Making an IMPACT

Apparently there’s some Rational software conference in Orlando at the end of May. Of course, Lotusphere was out there at the beginning of the year too.

Pah! Forget those!

For me, the place to be is IBM’s IMPACT SOA conference in Las Vegas – in just a couple of weeks’ time. Barring unexpected circumstances, I should be in town for the duration of the conference.

I’ve been heading to Vegas on a regular basis for the past few years, but it has always been for internal events rather than customer ones. In my role, I’ve always been excited by technology and the innovation we get up to internally – but much, much more importantly, I need to be talking to customers and partners to understand how that technology and innovation is being used in the real world. I’m very much looking forward to talking to WebSphere and other IBM customers about their experiences with our products, what they are looking for from Service Oriented Architectures, and taking those messages back into our labs.

I’m also looking forward to finally meeting a bunch of my colleagues such as the legendary “Social Media Sandy” aka Sandy Carter herself, who I’ve known for a number of years now through various networks, but have never had the opportunity to talk to face-to-face. Incidentally, Sandy has some great background info about different events and partners at IMPACT on her developerWorks blog[*]. I’ve just read her most recent book, Marketing 2.0, and I’ll try to post some comments on that soon as well.

One nice feature of the conference site is that there are a range of widgets and social media tools directly available there, as well as links to different social networks where it will be possible to pick up some of the content.

Let me know if you’ll be at IMPACT, as it would be good to connect with my blog readers.

[*] I’m worried. Sandy has got nearly as many blogs and social network profiles as me now. I need to step up!

A photo interlude

A sojourn in Poland

Since Twitpic is refusing submissions from Tweetie or Twitpic at the moment… I’m falling back on the (new! improved! now with comment moderation!) WordPress app for the iPhone instead.

I think it is 15 months since I was last in Poland. Major observations are the expansion of Tesco and lots of new roundabouts. It’s still very cold in the mountains on the border and more snow is forecast. Oh, and our new niece is just over a week old and really, really tiny!

Bodu Hithi

For the past two weeks this blog, and all of my other social online presences, have gone quiet.

If you were wondering why, it’s because we were here…

… staying in a place like this…

… enjoying views like this…

… and learning to do this…

Absolutely fantastic – thoroughly recommend the Coco Palm Bodu Hithi resort. We’re now PADI-qualified Adventure Divers, which was an amazing experience to go through. Although the island had wireless connectivity available, the point was to get away from it all so I’ve been completely out-of-touch for the past little while – gradually getting back into the swing of things.

Plenty more photos to show up in the set on Flickr over the next few weeks, I should think. Back to work this week and off to Orlando for an internal conference next weekend, so I’ll attempt to get back to blogging as and when I can.

Photos in online travel guides

I posted a couple of weeks ago about our range of travels in 2007. We also take a lot of photos as we go.

Now, both Ola and I have had some photos chosen for inclusion in the latest editions of the Schmap Online Travel Guides. Ola’s image is in the Paris guide, and one of mine is in the Las Vegas guide.

Ola’s photos are frequently fantastic… she usually takes our compact Canon Ixus 850 IS along with her, and her eye for composition is wonderful. When we are out together she often complains that I take too long to frame up a shot with the DSLR, so I envy her ability to spot a good composition. I’ve tagged up her photos as takenby:ola on Flickr… although she’s got a fair portfolio building up so she really should get her own Flickr account, don’t you think?

A year of travel

We’ve been talking at home about our range of travels this year.

Ola is the clear “winner”, and has travelled pretty widely – Cuba, Portugal x 2, France, Belgium x 2, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Poland x 4, Germany and the UK (with a trip to Scotland). An international starlet in the making.

My travels have been more limited in terms of the numbers of countries covered, but arguably over greater distances – the US, Thailand, up and down to Scotland a few times, and across to Poland a couple of times. I’ve finally learned to drive on the “wrong” side of the road, too

Environmentally, this is probably a pretty depressing read. Maybe we should plant a few forests to make up for it.

Happy Christmas to all those who take the time to read my blog! Your attention and comments are appreciated. I’m looking forward to talking to you more in 2008.

Year Two

A quick line to record the fact that this blog has been around for two years as of yesterday.

We’re all packed up and ready to travel back to the UK overnight. It’s a race to the finish to get things completed with my current customer.

A couple more travel shots to tide things over until I (eventually!) resume some semblance of techie service around here:

Sights and colours of Bangkok

It has been a busy week so far. We’ve worked through the public holidays and weekend to get to the stage we are at, too.

Yesterday we did finally take some time out for some R&R, and took the opportunity to see some of the sights.

The full set of images is on Flickr, and I’m adding more as I finish them.

Technorati tags: bangkok, thailand, travel, photography, photoshop, grand palace, flags, colours, sightseeing

View from the 30-somethingth floor

We arrived late on Monday and I’ve not yet had a chance to look around Bangkok properly, but I have to say that the JW Marriott is a lovely hotel and the city is extremely modern. We’ve been using the skytrain to get to and from the office, and that seems to be very efficient indeed.

It is the King’s 80th birthday tomorrow – a public holiday – and we’ve been observing the seas of yellow t-shirts on the commute, which apparently denote people’s support for the monarch.

Unfortunately it has gotten dark very quickly in the evenings, so up until now it has been hard to grab decent shots. Hopefully I’ll have some time later in the week to explore some of the sights (I’m hearing that the night market and the palace are the highlights).

More photos in my Flickr set of Bangkok, which will expand over the next couple of weeks.

Technorati tags: Asia, Bangkok, photography, Thailand, travel

A trip to Bangkok

I’m heading to support one of our clients in Bangkok this weekend, and I’m unlikely to be back for a couple of weeks. It’s a bit unusual since I’m in a “UK” team, but needs must.

I’m excited about the prospect of my first trip to Asia… it will be cool to be in the same timezone (or nearer) as a couple of my mentees, too, and I hope we get more opportunities to interact as a result. Of course the social network / global social graph, and virtual worlds, should help me to stay connected with the usual crowd too, although I expect I’ll be quieter. On the other hand my normal life is on hold, and I won’t have time for much of the usual pre-Christmas celebration or preparation.

A few people have already contacted me with tips already, since they saw me mention the trip on Twitter. What I really want to know is whether I’ll get away with packing both a Thinkpad and a MacBook Pro into hand luggage, along with a DSLR…

If I remain quiet for the next few weeks, you’ll know why. Things are hectic!

Technorati tags: travel, Thailand, Asia, Bangkok, work