Dallas was pretty awesome.
I got to spend a day in the city and it was pretty much a rodeo/bourbon theme covering the city. Mostly it was nice to be somewhere above 0 for a few days (although that's improving here now)

My main reason for going was a work conference. It was awesome, they had presentations, educational sessions and panels throughout the day, showcases for new tech late afternoon and then the evening were the equipment sales teams buying whiskey and cigars. Obviously they rolled out the pretty sales ladies to sell stuff however it was easy to get their attention being better dressed, younger and considerably slimmer than my american counterparts.

The first night I met an Israeli engineer who was there to present and a glass of wine and some tapas later we were back at her suite. Despite being "fit and fun she was a little aggressive and hairy.

Second night we were taken to dinner by our main paper supplier. Their technical director is incredibly kind yet an animal on a night out, we drank whiskey, told jokes and generally had an awesome night being sociable.

Third night was their closing night which was a massive party. I was going to go into big detail but it's not relevent and only serves for me to reminisce. After smashing a dance-off, 2 hula hooping competitions, numerous tequila shots and getting the longest time on the mechanical bull, I went back to my room with a pretty sales rep. Most notably I had some beer in my room and in trying to open a chocolate stout for us, I managed to spray the room with it - I left a $45 tip for the poor Mexican lady who was about to walk into what looked like the after-scene from a horrific diarrhea incident...

I liked the event as I just tried to learn, meet people and have fun. In doing so other people had fun and got involved more. Afterwards I feel like I advanced in my career, socially and personally...