I was thinking about past General Assemblies, and what has changed over the years. The timing in the week, the relative number of workshops and the use of technology come to mind. And as an extension of the technology piece, how much can be accomplished on a smart phone that formerly relied on the message boards and roving reporters.
Insofar as I can, I plan to blog and tweet from GA, if signal-inhibiting walls at the Dunk Center don’t have other plans. That’s one problem with convention centers; another is a lack of electrical power to surreptitiously siphon. Phones run down. So I’m bringing my own electricity.
If you don’t have a back-up battery, consider getting one. They’ve gotten lighter and cheaper than when first introduced. I got this 5v, 1000 mA battery on Amazon for about $8.
You see how it fits in my hand, and it weighs a bit less than a roll of pennies. I wish it were a bit more powerful — I used it to recharge my phone last night but only went from about 20% to 85% — but the size in right and it has a flashlight built in. (I’ll try recharging it again later with wifi turned off and without playing with the flashlight to get a full charge on the phone.)
Later: I charged my phone from 19% to 87% while turned off and it exhausted the battery. So I assume that’s as good as it gets. I have a Moto X.