Again, I have some time - so why not talk about my trip here and my thoughts on Sweden. I left NY via Newark to Copenhagen, then the Copenhagen to Sweden (Arlanda). The Copenhagen to Sweden flight was interesting, the pilot said he was late because he thought the flight was to leave 35 minutes after he planned. So he apologized and promised to make the time up in the air. I don't think you would hear an American pilot admit to that. The pilot's comment, about making the time up in the air, reminded me about a Seinfeld episode where he joked about how there are no cops in the sky. So why don't pilots go as fast as they can always? If they can "make the time up in the air" that means that they can always go faster. Anyway...
I took this clean "train" I would call it a subway, named Arlanda Express to Stockholm from Arlanda airport. Very convenient, thanks for the tip on that Chris Sherman. Saw some horses during the 20 minute trip to Stockholm. I will post them at a later date. I then got to the nice hotel, went to my room and hooked up to the net. I had 30 minutes until the second session began. Read the sessions for reports on that...
After the sessions, I had a discussion with Mikkel and Danny about some search related topics. Said hello to Mike Grehan, Heather Lloyd Martin, Shari Thurow, Chris Sherman, Joseph Morin, Jill Whalen, Christine Churchill, Bill Hunt from IBM, a guy from Trillian and others - it was nice because the conference was relatively small compared to the US shows. Then I went outside the hotel and walked around to check out some of the scenery of the city. Maybe it was the location of the hotel, but there was very few people walking around. I am from New York, and its almost impossible to walk down the street and not be brushed up against by a two or three people within a 5 second interval. It was peaceful, nice weather and the air felt clean. The hotel often had a stench of cigaret smoke, a European thing I guess - NYC hotels never smell like that (no one is allowed to smoke in NYC anymore anyway).
From a dress code perspective, I was the only one wearing a baseball like hat. It seems like corduroy sports jackets are popular here as well. If you're not wearing a corduroy sports jacket, then you must wear some sort of jacket. The US conference seem much more less formal, but maybe I am wrong.
I will be leaving Stockholm for a 6pm flight to London, to connect to my next destination. I might update this entry tomorrow with pictures and more information.
