A Week At Cisco

It was a hectic week. With customer meetings, a broadband symposium in Villach (Austria), a three days customer visit (Anthony Bravo from Crossways Academy), a customer conference and an education partner event. Challenging, particularly from a logistical perspective, dynamic, colourful, invigorating, inspirational, practical and useful. All in one. I met interesting people. Made friends. And had some truly deep conversations. During the week I had times I felt wasted, but at the end of it all, after a conference call with Susie and Chris, I felt fulfilled and satisfied.

Monday, Sep 17th 2007
Hosted two broadband customer delegations. From Singapore and France. Herman Wagter from City of Amsterdam, Frank Halsema from City of Almere, Kees Rovers from Close The Gap (City of Nuenen) and Ger Bakker from UNET supported these visits. For myself, I had to moderate the SingTel session, with Professor Kai, Mr Loo and Olive Ho (Cisco Singapore). And Nic (Nicola Villa) was so kind to do the introduction, and draw the comprehensive picture, via telephone. She was sweet and nice, our Olive, and Loo and the professor were sharp and concise with their questions.

Tuesday, Sep 18th 2007

Together with Frank Halsema, after an early start at 7.30am, we travelled through the air, to Munich, and over land, from Munich to Villach. The car trip through Austria, from north to south, via Salzburg, lasted 3,5 hrs (350km).




Frank spoke at the symposium in Villach about Almere Fiber City. Just about 100 people were attending. Interested in cable, tv and new media on new networks. I had tweaked and tuned the presentation a bit and Frank delivered it flawlessly.

Wednesday, Sep 19th 2007

We started driving at 7am from Villach to Munich. It was a quick drive, with little traffic jams, through beautiful mountain country.

Thursday, Sep 20th 2007

ROC-i Conference at ROC Aventus. The evening before I had dinner with Jan Bartling, Roy, Peter Bleijswijk, Zdravka and Anthony at Poppe in Apeldoorn. Anthony had a key note speaking slot about the vision and realization of Crossways Academy. Very inspiring. He is truly a charismatic and confident speaker.


Anthony Bravo, Zdravka Paskaleva and James Roolvink. Some amazing people ...


The Street in the ROC Anventus. The building has been opened in May 2007. It has an open, transparant and spacious environment. A fine innovation in education architecture.


SupperClub. A little adventure. Anthony, Zdravka and I lay on white beds and cushons, enjoying the laidback conversation, the four course meal and the instant live entertainment ...



Friday, Sep 21rst 2007

After the Cisco education partner event, where Anthony and I had spoken, we drove through the city of Amsterdam, along the canals, to pick up Anthony's stuff from the Renaissance Hotel at the Kattengat. At 2.15pm sharp I dropped him off at Schiphol.