From Hamburg to Home March 10, 2006
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After finishing a long but successful 3 weeks abroad, it’s time to go home. I managed to stay healthy the entire trip – special thanks to Airborne, which I took about 3 – 4 times a day, every day, while overseas. Of course, I ran out of Airborne in Paris, and isn’t it my luck on this trip for something else to go wrong? The gentlemen sitting next to me on the flight from Germany to Boston was sick! And I caught it!
Well, it started rough, ended with a cold, but in between was great. A few things I learned:
- People like hearing about products from their own shoes. And who can blame them? Anything we can do to personalize our demos and presentations sends a strong signal and helps people understand the information we are trying to share better. From something little like putting a customer logo in a demo to actually modifying content to match a scenario of theirs is quite helpful.
- Communication (like our powerpoints, design documents, etc) with other regions tends to be filtered through a few people we have contact with. They act as our information brokers, and often they are overloaded with information. It’s important to keep the network alive with the people you meet on trips like this, especially when you have a new product.
- People spoke great English in every meeting we were at! I was really impressed. However, speaking concisely facilitates understanding, especially when your language is not your audience’s primary language. It’s an important thing to keep in mind when demoing and presenting.
Brr. Stockholm. March 7, 2006
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Margarita and CJ joined us in Stockholm. Unfortunately, CJ was sick on arrival, but has gotten much better. We arrived on Saturday, so we spent Sunday sightseeing. Check out the pictures!
Big Birthday Bashes Belong in Beijing March 7, 2006
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This was the highlight of the trip for me – celebrating my birthday on Wednesday evening at the restaurant in the Emperor’s Garden (Forbidden City). The place was gorgeous. We had a great evening of traditional Beijing cuisine and many toasts. The Beijing team was absolutely wonderful – with flowers for my birthday and a special cake to top off the night. What a great time I had. This birthday celebration will go down in my history books for sure.
Weekend in Singapore March 7, 2006
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On Friday night, Matthew Tan brought Larry and I to an outdoor eating place in the middle of the city. Apparently, they close of a street at 7pm and open the street up to vendors to sell food. They lay out tables and chairs, and when you sit, a few vendors come over with their respective menus. It was quite cool! The food was unbelievable; it was one of my favorite meals on the trip. We shared satay, crayfish, prawns, and chicken with vegetables and rice on the side from two different vendors. I highly recommend going here if you are in Singapore. Sit near the Satay Power; people. They make a great peanut sauce!
Matthew, Larry and I toured the Singapore Botanical and Orchid Gardens for a few hours on Saturday morning. Take a look at the photos here
We walked through a rainforest area and then through an Evolution Garden that showed life evolving on the planet from some 4600 million years ago. They tied in whatever live plants they could when relevant; like moss, ferns, and algae and what time periods they were associated to. They would make the scenes for each era resemble life on earth as best they could. It was neat, albeit blazingly hot. Maybe that was part of the scene too 
In afternoon, Nicole met us for lunch. Later that evening, Mattew and I went to the Night Safari. Since you really cannot take flash pictures on the safari, I did not post any. But we did see wonderful animals: elephants, lions, tigers, bears (I cannot resist) o my! and a myriad of other animals like anteaters, flamingos, porcupines, large rodent creatures whose name I cannot recall, giraffes, and other exotic beauties.
I enjoyed my stay in Singapore very much. Although it was hot, I enjoyed it compared to what was happening at home (snow!). I am glad I had 4 days there to explore a little, albeit 4 days is not quite enough for anywhere!
Dim Sum Lunch with Nicole and JJ March 7, 2006
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For lunch yesterday, Nicole Ng and JJ Tan took Larry and I out to a wonderful dim sum lunch. We went to Wah Lok Cantonese restaurant in the Carlton Hotel. Nicole ordered for us, and she chose some wonderful dishes that I would never have ordered myself but really enjoyed, including frog leg porridge and chicken feet (a delicacy). For dessert, Larry had an interesting bitter gelatin dish that is allegedly made of tortise shells and Chinese herbs. I had a less adventurous fruit and cream dessert. One of our waitresses remarked at how much Larry looked like President Reagan, and she paid extra special attention to him – looks like he has a fan in Singapore!
Nope. It got worse. March 7, 2006
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Without going into too many gory details, let’s just say that I have spent the last two nights in San Francisco. Apparently, United misdirected my suitcase. So, I will be flying from San Francico to Singapore today, having missed the entire Australia portion of the tour.
I did, however, manage to get a suitcase, set of clothes, and all the essentials at the Hillsdale Mall. Later, I met with a couple friends for dinner. We decided against the sushi restaurant with the inspection scorecard in the window.
.
Day One: It can only get better from here March 7, 2006
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Thursday night, 12:30am: Helpful Windows suggests that the user profile on my demo computer is corrupted and refuses to log me in. This is the demo computer that I am bringing with me to AP and EMEA, you know, to demo!
Friday morning, 8am: Call our helpline, cause I need some serious help!
9:30am: Second tier tech support in Cambridge contacts me and offers to look at my computer before my 1pm flight. I drop it off.
11:30am: No news from tech support. I go to the airport.
12:00pm: Tech support calls to tell me they fixed my machine. Great! They needed to recreate the master boot record (why do things like this only happen the night before big events?).
12:30pm: Jeremy (thank you so much) picks up my demo machine from Cambridge and hand delivers it to me at the airport so I don’t miss my flight. How nice is that?
1:05pm: My fight gets rescheduled to 4:45pm due to WIND. Wind?!
5:30pm: I am reassigned (for the 3rd time) to a flight to Washington DC, where I will spending the night. Instead of flying to Canberra, Australia for Monday meetings, I will be flying to Sydney for Tuesday meetings.
7:30pm: Since my baggage went without me, I spent part of the evening tracking my bag down with a really nice baggage claim officer, Karen. Karen did her best to make sure my bag is in Sydney when I arrive Monday. Let’s hope her efforts are successful.
Lessons learned:
- Make sure someone has a backup of your demo machine (thank you, Margarita).
- Pack a carry-on with a change of clothes and toiletries. I would have been lost without it.
- Make sure to squeeze in last minute reservations before they shut down for the night at 8pm Eastern.
My visa has arrived! March 7, 2006
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I am pleasantly surprised that nothing went wrong in my quest for a visa, thanks to the CIBT-NY office. I sent the materials out last Thursday, and less than a week later was authorized for China. Cool! Sadly, there is no longer a CIBT Boston office, although the US Passport Service Guide still seems to think there is one. Thank goodness for next day delivery.
Tomorrow, I embark on a 3-week journey to AP and EMEA. On this trip, I will be presenting our product to potential customers and business partners as well as sales reps. We’ve had interest in these regions, and with this trip hope to encourage more. I’ll keep this blog running during the trip, and of course, post photos.
