Since Thursday I'm back in Germany, time enough to write a little travel report. This part will concentrate on the journey itself and all my impressions. Another one about th thoughts I've made on future IT landscapes will follow in another entry soon.
The travel
Due to the strike of the Air France pilots my flight has been canceled and I've had to take another two days later. Due to the flexibility of the conference organizers it has been no problem to change the agenda. But on the other hand I've missed the chance to take part in a sightseeing tour. *sigh* Additionally on both flights we've been above India, the Ocean, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq in the dark. I would have liked to see more. The flights themself and the service of Air France have been ok with a good entertainment and tasty meals. But, as always on long distance flights, the seats are too small. Looking at the chairs at the Business Class makes me envious. *hehe*
India
Wow, what a country! First I've been a bit sceptical, not knowing what to expect. But now I'm really keen on India. Yes, it's chaotic, the traffic with the continuous honking, the bad road conditions, those unlighted and dark trucks at night, and the incomprehensible way how it all flows. But it's also funny, so different from Germany where everything needs rules. It just works. Also the toilets are different, even if I haven't had a real traditional one. It's somewhat strange, but it's handable.
The gap between poor and rich is great and more visible than in Germany. It's embarrassing until you realize that it's normal. It seems to be ok. All the impressions when driving around are overwhelming. It starts with those foreign smells during the transfer from the airport to the town. Bengaluru itself is a fast growing town, many construction zones, but also many unfinished buildings. The music will never be my favorite one, but we've had fun dancing in the club or hearing it in the streets when driving back to the hotel. And the food, ah, yes, delicious. It's hard to describe, with all those foreign spices. It's hot, sometimes really hot. I like it.
What impressed me most are the people. They are friendly, open, and always complaisantly. And they always act service-oriented, absolutely unlike in Germany. Here we've bought some shoes on Friday. No service personnel, we've got to wait until there has been someone to take the money, and she made a face as if we're disturbing her. What a difference. So I like the Indian people and I'm looking forward to see them again during a future conference, especially Riti. She's very kindly, I really enjoyed to work together with her.
But what really confused me has been the face of the taxi driver when I drove to the airport. It has been a 2h tour and we talked a lot about the differences of our countries. Beside the chance of seeing more of Bengaluru here I really enjoyed our tour. But when I thanked him for this pleasant trip he looked at me really puzzled. It doesn't seem to be common.
The conference
Unfortunately I've not been able to visit the Monday sessions. And on Tuesday I've had three tracks - due to the interest of the audience I've repeated the session On Event-Driven Architecture - and two open network sessions. The last day had been a full day workshop by Axel. All in all the focus had been technologically, not so much on business cases. This may change in future. Alltogether S&S is satisfied with the reception of the audience.
I'm also almost satisfied with my sessions. During the first one I've been a bit nervous. It has been my first international presentation in English. But number two and three have been ok. It makes fun. Photos and perhaps videos will be available soon, as well as all the slides. My private ones can be seen at
http://picasaweb.google.de/themue/SOAIndia2008.
So altogether I've enjoyed it and I would like to participate actively in more conferences in future, in India and elsewhere.
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