It's Saturday night in London, and I'm half way into my World Tour for 2009. This first week has been nothing short of fantastic, and next week is lining up to be the same.
Tuesday past I worked with a new client in Santa Monica, to discuss SharePoint for collaboration. The particular focus was on encouraging effective user and group adoption of the new capabilities and new ways of working. Thanks to Donny and his team for welcoming me to their place of work, and to the others from the business side that I was able to engage with.
Wednesday saw a very short night with a red-eye to Milwaukee (arriving Wednesday morning at 5am), and then a very big fright with waking up in the hotel (I checked in at 6am) at 9.40am for a 10am start. Ouch. And then there was no iron and ironing board in the room, and my shirt definitely needed an iron ... so I was about 10 minutes late for a fantastic set of meetings, sessions and conversations around governance, collaborative patterns, user and group adoption, and more. Thanks to Diane for organizing a great day.
Thursday was a PhD day. I flew to St Louis to meet Professor Fred Niederman of St Louis University. He has many years of research experience in the field I'm looking into, and was affirming of my work. So ... given that I've been without a lead supervisor for 9 months, getting that validation was of tremendous benefit. Fred showed great St Louis hospitality, driving me around the city, showing me the famous St Louis arch and various of the other sights, and even taking me home for a home cooked meal prepared by Nini, his wife. They were both very gracious.
Friday was a travel day. I flew from St Louis to New York, and camped out at JFK airport for 11 hours or so. I got through some work, cleared my opened conversations, looked at the bag shop (but didn't buy a new bag), and even managed a 45 minute meeting with Joel of SharePointJoel.com fame. I'll write more about that later, especially as it relates to SharePoint governance.
Late Friday night saw me on the last Virgin Atlantic flight out to London Heathrow. We left at midnight New York time, and landed in Heathrow at 10.25am London time. The famous Nicholas Bate met me at Heathrow for lunch and coffee ... not to mention a very intellectually stimulating conversation about business, the economy, getting to action, and more. Thanks Nicholas! (If you don't know Nicholas, or haven't had him to your firm yet, you are missing out!).
Then there was train, tube and footpath negotiation to find my way to the hotel. I did break down and buy a map, otherwise I'd probably still be out there tramping the streets with two bags in tow.
And now it's late Saturday night ... my action plan for the day is almost complete. There are a couple more things to do before turning in.
Tomorrow is a rest day ... at least from work. I'm going to both All Souls Langham Place (9.30am) and Regent Hall Salvation Army (11am) for their morning worship services. Very much looking forward to being there, and among a portion of the worshipping community in London.
And then there will be Monday ... and the start of week 2 ... the European leg of my tour. But that's a story for another day. Wherever this update finds you, I trust you are well.
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