As you can see, the truck returned from Atlanta.  Here is one of the gaming chairs, currently sitting in a secluded area of our building.

Did you miss a critical session? Perhaps you want to share it with a colleague? You can purchase audio recordings on CD-ROM of the full slate of Management and Technical Sessions. The General Sessions and Vanguard Awards are available on DVD. Registered attendees have access to listen to the sessions for 90 days after the show. For information and pricing, see the National Show website.

If you're looking for a photo of something from The National Show, visit www.oscareinzig.com/ncta2006 to view available images and get ordering information.

You can earn credits for the sessions you attended. Visit the Business of Cable Certificate website at www.businessofcable.com to register for the program, or register credits if you're already participating in the program.

Copies of the 2006 NCTA Technical Papers book or CD-ROM can be ordered through store.thenationalshow.com.

If you plan this far ahead, remember that next year's National Show is scheduled for May 7 - 9, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I simply didn't get the scope, variety, and quality of content, services and products that make up the U.S. cable industry until I attended my first National Show last year in San Francisco. To that end, we at Cable in the Classroom took the opportunity to host a meeting of our National Education Advisory Board at this year's National Show.

Reconstituted to reflect a new strategic plan, our advisory board includes two former federal directors of educational technology, state and school district education leaders, national education and parent association representatives, and leading children's digital media researchers. In general, the purpose of our hosting the meeting in conjunction with The National Show was to educate our advisors about the cable industry and to provide networking opportunities with cable industry members (including with public affairs executives from MSOs and programmers, as well as with business services and equipment manufacturer executives associated with CTAM's Business Services Committee).

Pictured above, on a tour of the exhibit hall floor, are Sandy Calvert, Linda Roberts, Sharnell Jackson (Chief eLearning Officer, Chicago Public Schools), and Mila Fuller of the International Society for Technology in Education. The guy in the middle of the picture, well, that'd be me.

Across the board, our advisors left enthused about the industry, impressed with the many ways it has and continues to partner with education, and full of ideas about how to extend and enhance the impact of our collective work together as educators, employers, and parents. We at Cable in the Classroom left enthused about the potential of future meetings of the leaders from the two sectors we bridge - cable and education - and how those meetings can lead to greater understanding, good works and good will.

A special thanks to all of our colleagues at NCTA for making our meetings possible!

Earlier this week, Atlanta station WXIA-TV prepared a report on The National Show and the cable industry.

You can find it here: Cable Industry Exploding Widely.

The National Show was a great opportunity for us from Cable in the Classroom (CIC) to connect and reconnect with our many partners within the industry, including Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, Charter, Cablevision, Discovery, C-SPAN, CNN, A&E, Narad Networks, and CTAM.

Personal highlights  for me included conversations with Bloomberg Television to work with them on a new online educational game for teens they're developing and helping to get the word out about HITN, a new educational Hispanic channel. 

On Tuesday, the education staff from CNN Student News gave a fabulous tour to  some of our visiting members from our National Education Advisory Board. (Pictured from left to right: Susan Patrick, President & CEO of  the North American Council for Online Learning, Wendy Wiener - CIC, Jill Nyhus - CIC, Lean King- Superintendent of the  Encinitas Union School District, CA and Anna Weselak, President of the National PTA). It was great to learn about CNN's daily commitment to education through their daily broadcast and many teacher resources they provide.  The conversation gave us all a lot to think about  in terms of the value ofthese and similar resources being developed throughout the industry.

See you in Vegas!

As a first time Show attendee, I had a lot of fun.  It may just be that I am now two days and hundreds of miles removed from the sore feet and sleep deprivation, but I'm looking forward to next year's show.

The sessions were really good with a lot of great speakers.  The tech talk and policy discussions educated a lot of people on cable's innovation and the challenges facing our industry.

Some of my favorite takeaways were a Fox News Channel bag, a seemingly never-ending supply of sugar free wintergreen mints from E! and a Sumo wrestler shaped stress ball from Japan TV.

My wife would like to thank all of the players that prevented me from trying out the racing seats in the game arena.  Now she won't have to worry about me trying to buy one.

It's been great.  I'll see you May 7th - 9th, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here is another shot of The B-52's on stage, from Tuesday night's National Show party. The band's set list included a great cross-section of songs:

The only song I wished they'd also played was "Give Me Back My Man."

The band is going back into the studio to work on their next album. Their last album was 1992's Good Stuff.

Downstairs at the Show party, there was heavy metal karaoke with the band Metalsome Incorporated. Many of your colleagues got up and wowed the crowd with their performances. When the event ended, the crowd cheered so loudly for an encore, that the band came out on stage and ripped up Motorhead's classic "Ace of Spades."

Last night, The National Show closed out with an incredible party at The Tabernacle in Atlanta.  Shown in the top photo is The B-52's backstage before the show.  At left is NCTA's Rob Stoddard and bandmembers (L-R) Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider, and Kate Pierson.

Below is the band onstage in the middle of their set.

More shots from the Cable Game Arena.