My name is Nivine and I am an ABA meeting junkie

As if last week's ABA Section of Antitrust Law spring meeting in Washington were not enough excitement (here, here, and here), I'm in Atlanta this week for the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution's (DR) Spring meeting. I'm hoping to catch some sessions on online dispute resolution (ODR) and class arbitrations, a couple of my favorite topics in the area. The Section dinner later this week is going to be at the Georgia Aquarium, which I'm really eager to see (as have a million other visitors and counting). Since I had so much fun reporting back on the AT Spring meeting last week (on my AT liaison blog), I will continue to post reports on the DR Spring meeting here.

I didn't think Atlanta could impress me much after ~ a week in DC, but I must say my first day so far I have been very pleasantly surprised. The weather has been great and the DR staff & officers have been very helpful already. I thought it might be a bit inconvenient missing out on a room at the Hyatt (you gotta move quick to get some ABA room deals!), but I actually got a great deal in midtown at The Georgian Terrace. Not only does this gorgeous hotel have quite a bit of history behind it, its 1 bedroom suites are HUGE (I'm talking 850 - 1,000SF+ with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, living area, dinette, coat closet, 2 huge bedroom closets, 2 TVs, and some even have an additional den with a desk). They also have 2 and 3-bedroom suites that go up to 1,750SF. They're right across the street from Fox Theater and the Bellsouth building behind that has the Midtown Shops and North Avenue MARTA station inside and underneath. And what really makes this techlawgeek jump for joy? The hi-speed internet access is included FREE.

Once I got my room taken care of, I was able to head back to Peachtree Center (only 2 MARTA Rail stops away) to attend a reception where I got to meet some of the DR speakers, staff, council members, and committee leaders. There are more students attending this Spring meeting also because the national finals for the Representation in Mediation competition is in progress. (Good luck everyone!) It looks like the DR Section's meeting is already off to a great start...