Neither Smog, Wi-Fi Failures nor a Pre-Halloween Blizzard Can Stop Us

I  just went over to see the beginning of the Hackathon presentations and got chills when I saw the TechCrunch green Disrupt logos behind the stage in the ballroom of the China National Convention Center. I can't believe this is really happening! It's so exciting! 

Of course, most of the staff is so neck-deep in problem solving mode, they're not stopping to gush quite as much. We've had legendary wifi issues-- the tech conference curse no matter where you are in the world. Flights from Shanghai to Beijing got cancelled today stranding at least one of our Battlefield companies until tomorrow. The Beijing pollution is the worst I've ever seen it. It is totally grey out of my hotel window. And -- the worst weather news for me-- Peter Goodman, executive business editor of the Huffington Post who was supposed to co-emcee the event with me is trapped in New York thanks to a blizzard! What the hell is a snow storm doing in New York this early??

So it looks like there's going to be a lot more me on stage the next few days...

Speaking of me and microphones, I took some of the speakers out karaoking last night, while the rest of the staff worked on the hackathon. There were huge five liter glass vases filled with beer, the regular whiskey and green tea concoctions and a lot of baaaaad singing. Sometimes my job is just awesome. I'm trying to get photos from Ben Huh to post on TC later today.