Got back to NY this evening in time to have dinner with Max and friends in Brooklyn. So good seeing him and them.. Gotta sleep now.. more tomorrow !

note all, nite sam

-me

I gave my talk today at the ICPC tech trek.. and really enjoyed doing it.. It was on the topic of IoT.. and went pretty well. Standing up there in front of all 1200 folks here made me instantly recognizable. so I spent the rest of the day (mines the 8 hours of phone meetings0 ) getting to talk to students from all over the world.. IrMorocco, Iran. romania, syria, russia, US, Argentina, Spain india china, japan, canada, czech republic, mexico, sweden, .. etc etc, etc. 

Coming to one of these.. you realize how small the world really is..

ok.. almost 2am.. I need to sleep.. Nite all nite sam

-me

Spent the whole day in this lovely bubble of a resort working with students and IBM peers on or bit int the International Programming Competition. The grounds of this place are really beautiful.. and it’s so fun seeing college kids from every corner of the earth enjoying themselves here..   I’v also enjoyed hanging out with several IBM colleagues that I’ve worked with.. but never met face to face.. I’ve learned a ton of job-related stuff working with them.. That alone has made the trip worthwhile.

Didn’t get much in the way of pictures today.. Here’s what I have.

Dinner on the patio

my friend Mark_aurthur playing guitar.. really, really well.. he even wrote a song for the event !

me steve nd tamer a reporter from cairo

the beautiful tield bar in the hotel.. (they really do nice tile here !) 

kids hanging out in the ibm chill zone 

the courtyard of my hotel block

ok.. gotta give a talk tomorrow morning. so signing off. Wish me luck !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Would you know we’re riding
On the Marrakesh Express
Would you know we’re riding
On the Marrakesh Express, they’re taking me to Marrakesh
All on board the train, all on board the train

I’ve had that song in my head constantly since getting her this afternoon. I’m in Marrakesh, ‘the red city’.. everything her is made of red brick.. the sun is hot, the air is dry and it’s beautiful, at least in or little protected enclave. Tomorrow I’m going to venture into the city..

I’m here with a team of fellow IBMers helping support the International Computer Programming Contest.. about 120 teams from around the world are here to compete to be the top programming team.. They are here after regional eliminations that included an astounding 37,000 students !.. These are truly the best of the best..

IBM is the main sponsor and coordinator of the conference for nearly two decades. I’ ve been to one of these before back in 2005 in Shanghai. I appreciate how much work it is to pull this off.

Whats exciting for me this year is that I’m here to talk about something I love, the internet of things.. and how our tools support it. It’s fun to be this psyched about he stuff I’m doing at work..

I need to get back to my talk.. so here are a few scenes from ‘the red city’. You see how it gets it name

here’s the entrance to the hotel !

cool rainbow on the floor from prisms in the windows

]

Dinner was a huge buffett.. the students loved it.. 

Hot like mid summer and dry. the flowers love it !

]

More from the city tomorrow !

note all, nite sam

-me