Burj Al Arab
The pretty sail boat shaped building in the photos from 360 last time.
I was invited to my first Middle East forum, sponsored by IDC and McAfee Security.
The Burj is absolutely amazing. It was on the 27th floor (the top of the sail, and in the rotunda...) Quite the first conference.
Out of 100 or so CIO/ senior IT attendees there were 5 females and I was positioned in the 3rd row next to 2 of them in full abaya. Kind of like salt and pepper :-)
So I was the the "curiosity" of all. LOL....
During the coffee/breakfast break, I just stood to the side alone and watched in total immersion soaking it all in and quite happy to listen and watch.
Of course I had to raise my hand and ask the question to the panel:
"Everyone talks about cloud computing, what happens when there is no cloud"?
Point and case: In the MENA at the end of December all four undersea cables (which are the internet back bone)and the entire region had no internet access. I have encountered this once before and it took down my entire system, the symantec antivirus is cloud based and could not update and shut my OS completely down. I actually had to go in and boot through DOS and remove symantec from my boot file. Then I was able to boot into windows. I wanted to make sure that they understood the constraints of working in a country without enormous bandwidth. I think my point was well received. This is not America or Europe.
It has been a busy few weeks. A good busy. I am back in Al Ain and going to go for a massage tonight, to work out all the mach momentum brainstorming I have been doing in the last 30 days.
I can and do perform as a "social" person when at the circus (I.E. IDC conferences such as the one yesterday held at the top of the Burj Al Arab or 3 black tie dinners in a week) But 2 days of performing at the circus is socially exhausting for me. It drains my social bank. At that point all I want is to not talk out loud and listen....Does that make sense or am I just a crazy woman in the desert?
Whatever it is, I am happily winding my way through another adventure.But it is all just a journey and a wonderful one at that...I am happy I am alive and breathing another day to experience it all.
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