Conference registration went smoothly enough. Press credentials all in order. The bloggers are in.

"So how are these school people, treating you OK?" I ask the concierge at the Hilton.

""It's just the first day. I don't know. OK, I guess," she tells me. I promise to check back with her throughout the conference.

"So have you heard anything about these conference bloggers?" I ask about a dozen different people hovering around registration, lobby, taxi-stand. Puzzled looks from everyone.  Good cover, I suppose.

"I thought it was getting pretty pricey," a head tells me when I ask how the conference is going so far, " but I just came from a great global session - really fantastic. It's worth it."

Highpoint for me so far was the ride in from La Guardia this afternoon with another head, friend of mine, listening to him dictate an emergency letter to his assistant back home. Always a pleasure to listen to a pro work a problem, especially when it's someone else's problem.

Which is what this conference is really all about - being with the real pros, listening to them work their problems, whether it's over drinks or in captured minutes between sessions - or, of course, at any of the sessions themselves.

I have yet to experience a session. I'm living on the other side for an hour or so this Wednesday afternoon:

Table 228 is a small table in a huge room with hundreds of other small tables. Practitioners of this art form sit opposite a long procession of eager (or wary or hopeful or resigned) candidates who've come to interview for one of the positions for next year.

(I'll give extra points to any candidate interviewing with me who mention this blog -our way of evaluating the reach of this experiment.)

Looking forward to a first session, to checking back with the concierge, to meeting good people who want to work at our school - and to rubbing elbows with the pros.