It was a long first day, but apart from a few lingering travel issues for some, everything seems to have got underway smoothly.

I had the pleasure of meeting with several speakers at this evening’s welcome cocktail and everyone is really excited to be participating in this groundbreaking event and looking forward to the next two days of sessions, panel discussions and networking opportunities.

Today was hard work for the DIALOG conference team, with lots of last minute preparations to complete and a few unexpected issues to deal with. I was very impressed with how everyone came together to resolve those issues and am proud to be part of such a great team of professionals.

There was still time for a bit of relaxation out on the golf course though (for some at least), made all the more pleasureable by the warm sunny Palm Springs weather. Below, in pictures, is a summary of this first day of DIALOG 08…

Arrival in Palm Springs

Palm Springs: The Windy City? Turbines as far as they eye can see.

Sunny Palm Springs morning

View from my hotel room.

View from the hotel lobby.

9am: Still a lot to do.

Helping Aimee to add USB keys to the conference packs

Testing, testing, testing.

Bruno setting up in the board room

Ready, steady, golf!

Pierre meets and greets the golfers (those that made it).

Playing the first tee.

Fore!

Meanwhile, back at the registration desk…

Monika gets ready for a busy afternoon of press briefings.

Last-minute conference bag stuffing.

The DIABLOG blogging station ready to go!

Welcome to DIALOG 08!

Welcome cocktail.

ILOG’s Chris Berg.

Martha Mesa explains the benefits of ILOG’s new customer advocacy program, C-LinX.

Pierre Haren with Edith and David Simchi-Levi, and Anna Ross.