Trip Report part 2 France, Netherlands, Sweden

susan_skonetski_at_hotmail.com
Date: 10/24/05 

Date: 23 Oct 2005 16:19:15 -0700

-----Original Message-----
From: Skonetski, Susan
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 7:16 PM
To: Skonetski, Susan
Subject: Trip Report part 2 France, Netherlands, Sweden

Dear Distribution lists,

The is part deux of the 2005 European OpenVMS Technical Tour.

The Team was Guy Peleg, Andy Goldstein, Richard Bishop, Doug Gordon,
Norm Lastovica (Oracle Rdb), Brad McCusker, Sunil Kumaran, Philippe
Vigier (Oracle Rdb), Yanick Pouffary, Christian Moser, Brad McCusker.
And for the first time we had VMS management representation Paul
LaCombe, Jim Lancianni, Jim Janetos, MaryJane Vazquez. At every
location the agenda was modified usually the day of the event.

I am sure that the other team members can fill in many more details
where I have forgotten. I have taken some pictures if you are
interested. I do not mind if you distribute this since I avoided using
any customer names.

Warm Regards,
Sue

Wednesday October 5th Switzerland - France

We leave Switzerland to head to France. We arrive to the hotel around
13:00 imagine our happiness to see Yanick Pouffary in the hotel lobby
who is there for the TCP/IP presentation and Richard Bishop (Richard
and Andy Goldstein switched positions half way through the tour). We
all drop our stuff in our rooms and walk to a place for lunch which was
great and in eye site of the Eiffel tower. Imagine our increased
surprise and happiness when a few minutes latter Jim Janet's shows up,
now the entire team is able to have lunch together (with the exception
of Guy). After we have lunch a few of us decide to go to the top of
the Eiffel tower. It is really an amazing engineering marvel (lots of
rivets) we went all the way to the top and even in the fog and rain it
is worth it. On the top there was an American couple and the man asked
the woman to marry him and she started to cry I took their camera and
took their picture so they have it for later, they were crying I was
crying it was very romantic and emotional. Walking back to the hotel it
is amazing to see the boats in the river they are very long flat barge
like boats some people obviously live on, others are tourist boats
which are very skillfully maneuvered and others are used to haul sand a
gravel. There is also a small version of the statue of Liberty (V.0)
When we get back to the hotel Christian Moser has arrived. The hotel
only has internet cards that allow 5 people on one card so we work
together to read our mail in the hotel bar/lobby that way I can get a
coke lite (diet coke). Dinner at an Italian place that night, tomorrow
is our first Paris TUD.

Thursday October 6th France

Ambassador Denis Maillard picks Yanick, Jim and myself up the rest of
the team takes a cab to the Paris HP office for the TUD. As we walk in
the lobby we are met by Benoit Maillard (Denis brother) who is part of
BCS marketing and is helping coordinating the event as well as Homi
Faris the Ambassador hosting the event. I was not expecting as many
folks as we had in Paris, we had about 84 attendees. One of the cool
things that happened was that I spoke about the Italian openvms.org and
received a volunteer to do a French one. The French customers have
created a VMS professional organization and are revitalizing their
local user groups. Also in attendance is Johan the Michaels one of the
Ambassadors from Belgium who is there speaking about Cockpit Manager.
To add some excitement to the day we did get a fire alarm. On of the
things that I saw in the Paris office that I had not seen anywhere else
were new Integrity posters with VMS on them as well as the new
brochures in French. After the event we went to a Chinese/Thai place
for dinner. Then Richard and I went for a walk, (FYI at 10 PM the
lights flash on the defile tower), then Richard Jim and myself took a
cab to the Champs Elysees for a walk things start to start happening
around 11:30 and its very beautiful, it's a little hard to get a cab
(they are all full) but well worth it.

Friday October 7th France - Belgium

This is very cool - Norm and I are going to Bruges Belgium to visit
Johan however there is a transportation strike in Belgium. So we take
the fast train from Paris to Lile (right on the border) Johan will pick
us up there. And they are not kidding about it being a fast train. Its
like flying on the ground, you really can not see anything close to the
train it goes by to fast. If you every have the opportunity to do it
its worth it and quicker than flying and worth the experience. Bruges
is one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen in Europe there are
canals, beautiful old houses, big town squares everything is walking
distance and did I mention that one of the places has over 200 types of
beer? Johan picks us up for a dinner party and in addition to his
charming daughter and wife Rudy is there from HP. After a phenomenal
meal that would be the envy of any gourmet restaurant and countless
stories and laughter so hearty that my side ached for two days. We go
visit the horse, yes the horse at the barn. Johan's daughter and wife
enjoy riding and have a horse and it needed to get ready for bed (I am
sure there is a more horsy term), but I got to meet all the horses in
the barn, some were nicer than others and one had an attitude. After
visiting the horse we went backed and laughed some more and then found
out that the local government was sponsoring a artist's show in which
Johan's wife was exhibiting the next day.

Saturday October 8th Belgium

10 am Johan has arranged a horse and buggy tour of Bruges with Celine
as a tour guide, she looks about 12 but I am sure she is older. So
Celine and Johan take us on a tour of this wonderful place. There are
17 churches in Bruges 16 of them are Catholic one is Protestant. This
is a great way to see the town. After this we go to the art exhibit.
The pottery is excellent, the designs original with beautiful glazes.
After this we take a ride to the ocean and have lunch. It is
interesting to note that all the trees tilt. The country side is
beautiful. This evening we are taking the Michaels out to dinner, we
choose a charming small place where the owner, hostess, and chef are
the same person, more laughing, more Belgian beer, more laughing what a
great night.

Sunday October 9th Belgium - Netherlands

Johan drives Norm and myself to Amsterdam where we can get ready for
the next TUD. Everyone meets back at the hotel. We see Guy as he is
checking in, Jim, Doug and Richard are there and Brad McCusker is
meeting us and Gerrit Woertman (Ambassador) is our host. Hopefully
everyone else will also do a trip report because they also did
wonderful things. Johan shows up later with some dear friends who also
happen to be customers from Belgium. We all go out to dinner and
re-write the agenda.

Monday October 10th Netherlands

This TUD is being held in a TV Studio where the Dutch version of Big
Brother is filmed. Since I have never seen the English version I have
no idea what that means. The location is very funky and I think the
TUD is in the Warhol/Picasso room. There is a separate room set up as
speaker ready (this comes into play later) a small exhibition area with
Integrity Servers, The SRI/Emulators International folks showing a new
product (more on this in a minute), XUIS and then the Customers, about
150 customers, some of them have been to the boot camp, many have been
in previous years all of them wonderful. Imagine my surprise when
sitting in the speaker ready room before the event starts and Richard
Smith from the Alpha group comes in, he is there for a customer visit,
this is very good for the customers. This will be a long day I have the
strategy and directions pitch but at the last minute I ask Jim Janetos
if he will share it with me since he did such a great job in Paris
(much better than me) and he agrees. At the end of our presentation
Arie DeGroot from Emulators International announces a new product which
is a Alpha emulator for the very old Alpha's
(arie@emulatorsinternational.com) if you have questions send him email.
All the speakers were great, its funny how proud you can be to be
associated with such smart and wonderful people. The day ends with an
Engineering panel that goes until 9pm. We head back to the hotel and
sit in the lobby and chat with each other and few customers until about
midnight fixing the world.

Tuesday October 11th Netherlands

Second day TUD in the Netherlands. This day is also an Interrex event
and the TUD was in conjunction. The second day covered SAMBA, Rdb,
Cockpit Manager to name a few. One of the interesting things that
happen is that Laura Chappell from Protocol Analysis Institute, was one
of the speakers, she speaks about computer security and is very very
good. I had told Gerrit that I really wanted to meet her. And to tell
the truth I wanted to talk/preach to her about VMS, so imagine my joy
to find her in the speaker ready room doing a press interview when we
arrived. Come to find out she used to be a system mgr on a VMS system
a long time ago, I went to her session which was very good. I was able
to talk her before her session and at lunch and have started to
exchange email with her and if you were at the Tech Forum she was a
speaker there. Anyway, the TUD ended about 3pm and we headed back to
the hotel, we (Richard, Doug and myself) droped our stuff in our rooms
and took the train downtown. When you travel if things go perfect
nothing is an adventure, on the way downtown something happened either
a train broke down or an accident but we had to change trains a couple
of times, kind of adds a little spark. Fortunately, many folks speak
English eventually we got there. Doug had found a flower market which
I really wanted to see, where folks can buy bulbs. Amsterdam has all
these little bridges and cannels and some truly magnificent
architecture. There was this one building which I thought must have
been a palace I asked this young lady what is was, she said it used to
be a post office and was now a mall, we walked for some time, this is a
great place to people watch. We were starting to get hungry and
surrounded by restaurants but how do you know which is a good one,
which is not, we do not want to go to an American one, we do not want a
tourist trap and I would like Rijsttafel. So I walk into the nearest
hotel that might have a concierge desk and ask giving our parameters.
Mark the concierge was so kind, he gave us two recommendations and we
choose the Rijsttafel (Dutch Indonesian at the Sarang Mas, they bring
a variety of tasty things, (unlike anything else) and they had diet
Pepsi (my real favorite) I had 3. After dinner we really need to walk
some more, its nice to see the lights on the water and so much life all
around. The trains have two floors.

Wednesday Oct 12th Netherlands - Sweden

Say goodbye to Jim and Norm they are heading home and we are heading to
Sweden for our last European TUD, Norm has been with the team since
Italy and Jim since France we will miss them in Sweden. We arrive at
the hotel, after 1 local time and this did used to be a palace. My
window overlooks a lake and I can hear birds, after being in city areas
for so long this is a real treat. Also staying at the hotel is the
Iceland football (soccer team).

The hotel is in walking distance of the HP office, so we walk over and
meet with Anders Johansson (Ambassador, Engineering) our host and Bjorn
Lannero host and re-write the agenda. The office building itself is
very modern looking with probably an eight story atrium as you walk in
the main entrance which conference rooms around the outside walls.
Since we are in an HP office this gives us a chance to catch up on
email.

Thursday Oct 13 Sweden

Last year was the first time we had been to Sweden, this year 104
people registered for the TUD and it looked like most of them showed
up. Mary Jane Vazquez (VMS Manager for Business Management aka Product
Management) did the strategy and directions presentation, MJ had been
in Sweden meeting with customers and Partners covering essential
business needs going forward. One of the different presentations this
day was one from Intel, at the other locations they were sort of
product mgt level, this one was marketing and it was good, he did not
pretend to be technical. Also Andre Devolve from the customer call
center joined us to give an licensing presentation. Philippe Vigier
from Oracle Rdb in Valbonne gives the Rdb presentation. There were
also several partners including Mimer that had a tables. This evening
we go out to dinner in the old part of Stockholm, as a team with Bjorn
and Anders (I have reindeer and its wonderful), by the way I do not
think that salty licorice ice-cream is my kind of thing.

Friday Oct 14 Sweden

This is it the last day of the European Tour I wonder if folks in the
audience could tell that I was feeling a little blue, all the build up
and excitement of pulling the team together making sure everything is
working. I know that there is still five to go in Australia and Asia
but this is a big day. You know when folks say don't take it personal
who they heck are they anyway, it is personal. All the customers
telling me how they use VMS, how much they appreciate the work that we
do, sometimes they fight their management sometimes they fight ours but
we are all still here.

It has been a good day, Doug and Richard have had a customer visit
during one of Brad's talks, this customer visit was arranged on
Thursday and is an Alpha to Integrity migration. Doug and Richard have
made some good recommendations for this customer now its just up to the
customer if they accept the recommendations or not. Guy and Anders do
the session normally done by Guy and Norm.

I could not be prouder to be part of this team, we go out for our last
dinner.

Saturday Oct 15 Sweden

Richard has rented a car since he will be going to customer visits.
Anders is our tour guide for the day.

The biggest thing I wanted to see in Stockholm is the Wasa. The Wasa
is a recovered ship wreck. This ship was capsized on her maiden voyage
after traveling about 1000 meters. Because of the lack of salinity in
the water the worms that normally eat the wood in ship wrecks have not
destroyed the bulk of the wreck. 50 of 53 cannons were removed years
ago but 3 are still there. I was amazed at the size of this wreck, it
was designed as a war ship. They spent 17 years preserving they ship
which you can smell. If you ever have a chance to go to Stockholm this
is really worth a visit.

One of the things I wanted to get for my daughter is a Hard Rock Café
t-shirt so we decide to go there for lunch, the building was beautiful.
I have a feeling it was not built as a Hard Rock Café since it looked
about 200 years old.

After lunch we walk around the old town which if very beautiful, there
is a metal statue of a man about five feet six inches tall and I am sad
to say that there is now a photo of me hugging him and asking why he
never looks at me in the eye any more ;') I have a rule of never going
into a McDonalds in Europe, but I had to get a water, but I think that
a water does not count.

We have been invited to Anders house for afternoon coffee and cake. On
the way I stop to pick up some flowers and meet a nice man (Semi) from
Morocco where I have been so we have a nice conversation in addition to
getting beautiful flowers.

We go to Anders home and meet his family, his sons (Victor and Oscar)
and his beautiful and charming wife I actually have a café au lait and
this deadly chocolate cake. You know how when you are traveling for a
long time, it is so nice to just be in a home and be normal. We sat
and talked and laughed. Anders showed us some family pictures and then
we watched part of a movie, like sat on a couch and watched a movie.
It had been weeks since we had done that. Unfortunately, time had come
to say good-bye we needed to get back to the hotel and pack to go home.

Sunday Oct 16 Sweden - Home

Its time to go home

For the first time in three weeks I am taking a flight by myself,
Richard is staying on with Anders to visit a customer and then visit
family in the UK, Doug has a flight later on Sunday and flying from
Frankfurt and I am going from Heathrow. The flight from Stockholm is
about an hour and a half then a 3 hour layover before my flight home.
I spend a lot of time on the flight home thinking about the people have
met on this trip. Most I will probably never see again but they have
given me a gift of their time and added to my life and personality.

Learning's

You can work with the same people for 3 weeks in close quarters and no
one will have an argument. No matter where you go people are wonderful
VMS Customers are the best customers in the world There are beautiful
things everywhere The variety in European Plumbing can become a topic
of conversation I can and will forget my hotel room number No
presentation is ever done I know an amazing amount of gifted people I
wish everyone could experience being with so many customers from so
many places