Well, here I am in London, attending the International Gaming Expo, which might also be known as the "ICE Show", the "ICEi Exhibition", or my personal favorite... "A Gaming Conference in a Place Where it Isn't Freakin' Snowing or ICE Cold".

Unfortunately, while it might not be snowing, it's still pretty miserable today. Drizzly, and maybe one degree above freezing. Too warm to wear a parka. Too cold to wear anything lighter. Welcome to the UK.

While I am here for wider reasons than simple blogging, the event does give me a chance to catch up on industry happenings and disperse it to those lucky enough to read my posts.

So, what have I seen so far?

Well, my first day was greatly marred by the disorganized nature of the conference.

Despite my online registration, I still had to suffer a lengthy wait to get my conference pass.

First, we waited 15 minutes in one line before somebody told us all to go wait in another line. Then, somebody else told us to go back to the first line, where a third person told us it would be faster to go back outside and walk around to another entrance where the line would be shorter... but it wasn't. After finding a third entrance, we finally made it in.

Time elapsed... one hour. I hate conferences.

Once inside, people are greeted by a sight that can only be described as the offspring of an unholy three-way between Las Vegas, Wall Street, and Amsterdam.

Picture several scantily clad women gyrating around a new server-based slot machine featuring a cutting edge transaction processing system, and that pretty much describes what is happening on the conference floor.

One part sex. One part glitz. One part gambling. One part business.
It's all here.

I'll be back soon with some show highlights.