While "googling" Southwest Computer Conference, I cam across a nicely done YouTube video produced by Jack Koonan on location in San Diego.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Great Negotiations
We are all aware of constant rise in prices but due to some solid negotiations by our event planner we were able to keep this years conference pricing the same as last year. This goes for both the registration fees and the hotel room rate. Great Job Team.
Registration for the 2009 conference is now open just click here
Registration for the 2009 conference is now open just click here
Sunday, August 03, 2008
A Wail of a Tale
It all began at the 15th annual Southwest Computer Conference that was being held at the beautiful Town and Country resort in San Diego, California. As a long time volunteer I was busy helping run the conference when I was introduced to Robin Ziegler from Google. For a long time I have used the Google tool bar and search engine on my computers so I said hello and went about my business. During the Friday evening meal Robin was scheduled to demonstrate Google Earth. This was something I had played with in the past but after once looking at my house from the satellite view I was done. When the lights went down and he started his presentation I, and the rest of the audience, was amazed and awed. When his presentation was over I had an opportunity to talk with him further. He casually mentioned stopping by if I was ever in Mountain View. Little did he know a visit to Google had always been a dream of mine. I said thank you saying to myself I will have to follow up on this after the conference.
I waited a couple of weeks giving Robin time to recover from the conference but not so long as to let him forget the offered invitation. After several emails and checks of calendars, it was arranged for Judy “JT” Taylour, the conference chair, Judy Clarke, my wife, and I to visit the Google Campus. We were excited.
We quickly made airplane and car reservations by computer for the one day trip. We were scheduled to leave the Long Beach Airport at 7 am on a Thursday morning which meant we had to be at the Airport no later then 6 am. We would arrive in San Jose at 8 am giving us plenty of time to pick up the car and arrive at Google for our 10 am tour and lunch with Robin.
Thursday morning started with three excited people arriving at the Long Beach airport ahead of schedule and boy was that a good thing! Although we had confirmed reservations the kiosk computers were down and everyone in the airport had to visit one of the two service clerks at the Jet Blue window to confirm seating. This delayed everything. After seating confirmation we were given boarding passes and headed for security. Because the airport is remodeling security checks were backed up beyond belief. Once our flight was called for boarding we were moved to the head of the security line. Going through security I was chosen for the extra security pat down, I passed. We then boarded the plane just as they were about to close the doors. Once on and seated, we thought everything was good to go. It was not to be.
First the pilot explained the water on the plane had not passed health standards so be careful in the restrooms and of course there would be no coffee. Oh well, when we were on the plane and seated, in 54 minutes we would be in San Jose and could do breakfast. After ten or twelve minutes the pilot announced over the intercom that a jet was parked behind us and we could not leave until they moved it. Some thirty minutes later we are in the air. With all this behind us the rest of the day should be perfect. Not so.
We arrived at the Hertz desk to pick up the “mid-sized” car we ordered which turned out to be way too small for three people. After several minutes, a larger car and street maps in hand we headed out to US 101 north for our 15 minute drive. After forty minutes, traffic was terrible, we had arrived at the Google Campus. They refer to it as a campus because like many universities it is spread out over one square mile. Although Robin had sent us a map and asked us to meet him in the lobby, he omitted the building number he worked in. After driving around in circles we located a sign that said lobby this way. No one was around, but we found a note attached to a computer screen asking us to register and sign the NDA (nondisclosure agreement) which we all did. Our visitor badges were being automatically printed. Once they finished printing a young man entered, asked us for the name of the person we were to meet, then offered us free refreshments and to please be seated while he contacted Robin, our host for the day. After waiting almost an hour and just as we were about to give up Robin arrived. Apparently two things had happened; the first was our fault as we were in the wrong building. It seems every building has its own lobby and second, Robin was packing as his office was about to move to a new building that has just been renovated for the Google Earth staff and apparently his phone was in one of the packed boxes. It’s now ten o’clock and we are about to start our tour.
He started the tour by taking us to his office and showing us many, many neat features and fun things that could be done with Google Earth. Remember we all signed nondisclosure agreements. After about an hour or so we continued with a walking tour to several of the buildings. During this part of the tour we saw and heard about many of the free or subsided perks for employees.
The first thing we noticed was that all the parking structures and most of the buildings had solar panels on the roofs which not only supplements the electricity usage, but allows employees the ability to recharge their electric vehicles of which we saw many. Next we learned that the campus has twenty-one individual restaurants specializing in various cuisines and, of course, meals are free to all employees. Every building has at least one snack area filled with sandwiches, goodies, hot and cold drinks. The working environment seems very relaxed as noted by all the pool and other game tables. They have a gym, pool, laundry facility, a barber and dentist who work out of Mobil vans, a full time health office, day care and the list goes on.
Employees are encouraged to decorate their office, halls and buildings and each building takes on a theme and all items such as copiers, mail boxes, supply cabinets and the like take on this theme.
Google provides company buses that pick up employees from several park and ride spots through out the area. They also provide mini-buses for inner campus travel and of course there are bicycles everywhere. All the blue, one speed, balloon tired bikes with baskets are provided by Google. Need to get some place on campus - just pick a bike, ride to your location and leave it for others to use, if the bike has a problem just remove the seat and place it in the basket and soon a mysterious van pulls up, picks up the bike and the next day it is repaired and ready for use.
Five years ago the average age of the 5,000 world wide employees at Google was twenty-two and now with 10,000 employees the average age has risen to twenty-eight.
We were sorry to see our tour end as Robin had to get back to work. He had to finish packing as the entire Google earth department was moving two blocks down the road to a new building that had just been remodeled for them. He mentioned how sad he felt about the move because it was going to almost double his travel time to work each day because he lives three blocks away as it is now.
On the way back to the airport we managed to visit the both the Computer History Museum and the Intel Museum. The Computer History Museum was just exactly that - a history of computers and computing devices. What amazed me was that, between us and over time, we had used many pieces of the equipment. The Intel Museum on the other hand was a hands-on, touchy, feely interactive place. A great spot to get an understanding of how things work.
Upon returning to the airport, with time to spare, we were informed our flight back to Long Beach had been canceled and the next possible flight was two days later. This would not have been a problem except we all had plans for Friday and none of us brought a suitcase as this was only going to be a one day trip. After much running around we managed to get seats on a Southwest flight to LAX. Now we had to rush as Southwest was located in another terminal across the airport. After checking in, getting our boarding passes and going through security where, once again, I was chosen for an extra pat down, I guess I look the part, we were informed the plane’s arrival had been delayed. Once we boarded we learned that over half the flight was filled with people from the canceled Jet Blue flight and we all had to return to Long Beach as that’s where our cars were. The three of us shared a cab ride with another gentleman who offered to split the $75.00 cab fair with us. He was pleasantly surprised when we produced a travel voucher from Jet Blue to cover the ride.
You would think it ends here but not so. The cabbie had never seen a voucher before and wanted us to pay cash. After much hassle between the cabbie and the night shift Jet Blue manager and calls to the cab company, the cabbie accepted the voucher.
The three of us arrived at my house at 11 pm at which time, JT picked up her stuff and headed home to the Santa Clarita Valley where she arrived at 12:19 am.
Wow what a day! What an experience! Would I do it again? You bet!!
I waited a couple of weeks giving Robin time to recover from the conference but not so long as to let him forget the offered invitation. After several emails and checks of calendars, it was arranged for Judy “JT” Taylour, the conference chair, Judy Clarke, my wife, and I to visit the Google Campus. We were excited.
We quickly made airplane and car reservations by computer for the one day trip. We were scheduled to leave the Long Beach Airport at 7 am on a Thursday morning which meant we had to be at the Airport no later then 6 am. We would arrive in San Jose at 8 am giving us plenty of time to pick up the car and arrive at Google for our 10 am tour and lunch with Robin.
Thursday morning started with three excited people arriving at the Long Beach airport ahead of schedule and boy was that a good thing! Although we had confirmed reservations the kiosk computers were down and everyone in the airport had to visit one of the two service clerks at the Jet Blue window to confirm seating. This delayed everything. After seating confirmation we were given boarding passes and headed for security. Because the airport is remodeling security checks were backed up beyond belief. Once our flight was called for boarding we were moved to the head of the security line. Going through security I was chosen for the extra security pat down, I passed. We then boarded the plane just as they were about to close the doors. Once on and seated, we thought everything was good to go. It was not to be.
First the pilot explained the water on the plane had not passed health standards so be careful in the restrooms and of course there would be no coffee. Oh well, when we were on the plane and seated, in 54 minutes we would be in San Jose and could do breakfast. After ten or twelve minutes the pilot announced over the intercom that a jet was parked behind us and we could not leave until they moved it. Some thirty minutes later we are in the air. With all this behind us the rest of the day should be perfect. Not so.
We arrived at the Hertz desk to pick up the “mid-sized” car we ordered which turned out to be way too small for three people. After several minutes, a larger car and street maps in hand we headed out to US 101 north for our 15 minute drive. After forty minutes, traffic was terrible, we had arrived at the Google Campus. They refer to it as a campus because like many universities it is spread out over one square mile. Although Robin had sent us a map and asked us to meet him in the lobby, he omitted the building number he worked in. After driving around in circles we located a sign that said lobby this way. No one was around, but we found a note attached to a computer screen asking us to register and sign the NDA (nondisclosure agreement) which we all did. Our visitor badges were being automatically printed. Once they finished printing a young man entered, asked us for the name of the person we were to meet, then offered us free refreshments and to please be seated while he contacted Robin, our host for the day. After waiting almost an hour and just as we were about to give up Robin arrived. Apparently two things had happened; the first was our fault as we were in the wrong building. It seems every building has its own lobby and second, Robin was packing as his office was about to move to a new building that has just been renovated for the Google Earth staff and apparently his phone was in one of the packed boxes. It’s now ten o’clock and we are about to start our tour.
He started the tour by taking us to his office and showing us many, many neat features and fun things that could be done with Google Earth. Remember we all signed nondisclosure agreements. After about an hour or so we continued with a walking tour to several of the buildings. During this part of the tour we saw and heard about many of the free or subsided perks for employees.
The first thing we noticed was that all the parking structures and most of the buildings had solar panels on the roofs which not only supplements the electricity usage, but allows employees the ability to recharge their electric vehicles of which we saw many. Next we learned that the campus has twenty-one individual restaurants specializing in various cuisines and, of course, meals are free to all employees. Every building has at least one snack area filled with sandwiches, goodies, hot and cold drinks. The working environment seems very relaxed as noted by all the pool and other game tables. They have a gym, pool, laundry facility, a barber and dentist who work out of Mobil vans, a full time health office, day care and the list goes on.
Employees are encouraged to decorate their office, halls and buildings and each building takes on a theme and all items such as copiers, mail boxes, supply cabinets and the like take on this theme.
Google provides company buses that pick up employees from several park and ride spots through out the area. They also provide mini-buses for inner campus travel and of course there are bicycles everywhere. All the blue, one speed, balloon tired bikes with baskets are provided by Google. Need to get some place on campus - just pick a bike, ride to your location and leave it for others to use, if the bike has a problem just remove the seat and place it in the basket and soon a mysterious van pulls up, picks up the bike and the next day it is repaired and ready for use.
Five years ago the average age of the 5,000 world wide employees at Google was twenty-two and now with 10,000 employees the average age has risen to twenty-eight.
We were sorry to see our tour end as Robin had to get back to work. He had to finish packing as the entire Google earth department was moving two blocks down the road to a new building that had just been remodeled for them. He mentioned how sad he felt about the move because it was going to almost double his travel time to work each day because he lives three blocks away as it is now.
On the way back to the airport we managed to visit the both the Computer History Museum and the Intel Museum. The Computer History Museum was just exactly that - a history of computers and computing devices. What amazed me was that, between us and over time, we had used many pieces of the equipment. The Intel Museum on the other hand was a hands-on, touchy, feely interactive place. A great spot to get an understanding of how things work.
Upon returning to the airport, with time to spare, we were informed our flight back to Long Beach had been canceled and the next possible flight was two days later. This would not have been a problem except we all had plans for Friday and none of us brought a suitcase as this was only going to be a one day trip. After much running around we managed to get seats on a Southwest flight to LAX. Now we had to rush as Southwest was located in another terminal across the airport. After checking in, getting our boarding passes and going through security where, once again, I was chosen for an extra pat down, I guess I look the part, we were informed the plane’s arrival had been delayed. Once we boarded we learned that over half the flight was filled with people from the canceled Jet Blue flight and we all had to return to Long Beach as that’s where our cars were. The three of us shared a cab ride with another gentleman who offered to split the $75.00 cab fair with us. He was pleasantly surprised when we produced a travel voucher from Jet Blue to cover the ride.
You would think it ends here but not so. The cabbie had never seen a voucher before and wanted us to pay cash. After much hassle between the cabbie and the night shift Jet Blue manager and calls to the cab company, the cabbie accepted the voucher.
The three of us arrived at my house at 11 pm at which time, JT picked up her stuff and headed home to the Santa Clarita Valley where she arrived at 12:19 am.
Wow what a day! What an experience! Would I do it again? You bet!!
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