Citrix iForum, part 1

I am currently up in Edinburgh attending Citrix iForum 08. It kicks off in earnest tomorrow but I went to the opening "party" tonight. Maybe it's just me getting old and cynical but I get the impression everything is ever so slightly lower-key this year. The devil's in the detail with these things and the conference bag's not up to much this time around, I must say. It looks like something a slightly camp metrosexual would buy, nothing like the sporty red rucksack number that we got last year. You could imagine stubble-faced, hard-core triathletes would be happy to be seen with that one. I use it for my gym kit.

The entertainment, if you can call it that, was a couple of weird-looking buck-toothed Proclaimers look-alikes dressed up in parking attendant outfits telling crap jokes before introducing a hula-hoop spinning girl and a male tap-dancer. (Perhaps he was the one who chose the conference bag.) Still there was plenty of free beer.

Sometimes I really wish I could wax lyrical about how good things are, I feel I moan a lot. My fiancee calls me Victor Meldrew. Personally I prefer to liken myself to two of my favourite writers, Bill Bryson and Jeremy Clarkson. The big difference between them and me, however, apart from their undeniable talent compared to my amateurish rants, is that they can be equally enthusiastic about good things as they can scathing about bad.

Still, I'm sure I'll have more exciting news tomorrow after the keynotes. I'm looking forward to hearing Mark Templeton speak but I sincerely hope the demos work this time around. I managed to catch one of the Citrix techies who had, almost literally, been hauled out of a nearby pub to: "go and make something work that he had never managed to get working before". His words, not mine. Could be interesting tomorrow morning.