world away up in San Francisco, and Eunice got 3 glorious days and 2 nights away from the kids - the longest stretch she has ever been away from Spencer and Tyler!