Home Update Log Summary of the Trip The Family Album Day 1 - Departing Day 2 - Amsterdam Day 3 - Veldhoven Day 4 - CttM Day One Day 5 - CttM Day Two Day 6 - The Holland Tour Day 7 - Off to Istanbul Day 8 - Seraglio Point Day 9 - Bosphorous Tour Day 10 - Exploring Sultanahmet Day 11 - The City Walls Day 12 - The Asian Side Day 13 - Taking a Break Day 14 - Leaving Turkey Day 15 - A Day in Singapore Day 16 - Arrival in Sydney Day 17 - Exploring Sydney Day 18 - ODDC Day One Day 19 - ODDC Day Two Day 20 - Toranga Zoo Day 21 - Off to New Zealand Day 22 - Road Trip to Tauranga Day 23 - Tauranga to Taupo Day 24 - Visiting Granny Stanton Day 25 - Leaving Levin Day 26 - Return to Auckland Day 27 - The Trip Home | |
Tuesday, May 29, 2001.
The second (and last) day of the ODDC
conference. A day for actual work, which is a good thing, because the rain from
last night hasn't stopped, in fact, there's a thunderstorm over Sydney. Stacy
decided she might do a bit of shopping, trying to stay dry, so Richard took the
camera with him for the day, heading first to the speakers lounge to review his
session before presenting in the late morning.
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Ken and Brian review their workshop
session to be presented the next day. Across the table is the web site
construction centre. |
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A look out the window of the speaker
lounge in the hotel at the torrential downpour. |
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A couple of hours later, Richard is
still in the speaker lounge, but ready for his session... and a look out
the window shows that Sydney's weather has undergone a radical
transformation. |
And then it was time to do a couple of
presentations, with a lunch break in between. The sessions this conference were
on SQL Server and OLAP Server.
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Richard looking casual, doing
introductions at the beginning of the session. |
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When gesticulation becomes a visual
aid... |
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More gesticulation, because the audience
loves it (and Richard can't do talks any other way). |
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A shot of the pivot table demonstrated
in the OLAP Server. |
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Turning the camera around, you can see
the audience just leaving from the OLAP Server session - not a huge crowd.
In the foreground on the right side is Peter, who took the pictures of
Richard during his session. |
After the last session of the day there is a
post-conference keynote, including a prize giveaway.
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Mitch thanks everyone for attending, and
doesn't turn things over to Doug Yoder this time, but does the gift
giveaway himself. |
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One of the gifts delivered to an
attendee by David from Informant. |
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Many of the speakers stood at the back
of the room, including Doug Yoder, John Durant and Don Keily. |
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Post-post-conference keynote, a huddle
outside the room plans for the evening's festivities, from left-to-right:
Adam, Anna, Brian. |
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The other half of the huddle: Erik, Tom,
Peter and Ken. |
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In an effort to grab some bandwidth,
Richard, Tom and Adam head to the central connection point in the
Informant logistics room. |
There wasn't much planning to do for the evening
festivities - some months before, Peter Vogel had booked a dinner date for many
of us at a very unusual restaurant called Tetsuyas. The menu is set, you have a choice of
knowing about it in advance, or letting it be a surprise. There are FOURTEEN
courses. Here's an attempt to list them:
- Lobster Mous with Soy Puree
- Capsicum Gaspatcho
- Assorted Exotic Sushi
- Trout
- Ravioli
- Scallops and Foie Gras
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- Baby Chicken
- Rare Venison
- Sweet Lentils and Cheese
- Granny Smith Apple Sherbet
- Egg White Merange and Sauce
As you can see, our memory of the event is already hazy - the dishes best
remembered are the ones liked the least, oddly enough. Each offering was small,
many were very tasty. A number of our party were a bit overwhelmed at the range
of food, it was very fresh, and rarely cooked.
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The dinner group walks from the hotel to
the restaurant. |
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The entire dinner group half way through
the meal, notice the slightly digestively shell shocked looks. The ravioli
course is on the table. |
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Adam stares in amazement at the bill. |
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Walking back to the hotel, we spot that
bastion of civilization - a Starbucks. |
The bill for this gastronomical experience was a
bit shocking - around $190 Australian per person, which included corkage charges
(we had to bring our own wine). The next night ten
people would dine at a restaurant of Adam's choosing for the price of one at
Tetsuyas.
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