TechEd Yokohama has been great and a nice experience
As I said earlier in my blog, I had the opportunity to speak at TechEd Yokohama. This was my first time in the far east and my first contact with the Japanese people in their own country.
First of all, I felt ... lost! Actually, very few of them can speak english. This was very surprising to me since basically in any part of the world I flew to, I could find real good english-speaking persons. Fortunately, there was someone to welcome me and guide me to the limousine bus. I bought the ticket, jumped on the bus and stayed there for 1 hour. Believe it or not, the person who was there to welcome me could hardly speak any english but had received very good instructions from the event company.
Then, from Narita airport, I hit Yokohama. Once in Yokohama airterminal, I really did not know what to do to go to my hotel (The Grand Inter-Continental close to the convention center of Yokohama). Someone at the bus terminal called a cab, took me to the cab stop and directed the chauffeur to my hotel. So that person I don't know anything about actually stayed with me and waited until the cab was there. Once at the hotel, I did not even have the time to catch my bags, someone from the hotel did it and took my bags to the reception desk. Once registered, another person to my bags right into my room without me asking anything. Waouh, I'm not used to that!
The organization of TechEd was simply amazing! Every single thing was prepared, planned, organized, ... no room for surprise. As a matter of example, let me tell you this anecdote: I sat next to the speakers room to prepare my presentation, do my work and I had been there from 7.30AM. At 7.30PM, I had to "register" at the speakers room to make sure that I would be there to talk to my translators. Believe it or not, even though I had spent the whole day with them, someone came and cought me up in the room, took me to the speakers room just to put a check mark in a box on a whiteboard! Another good one: Say half an hour before my presentation, I decided to leave the place and head to my presentation room; someone called me and said: "It's too early, you must stay here. Someone will pick you up in here and bring you to your presentation room.".
As far as my session is concerned, I did my little home work and introduced myself in japanese! The audience was so please that they even clapped! Then I started my presentation ... No feedback, no reaction, no laugh, no nothing! Japanese audience is quite calm but they listen very carefully! It took me about one hour to do my presentation and then, I left the room and sat in a "Ask the speaker" corner for some question! Just a couple of persons dared coming! They are very shy indeed.
My presentation took place one week from now and I just got the feedback. It seems that my japanese audience really appreciated my presentation. I'll then further work on it and, who knows, maybe I'll present it to you guys.
That's it for now. Before I leave you, let me recommend a visit in Japan. This is an amazing country with amazing very friendly people. I also want to thank Masashi Narumoto for having given me the opportunity to present in Yokohama. It's been a pleasure.
Cheers!
