Google Zeitgeist 2006

Ok, it's been a while since my last post. i'm sure i lose readership each time i disappear like this and a lot has happend so I promise I will back post later with the details. My excuse has been that I have been living at my friend Manuel's place with no internet for the past 2 weeks because my Gooogle apartment has expired :( Ha to search for a real home eventually! So what has been happening since last blog?

Highlights include:
1. I bought a Vespa, my first motorbike! My friend hooked me up with a used one so now I'll be scootering around London...
2. I found an official home in London! I'm living between Marlybone and Baker Street Tube stations with 2 new friends that I met through Nelson, whom I met through May, Vanessa, Bonnie, etc etc back in Vancouver. Lots of couch space so come visit me often!
3. I'm currently in Watford, England attending Zeitgeist and posting my blog from here.

WHERE you ask? Actually it's a conference that Google has put on that means 'The spirit of our times' or something like that. We are at a beautiful conference center in the country side and have invited some 250 influential guests from around the world. It's actually quite exciting being here because there are so many big named people and ceo's and only 30 googlers were allowed to come. I'm here to demo my products just to get that straight, not a big wig, hot shot...YET! ha ha

Exciting things so far have included:
- Meeting Larry Page (Google Founder) this morning and having my 3 min chat with him.
- Listening to David Cameron (leader of the UK conservative party) give the opening speach.
- Listening to a panel on 'Revolutionizing Commerce' with Sir Martin Sorrel (CEO of WPP!), Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, and Rita Clifton (CEO of Interbrand)
- Information Democratization panel with the CEO's of Orange, Mozilla, and a director from MIT
- Meeting David and Victoria Beckham, well kind of. The entire english football team is preparing for the world cup and staying in the same place. So i was the couple with their kids this morning! Ahhh...Posh spice...
- Fireside Chat with Eric Schmidt (CEO Google)
- and who knows what tomorrow will bring!
Really is a blessing to take part in all these things, will share more if I have time on some of their key messages.

The conference takes place from the 21 - 23rd of May. After this, I will head to Dublin for leadership training in our Ireland office and then to Berlin in the beginning of June for our sales conference. For those who maybe in San Francisco, I also have training there in mid June, so Marlyn, Steph, whoever else is in or oftern travelling to SF, give me a call!

OK, time to get back to work! take care.

Cheers!

Blogging Phenomenon

Much like before, I still wonder if anyone reads this blog, especially since I don't upkeep it everyday or even every couple of days sometimes. I've actually written quite a bit but i keep forgetting to post, hence why you see so many all of a sudden!

However, I realized by reading others blogs, that it is there outlet for shaping their image to a certain perspective audience. Take this one blog i've been keeping up with, I get this strange uncanny feeling that it's posts have a semblance of being used to impress, needless to say, the opposite sex, in a smart, unsuspecting sort of way. Such a great way to say, I'm artistic, or sporty or fun or whatever you want, without being in her face, nice! :) I also read certain posts and wonder if they are not slightly directed towards yours truly, hmmm...! Ah, good friends.

Anyways, it's now Sunday and the work week is fast approaching. I'm going to head to the gym I joined 2 weeks ago and have only been once or twice to and try to make it into a good investment. All in all, it was a fun weekend. I watch MI-3 last night which I thought was much better than #2 (sorry ren, john woo is usually great!), and I met a bunch of people at the bar on Friday night for the first time and it turned out to be a full night of clubbing with CBC guys and girls from Vancouver and Toronto. Seeing as we're all from the same town, is it really wrong of me to have brought someone home who needed somewhere to crash, even if I just met them? ;) haa haa... yah, well, don't get too excited... It was my girl's good guy friend Nelson, and he crashed on the couch cause he left his keys at his buddy's place. I believe many of you from home all know him! Ahh, a new drinking buddy in london...

A sad day...

It's been a tough day in the office and a sad day in general, why? Well, one thing I'm trying to come to grips with is that if I want to get anything done with the guys in the US office, I will need to stay past 8-9pm every night for conference calls, etc...the norm. Luckily I like the job and the company so it doesn't seem that long, but that's not the problem. Unfortunately, my national pride took a hit when my second favourite NHL team, the Montreal Canadiens, bowed out of the playoffs with a loss to Carolina. Yup, that's right, ice hockey! It's impossible to try and follow the playoffs from over here but now that my two teams are both gone, i don't really need to eh? GO SENS GO! ok, maybe one more team to watch.

Looking forward to a weekend of chilling and relaxing.

Queen's Day in Amsterdam

The highlight of the past week had to have come from my past weekend in Amsterdam with friends from INSEAD, a quasi- reunion. If you don't know what Queen's day is, shame on you! j/k, actually, i had no idea what a huge party it is until I met the dutch last year at INSEAD. About 40-50 INSEADers showed up in our orange outfits and we took a boat out through the canals for the day. It was pretty much a log jam out on the water as there were thousands out on their own make shift floatation devices, dancing and smoking a whole tonne of weed (no comparison to BC bud of course), but who's complaining!
However, it was a really tiring week, thus the long time since I've last blogged. Things have been really busy at work; I actually had to fly out to Munich only hours after getting back from Amsterdam. 4 of us Googlers had a meeting with the heads of marketing at BMW. Man, very cool stuff goin on in that company, unfortunately, i'm not allowed to talk about it either, ahh, the beauty of a binding NDA! Lets just say, my next car may well be a BMW that's on its way :P

As for other news, I'm starting to learn to ride a motorcycle but since I'm so busy at work, I have only Saturdays to learn, thus it will take 6 weeks til I can go for my test, sometime in July. I guess the goal will be to buy a vespa or sth in the short term and get a real bike when I go back to Vancouver (sorry matteo, not meaning to 150cc's is not a real bike, but i'm damn heavier than u - it won't barely move!). Alright, time to sign off, pics are all below!  

On the INSEAD boat...

 

Outdoor Urinals, ahh, it's good to be a guy!

 

Competitive boats

 

Beautiful orange locks

 

The red light district search team...

If you've ever wondered the prices in the red light district, ask SAID, the little curious Moroccan guy on the right! His research discovered that the girls charge in 15 min increments, and cost the same for male or female customers... Great job Said! He even tried to negoatiate a group discount before being kicked out (ahh, chinese and moroccans have a lot in common! haha)