Another 6.30 alarm call. I’ve sorted the journey to the conference centre though – a bus, five minute walk, then tram – all one ticket (Eur 1.50 for a journey of up to an hour on any form of public transport). The bus stops all have electronic real-time displays, and the trams look new and are fast and efficient. Why do we put up with lousy public transport in Edinburgh?

First full day of OOoCon. The girl on the desk greeted me with “oh, I saw you on tv last night”, so I’m glad I’m a long way from home Very busy at OOoCon – I don’t know if all the 670 who registered have arrived, but Lyon has proved a popular venue.

Interesting to note that the two keynote speakers – from Intel and Google – were female, which is a pleasant change for open-source events. There was a lot of talk of how OOo is helping banish the digital divide on the desktop – good to see us bridging the gender divide too.

There’s not much point blogging all the sessions, as they’re being streamed and the video recordings will be archived on the web (the guys from Kyberpipa who did such a great job at OOoCon last year are back again). The presenters’ papers will also be uploaded to the schedule pages.

My talk was the “graveyard slot” straight after lunch. One amusing moment – I was in full flow, when one of the media team came over and said “Excuse me, but would you please try and stand still. We’re getting emails from people saying you keep blocking the projector screen” Nothing like real-time feedback – you can see why even the BBC likes emails and text messages. I had a live audience – studio broadcasting must be lonely at times!

It was great to meet the next presenter face to face – Bernard has done a great job with the Art Project, and his talk enabled him to showcase what they were doing to a wider audience.

The evening’s social event was a civic reception laid on by the Mayor of Lyon in the rather splendid historic town hall, with an exchange of gifts, followed by champagne, kir, and canapes. It shows the impact that OOo in particular and open-source in general is making in France. You don’t get that kind of treatment if you’re perceived as a geeky minority interest. The surroundings were very grand, more used to people in full formal evening wear. We were a right load of scruffs in t-shirts etc, and I suspect none too fragrant after a full day running around between very hot conference rooms.

Another great socialising opportunity. Several people commented to me that they got more out of the social events than the formal presentations (just what I wanted to hear after labouring over my presentation ) but I started wilting around nine o’clock and did the tram and taxi bit back to the hotel. My colleague has moved out in disgust after they couldn’t provide her with a hair dryer and an iron (although the guy on the desk did offer to lend her his personal iron). As he reminded us, “this is a one star hotel”.

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