A new professional first

Today I spoke at a conference in Amsterdam about Social Networking and how Kodak is participating in the space. I was pretty nervous as it was my first presentation at a conference, and I was a stand-in for a colleague that couldn't attend - but I was well prepped and it seemed to go well overall. People were nodding their heads in agreement and asked a lot of questions, so I guess they were engaged. I misspoke at one point though, calling the Beijing Games the "Kodak Olympics!" Oops! Luckily I caught myself and we all had a good laugh about it! The conference organizers still invited me back for the second day to participate in the discussion, so overall I'd say it was a success.

I was also amazed when I got back to my house after speaking, and my US colleagues had already e-mailed me a few positive twitter posts about the content of my speech! One tweet even said we had the best quote of the day :-) I can't take credit for the quote as I was re-using a colleague's deck - but it was still rewarding to see how positively Kodak was received.

When I responded to this person's "tweet" he replied yet again saying how much he enjoyed our story and how impressed he was with our work in the space. That alone made it worth all the preparation and stress it took to present.

I can honestly say that I'm glad I did it. I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't too horrible either and it will make me a stronger presenter in the future. Still, I'm relieved. The adrenaline of the afternoon has worn off - and I'm going to bed.

I love Wagamama

Wagamama is an "Asian fast food" noodle and soup chain that I discovered when I was living in London back in 1997. The food is tasty, the service is quick and the prices aren't bad. This week Brett and I discovered that there are 2 locations in Amsterdam! We've been mostly disappointed with the restaurants here, but Wagamama is the exception. We've been twice in the past week. Yum!

Great prices on tulips!

If you can handle the cold weather here in Amsterdam, you can get flowers pretty cheaply. While walking by the flower markets we saw 50 tulips for 7.50 Euro (around $10). Good deal!

Fall leaves or fireworks fallout?

On New Years in Amsterdam there was the fireworks display put on by the government, but more striking to me were the displays put on by the people. It seemed every Dutch family bought fireworks and set them off in the streets. They started setting off firecrackers around 2PM, but by midnight they were in full force.

I would say that there were professional quality displays going off every 2 or 3 houses down my entire street. The only difference is that with professional displays, the fireworks go UP. Dutch family fireworks hit cars, roofs, and burn in the street like a bonfire when they malfunction. I've never seen anything quite like it but I'm glad I did - especially from the safety of my apartment.

The streets have been covered with paper ever since! It looks kind of like fall leaves to me!

From tulips to palm tree seeds - they're for sale in Amsterdam

At the flower markets here they sell everything from beautiful tulips to seeds for palm trees. I'm not sure why they have the palms as it's surely too cold here for them to grow, but it's cool to see what palm tree seeds look like.

Frozen canals means it's ice skating time

When I was in Amsterdam in 1997, it was so cold the canals had frozen. When I moved here in June I told my colleagues how much I was dreading the winter. They told me not to worry because winters were much milder these days.,

Guess who was lucky enough to be here the first time in 12 years that the canals had frozen? Ugh. Just my luck. Still, it was cool to see the skaters on the canals.

Gun Powder Green Tea

We saw this in a shop in Delft. I bet it has explosive flavor. Har har.