Thursday night – back in the USSA

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What a long strange trip its’ been.. I’m now lying in bed trying to figure out what time my body thinks it is… I’m trying to figure out how I crammed everything into the last day.. Yesterday’s event at Skolkovo was really fun and interesting. There were 1000 IBM business partners attending the forum in the Skolkovo Business school. it’s an amazing building.

 

. I got to see many of our company’s products and customers at work.. and n Cyrillic, no less.   I gave two  keynotes yesterday.. one to senior IT professionals, then the second, bigger one to about 500 C-level execs from across the contry. It was a little intimidating. but bun. my talk was done in simultaneous translation .. .. and I know I’m a fast  and quirky speaker.. somehow the translators kept up because the audience reacted in all the right ways.. I felt good about the talk..  Here’s the country general manager about to introduce me.. he was a nice guy..

The crowd was great.. and I was swamped with questions afterwards.. that’s always a good sign.

here I am with my friend Tatiania.. she was my ‘handler’ yesterday.. keeping me out of trouble..

this woman is one of the tob tweeters in russia !

hey.. that’s me !  D-chon koen

here’s a cool compuyter controlled water foutan they had..

setting up for my sn3 talk… (no pressure !)

Our comms team..

. last night’s party at the Skolkovo event went until about 10:30.. then Ian. Artur and Tatyianna and I went out for dinner and beers.

I got back to the hotel at 2.. and packed to be ready for my 4 AM cab.. i did get abotu 45 minutes of sleep, I think..
The reception after the signing ceremony was pretty lavish.. lot of good snacks and vodka everywhere, uve iever been to a work  party like this they had this guy drawning charactures .

Pretty nice !

4AM was pretty early.. but at least there wast any traffic. It was a joy to drive around on empty streets.  (but we did manage to get pulled over by the  the police at one point

I boarderd the palne to berlin about 7L40..  The short stop in berlin  was nice..   I dropped  a samstone  of beside the driveway

Very nice !!!!

then .. after ‘only’ 21.5 hor s f traveling. I was back in Vermont.. the place looked so beautiful with it’s blannket of snoe.

and here’s our litle valleyfrom the air..

Diane picked me up at the Burlington airport at 4L30 and we went right over to Echo to get ready for the ‘Thats Brilliant!’ event.. it really et great.. thanks so much to Jeromme Cann who did most of the real work. alongside the echo staff,

we had oover 160 people there tonight.. whats more, people were having fun !!! here’s Phelan getting chargeds

glad that s brilliant went wel. glad tavel worked well.. and glad… finally .. for a chance ot sleep..

nite all, note sam

 

there’s no place like hiime !

-me

 

wednesday night late – dog ate my homework excuse

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Friends,

I need to use the ‘dog ate  my homework’ excuse’ . I’ve had a busy. full and productive day.. but .. if it’s all right with all of you, I’ll wait until tomorrow to write about it. It’s 2Am and I have a 4AM cab to the airport.. I hope that’s ok.. and if it’s not.. please come knock.. room 2283, Metropol hotel, Moscow..

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

ps. Vermont folks.please remember the ‘That’s Brilliant ! event at the Echo Center Tomorrow (Thursday) night at 6:30.. come celibrate vermont invetions and vermont inventors.. be there or be square. We need help getting a crowd.. please pass the word !

Tuesday night – russian friends

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A good day here overall.. I did one of the things I love doing most.. that is talking to very smart technical people. The folks at the lab here in Moscow are truly brilliant.. .. what’s more they are warm and welcoming..

It was a long day.. many conversationns.. many things to thik about.. I was getting pretytjetlagged by the end of the day as we battld our way through traffic back to the hote

At Ian’s suggestion, we abandoned the traffic-bound  taxi a few miles form the hotel  and grabbed the subway..l.

 

It was a beautiful night.. cool.. no rain.. the city was decked out for Christmas..

 

Here’s the theater again.. newly renovated

 

We dropped our bag and headed to a famous beer restaurant garv piva torg. Here’s Ian trying to figure out where our beers dissapeared to

and here’s andrej.. my freind from Slovenia.  Both great guys.. We had a good talk tonight..some personal, some work talk.

Dinner was good.. sea bass and pioroshkis..

then Andrej and I walked back to the metropol while Ian headed back to his home..

Red Sqaure was open tonight, so Andrej and I tool a quick walk through to see the decorations..

here’s the Kremlin .. looking very festive

they’ve installed a temporary ice rink in Red Square .. How cool is that !


i put a samstone near lennis tomb..left one in about the same place in 2007.


and here’s the eutiful gym of St/ Basils.. it’s just such a cool building.. last time I was here it had scaffolding.. tonight it was radiant

Now I have to sleep.. I gotta be up early tomorrow.. Wish me luck with my talk.. I’ll need it !

nite all, nite Sam

-me

 

 

Monday night – from Russia with love !

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Greetings from Moscow.. I’m staying in the Hotel Metropol…. I’ve stayed here before..  It’s a wonderful place.. beautiful and welcoming.. but with just enough 1960’s spy ambiance. The walls are covered with pictures of dignitaries , writes and artists.. who’ve stayed here..

 

I’m sure the walls are bugged. The people are just great.

It’s been a long travel day.. so I won’t write much.. came through via London where I stopped long enough to drop off a samstone..

THe plae was delayed.. so I got to Moscow Airport about an hour late.. it was cool and rainey.. a. The traffic into the city took about 2 hours !!..

It was interesting seeing the city now.> The place is really locked down due to the elections that are going on.. If you don’t know about that.. check out CNN.. I’m right at ground zero for that.. There’s a big stage with Putin’s picture on it right in front of the hotel.. More troubling is that the place is crawling with police.. Red Square was completely blocked off.. I coulnd’t even go take a peek !

I did get a nice view of the Bolshi theatre

The place is completely coveres with computere controlled blinky christams trees.. very festive in a carnival kind of way..

 

I went out aroeund `0 to find soemthing to eat.. bt all I found was meat.. so .. back to the hotel for room service.. very nice !

 

Despite the police everywhere… I was able to lob a samstone into one of the fancy Christmas trees..

Well.. hope to see red square tomorrow..  Right now I need to sleep !

More tomorrow.

 

Nite all, nite sam

-me

ps.   Just a reminder.. We’re trying to get as many folks (adult folks) to the ‘That’s Brilliant !’ event at the ECHO center this Thursday Dec 8th at 6:30.   It’s a celebration of Vermont Inventions and Inventors.. many of my freinds will be there showing their cool creations. Please come , have a glass of wine and check it out.. We need help getting the word out.. so please tell your friends !

Here’s a facebook event for it , too !