First we had the opportunity for a brief private chat with the "Miles Godfather," the legendary Randy Petersen. What a pleasant and unassuming gentleman he is. We'd met him once before in person at the first Star Alliance Mega Do and it was a lot of fun to be able to say hi again.
Second, we met for the first time in person Tom Stuker. Although Tom had joined FlyerTalk previously, Brian more-or-less introduced him to the community by starting this FT thread, and he was kind enough to remember us and to thank us for the nice things we've written about him.
He's as personable in real life as he appears in interviews such as this one. We enjoyed the chance to talk with him more in a breakout session on the future of United and its mileage program.
Tom just finished filming the first episodes of a new reality show for Spike TV, Car Lot Cowboy. That's one we'll have to catch.
In the meantime, he offers some travel tips useful for all of us in this CNN interview - you don't even need 10 million miles to take advantage of them.