Inside the Beltway

I have been working in Washington on some web based maps to display locations of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects for the USDA. I spent last week in meetings and presentations to define business requirements. It was a pretty big stretch for me as far as the level of people I was interacting with...they were mostly Department level rather than Agency level. So kind of a whole step up. Most of them were kind of your everyday reasonable folks. I felt comfortable in this environment and interacting people at this high level. I thought that I may sort of feel like a fish out of water but I didn't. It was definitely exciting to be part of the buzz of the new administration.
It seems like being reasonable and easy to work was much more important than asserting your opinion. Technical knowledge of the facts, how things work, the act, the databases, the system, your blackberry and email and organization is helpful to everybody and provides good leadership. Congressional Leadership Training. It is good to be home. I cant wait to come back to DC with Jill.