MySQL Campus tour at USC - Slow start, brilliant ending

The Southern California branch of the MySQL Campus Tour is almost over. At the USC, attendance was very good, and even better was the enthusiasm and the participation we met. The meeting didn't start well. Our hotel is 11 miles away from the USC campus, and we figured out that heading to the campus 1 hour before the planned time ought to be enough. After 65 minutes, we had done exactly 7 miles, in one of the worst traffic jams that I have ever seen, but the locals tell me that it's pretty standard stuff down here. Anyway, we started 20 minutes later than expected, and we were pleasantly surprised that nobody had left, and a faithful audience had been waiting for us patiently.

The event went very well after that, and the participation was intense and passionate. Four students asked me how to become MySQL developers, and many had questions on Sun business model. After a while, the delay and the traffic jam were forgotten, and the event turned out to be very pleasant. There were 52 attendees. Like in a deck of cards. So Sheeri noted that probably we were the jokers!
I would like to thank the campus ambassadors Lynn Janh and Raed Shomali for the excellent organization and their patience with our forced delay.
Tomorrow we will talk at the L.A. MySQL meetup and then we will move North, to the MySQL Conference.