The first day of the conference left a little bit to be desired.  The first problem is that the location itself is less then ideal.  The Doubletree Hotel is technically "walking distance" to the conference but in reality its several blocks to the OCC and then another few blocks of walking within the actual conference center to get to the sessions.  Generally I don't mind walking but I was irritated that if I needed to go back to the room for something (to drop off my laptop, change my clothes, call my son) it was a one hour round trip. 

The location of the conference center is also less then ideal in that there are no decent restaurants or services surrounding the center itself.  Of course the real downtown area is only a few free light rail stops away but I've been to many other cities where their convention centers were in better locations (ie. hotel across the street and interesting stuff to do all around the convention center.)  The free light rail system (free in the immediate downtown area only) is pretty awesome.  The city of Portland itself is also pretty cool.  Its just unfortunate that the convention center isn't located in a better area. 

The crowds were also a big problem.  At one point they literally barred the doors for every session because of crowds (apparently a fire marshal was involved in that decision.)  That was irritating enough but when I went down to see the exhibit hall that was closed to.  The unhelpful conference staff simply told me that it was closed because it was "time for sessions."  Its the first time I've ever heard of a conference where the exhibitors shut everything down to go to the sessions. 

DHH's keynote talk was later that evening.  He gave an interesting speech on how Rails programmers should be investing their "surplus" time.  It was really more of a motivational speech without any technical content.  The speech was solid though and it was well received.  I ran into DHH after the speech and mentioned the situation about the closed sessions.  He was really pleasant to talk with and emphatically agreed with me that this was not acceptable.  Obviously he has no control over the situation but he assured me that he had been told it would be taken care of by the next day.