Attending a conference like SpringOne, one can reasonably expect to learn a lot. I wasn’t disappointed.
I learned that Hugo, my former neighbour from Kontich just outside Antwerp, has a vegetable plot that is about twice the size I remember. Back when I used to live next door to him I couldn’t have cared less about such matters. But time passes and for a sizeable section of the male population getting older will always result in a hankering to grow veggies. I’m definitely in that section. It’s less expensive than Ferraris, and safer than taking on a mistress.
When Rick Evans came to Cork early this year for a Spring training session for DSI, he learned that drinking from the wrong side of the glass is the most reliable cure for hiccups. I learned when I met him again that he hasn’t had a single hiccup since coming to Cork. So together we learned that the potent nature of the glass’s contents can make an enormous difference!
I learned that the most popular Turkish chewing gum flavour doesn’t have any English translation, but tastes yummy - bordering on addictive. Unfortunately they’re not easily found in Ireland, so Yagiz has to buy them in bulk. And I’ve helped him to deplete his current stash significantly.
I learned that my old mate Phil, now living in Brussels but willing to travel to Antwerp for a bolleke (they don’t make them like that anymore, bless him) has lost interest in Formula 1 as much as I have.
I learned that such is the level of attention required when speaking with Ramnivas Laddad that if you attempt to do so while simultaneously conducting an operation like passing through airport security or buying Belgian chocolates for your wife, something is going to get lost. In my case it was a credit card and a pair of sunglasses.
But perhaps the most important thing I learned at SpringOne came from looking around and trying to understand where DSI fits into the international scheme of things. Yagiz and I got a feel for the level of technical sophistication and excellence out there, and based on that I believe that DSI can lay claim to being Ireland’s premier brand Java development house. Add to that our fast growing expertise in the .Net arena, our impressive list of world class customers, our size and our ratio of developers to management/administration, then you have one fertile, powerful, tastey, speedy and multifaceted software company.
0 Responses to “What I Learned at SpringOne”