Trip to Sydney - 17 Nov 09

First day for the seminar. Woke up late, after being embarassingly woken up by Razman when he called my room's phone. Luckily the event venue is just a 5 minute walk away.

Sydney Convention Center in the background. The symposium venue

These a few things I noticed at the event:
1. Attended mostly by middle age guys with balding grey hairs. It was an event attended by industry leaders, CIOs and the like. Felt a bit 'small' in such company

2. Almost EVERYBODY was using iPhone or Blackberry. If you just landed from Mars, you may think Apple and Blackberry were the inventors of mobile phone. Very few people seen using normal phones like Nokia, SonyEricsson and the likes

3. Coffee, cold drinks and light food served free flow. But I had to survie on Pepsi and juice only for the whole duration of the seminar

4. Airconditioning at venue was so cold, had to run out during lunch break, but it was even colder outside! Had to run right back in. The cool surroundings was very comfortable for me. I hardly broke sweat, even with jacket on. Back home, I would've been drenched in like 2 minutes.

5. During the interview of an industry leader, the guy simply took sips of mineral water from the bottle itself. No need for glasses. And he's CEO of Telstra, one of the major telecommunications company in Australia. It's like having Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan, being interviewed on stage, drinking right from the bottle. Not gonna happen here. We're a bit more polite I guess, while they're more open.

Sydney 2000 sculpture in front of the convention center

Another funny thing, just realized I still had the tag inside my jacket which I bought the day before I left KL. Lucky nobody noticed hehehe

Later after the seminar, went out, alone. Discovered the first downside, the shops close early! They all close at 8PM or earlier. So just spent the rest of the day relaxing on the platform around the harbour. It was really cold back in the hotel room, even with the heater at full blast.