[Vms.sig-hu] Trip Report part 2 France, Netherlands, Sweden (fwd)

[Fodor Zsuzsa]

---------- Továbbított levél ----------
Dátum: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 19:16:06 -0400
Feladó: Skonetski, Susan <susan.skonetski at hp.com>
Címzett: Skonetski, Susan <susan.skonetski at hp.com>
Tárgy: 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 at 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


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