Talking American
Day Seven of my trip to the US and my immersion in all things innovative and emerging. The downside of this is I find myself not annunciating words and rounding them instead with a "waahhhhhh" effect rather than delivering my usual crisp sentences (neutral tones of mostly non-specific European / acquired Brit with a few slight Paddyisms occasionally thrown in).
As if to highlight this, when I got to my 8am meeting with Cliff this morning he had the topics for discussion on the whiteboard with a picture of a shamrock to remind me of my identity. Sometimes it's easy to forget I was born in Ireland, while living in England and working for an American company and feeling like Michael Palin - just without the sense of humour, bohemian experiences and chino's.
The upside of said trip is of course getting to spend time with cool people. And finally getting a good night's sleep in the heavenly bed at the Westin. I feel almost human today.
In the Valley they're are some great market-watchers in the start-up arena like Debbie Landa's Dealmaker Media and Guidewire Group founded by Mike Sigal and Chris Shipley - both of whom are working with Microsoft. I was lucky enough to spend time with Mike in San Francisco at the weekend and also hook up with the lovely Julia French.
While I'm here Macworld is taking place and Apple made many announcements including the very purty Macbook Air - for someone who carries her laptop everywhere something this small and dinky is very attractive. Especially if accompanied by a Louis Vuitton shoulder bag. I was hoping they'd announce a new iPod so I had a valid excuse to go gadget shopping while in Seattle and give my little red nano to my young cousin. Alas I don't have a valid excuse so I just bought new headphones for $29. Not half as satisfying. My retail therapy shall have to continue in Abercrombie & Fitch. 
Reading Steve's latest blog I got drawn to this one about working at Microsoft. I've lost count of how many times I have uttered the words "awesome" and "cool" this past week but I just can't help it. This place is cool.
There's an energy here which I can relate to, which feeds the beast and appeals to my belief that anything is possible. Sleep deprivation aside, it's great.
You may have seen the BillG video from CES already but have you seen the BillG exit interview? Cool.
