We got into Barcelona on Saturday night - late.
Sunday we got up, went to the conference center to setup our booth. As usual we ran into multiple issues, but kudos to my team - everyone proved to be very helpful and extremely resourceful.
We had forgotten to pack our DVI cable for our large LCD screen....Chris (SVP of Sales) procured it from somewhere (literally by magic).
Our luggage was still lost, so the tools that Dave had packed to setup our rack of devices had not arrived. We had hoped to buy a set of tools on Sunday morning from the El Corte Ingles - only to find out that all shops are closed on Sunday in Spain.
...so Meir (VP of Sales, EMEA) got us a couple of screwdrivers from the guys across the hall.
...finally, we needed to wipe down everything once the booth had been setup...and out of nowhere cleaning supplies showed up.
By 6:00 pm the booth was ready to go, and we were ready to go.....to a football game....to which we had been invited by our partners out of Sweden. We hopped into a cab, and headed to the Camp Nous where the game between FC Barcelona and Santander Racing was scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm.
All of us were there, I, Dave, Rachel, Wibe, Chris, Keith, and Meir. Our seats were right behind one of the goals, in the second row!! I have never had an experience like that: a 60,000+ crowd, floodlit stadium, the crowd singing songs, doing waves - it was crazy.
The first half was OK, the other team was not too bad, but Barcelona was better - of-course it had Ronaldinho - the star - who almost everyone was watching intently. The next half was better. Ronaldinho scored two superb goals, the crowd burst into a frenzy.
It was quite an experience, and I'm glad my team went to the game....
...just that we walked for an hour after the game because there were no cabs, the metro was jammed, and we had to stay ahead of the massive crowd spilling out of the stadium.
...walking jetlagged for an hour the night before 3GSM starts (10-hour days standing up or walking the floor, 4 days in a row) - isn't a great idea, but hey - the game was worth it!!
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