I as in Clermont-Ferrand "Michelin Capital" (pop. 140,000 - night-life pop - 8) for the 3rd EGEE User Forum, basically when all of the people who are actually using the technology get together, explain how they are using it and outline progress and issues. There were some interesting demos there as well. I chaired the session of Finance and Multimedia on the first day and gave a summary presentation on the final day's plenary session. The city itself was quite nice, very clean and visually beautiful, there was just no one around after 10:30pm. Coming from Italy and speaking with another [View Full Entry]

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In theory I traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria for the EGEE-II All-Activity Meeting, but in reality I just traveled towards it. I will be damned if this doesn't become part of my travel blog to Sofia, Bulgaria. Here is my story - ENJOY!: Starting my day at 5am to catch a taxi to the airport for a flight from Pisa to Milan at 6.55am, only to have that flight cancelled for the second time. From there a bus was organised for 8am (again, but this time to Rome) where I was told to remain at the "Meeting Point". Come 8:15-8:30, being in [View Full Entry]

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Twice a year the communications activity within EGEE (the project I work on) get together and have a face-to-face meeting. This year a partner review was tagged on as a recommendation from the Commission. I was extremely excited to go to Prague as it has been one of my places that I wished to visit and it did not disappoint. It was a beautiful city, clean and I would definitely pay to return, especially minusing the 2 presentations and website meeting. Check out the beer taps on the table, that was quite sweet. It had a counter on the top to [View Full Entry]

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I was in Madrid for a 3S Project Consortium Meeting. I have been managing this project as well due to the normal project manager on maternity. I saw a Picasso exhibition that was fantastic. I am not an art guy, but it was really cool to see an actual Picasso. "Guernica" (see pic) was huge, took up most of the wall. Now I can understand why some people go to these things, you could really look at it and keep seeing different things. The entire exhibition was really interesting. [View Full Entry]

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I was in Budapest for the EGEE'07 Conference. I was part of the programme committee in organizing a Business Track within the conference, chaired a session and ran a Grid and Business meeting in order to gather field experts. We had a gala dinner on a boat traveling up and down the Danube River. Eastern Europe and still cleaner than Pisa. [View Full Entry]

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I was invited to Greece to give a presentation on EGEE and Business. I did not have a chance to visit much of the city but have posted the limited pictures that I took. I did see the famous White Tower, cannot take credit for the picture, but I did see it. The evening was quite crazy as there was the Prime Minister election and both candidates were in town to give speeches. [View Full Entry]

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EGEE holds a bi-annual All-Activity Meeting. Since the lead partner is CERN, based in Geneva, large meetings are normally held there. CERN is huge, located just outside the city (like a military base would be) so I didn't get to see much of the city. [View Full Entry]

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Every year, European funded projects must go through an official review by the European Commission. I gave a presentation on EGEE and Business relations. Basically, you have to justify what you've done with taxpayer money and present what you had accomplished throughout the year. Then there is a 10-15 Q&A after each presentation, quite nerve racking actually, but went well. [View Full Entry]

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This was a joint conference between EGEE and the Open Grid Forum that attracted over 800 participants. I co-organized the Enterprise Requirement Workshop within the event. Manchester is not one to be desired, they have to thank God that their soccer team is what it is. [View Full Entry]

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As a project review by the European Commission is quite an important milestone, we held a Dress Rehearsal to iron out any remaining kinks. [View Full Entry]

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