Archive
The Airlines’ Affair
I just got to Bucharest for a business trip, 3 days’ meetings with Microsoft Romania to talk about the Communities and the Microsoft MVPs. As I’ll probably talk about that on another post, I just wanted to drop a few lines about my recent flying experience and the experience overall.
I never booked a flight with Alitalia (part of the SkyTeam) primarily because of the strikes. But, as it seems everything’s cooling down, I decided to do so (and not only for that, I could fly through Linate
).
My experience was pretty good and I had to change my mind on that.
The online checkin was easy and more complete compared to some other airlines. I could print the boarding pass and also ask the system to send me a text message and an even an email as a valid boarding pass. In there, I could also pick more comfortable seats for just 20 euros more. And this is definitely a good service.
Even the flight was a 2 hours one, there were monitors for each seat. There were documentaries, trip details and cartoons. Not that much but what would you expect for a short flight like that?
I also know that pilots are very good. Not that the others from other Airlines are not, but I have a friend who works there and tells me all the good stories around that.
When it was the time to land, it was crazy windy and people were really scared. But the landing was perfect (and a run of applause to the captain !).
So overall my experience (and I would like highlight that: it’s just my personal experience) was very good. I’ll definitely get more Alitalia flights in the future…
I also remember some time ago I posted about a website reviewing all the Airlines in the World (including giving Awards). In Europe, Lufthansa is still number one (and my favorite one as well) and there’s gonna be the 2011 Awards that will take place in Paris @ the end of June.
During these years, and thanks to my job, I had the pleasure to fly with different airlines so here is my Top 5 personal ranking (sorry if there are not many APGC nor LATAM Airlines but I had very few trips there):
- Singapore Airlines
- Emirates
- Lufthansa
- Czech Airlines
- MALEV Hungarian Airlines
Swiss and SAS were great in the past but I never had the chance to “test” them anymore…
One more thing to mention regarding the US Airlines: I would say that, overall, they are not comparable to the rest of the World’s Airlines in terms of service offering, comfort and entertainment. And this is probably because people in the US tend to get a flight in the same way as we get a bus ![]()
First week, second one..
I didn’t have much time to review and update my blog but, as I’m here in a Starbucks in downtown Seattle waiting to get a bus to the new destination, I thought it was worthy to write down some notes.
The MVP Global Summit (#mvp11) has been a great experience to me, to my colleagues and, to my knowledge, to the MVPs. It’s always amazing to get together in this place, far far away from our hometown. It’s about building relationships, interacting with the Product Teams, engage on with new opportunities and of course having a great time during the evenings. Great technical sessions, an amazing event organization, the Safeco Field Party, the Product Group dinners, I think almost everything was perfect. Of course there’s room to grow and of course some of you may not have been that satisfied with a particular session. But it’s not that easy to accomodate all of you, because of the different backgrounds and skills you may have.
Personally, I’m very happy with the whole event. Every year is better and better.
I had almost 100 MVPs coming from the Region I represent which is huge and my only regret is that I didn’t have the chance to talk with all of you guys. I just wanted to talk with all you but I just couldn’t !
At least I met almost all of you which is good.
Time flies and now you’re probably headed back home. I hope you’re taking with you great memories to tell your friends and families..
I’ll see you soon !
Microsoft WinDays 2011 !
Following the great success of the last year’s event,
Croatian WinDays strikes back with a new 2011 promising event !
" There is no better place to search for new and different ideas than the leading business and technology conference in Croatia – Microsoft WinDays11!”
The Conference will be held in Rovinj, Croatia and it will be split in two conferences:
WinDays11 Microsoft Technology Conference 4 – 7 April, 2011
WinDays11 Business Conference 7 – 8 April, 2011
“Whether you’re an IT professional, company director, an expert in sales, marketing or business development, you can always happen to run out of new ideas. We are all here to help: a great source of ideas runs dry, and it is necessary to look for inspiration. There is no better way to do this than to surround yourself with people who, like you, live and profit from new ideas and their implementation, which is even better, ideas really begin to live only when you share it with others.”
Featuring MVPs Ilija Brajkovic, Marin Franković, Damir Dizdarevic, Robert Petrunic, Domagoj Pavlesic, Dobriša Adamec, Vibor Cipan and I’m sure many more, covering lots of Microsoft technologies (as you can also see by the picture above): from Lync Server to Windows Phone 7, from Silverlight to IE9 and Office 365 just to name a few…
Feel free to follow the upcoming news and see you in Rovinj! ![]()
Link to: Početna – Microsoft WinDays11. Prostori ideja. Drugačije ideje
Pan-Baltic MVP Open Days 2011 !
Thanks to my colleagues Andres Sirel & Tautvydas Dagys who made this happen,
I have the pleasure to announce that on Friday the 11th and Saturday the 12th I’m going to participate to the first Pan-Baltic MVP Open Days, gathering almost all the Microsoft MVPs from the Region.
It will be a 2 days event totally dedicated to the MVPs and to the local communities.
From Andrejs Mamontovs to Domantas Jovaišas, from Gunnar Peipman to new MVP Heiki Tähis and Henn Sarv, Sergejus Barinovas, Tomas Dabasinskas & Valdis Iljuconoks, not to mention all the other community peers like Jevgeni Tšaikin , the audience is really differentiated. From ASP.NET to Windows Phone 7 to Windows Azure to SQL Server, just to name a few, we will all be in Latvia to exchange ideas, to discuss about the local Communities and to gather feedback and best practice to share with others (and of course more than that I’m sure !).
Furthermore, the 3 Microsoft Subsidiaries also organized the “Powered by MVP” 2011 technical workshop (happening today) where several MVPs and technical experts will talk about different topics related to both ITPros and Developers (for more info follow the link below).
Personally, I’m pretty excited to be there for the first time. I already met some of them during the last year’s MVP Global Summit in Seattle, the Regional CEE MVP Open Days in Greece and online on Twitter, but being altogether will be absolutely a unique experience, from a professional and personal way.
If you want to know what’s happening in real-time, be sure to follow the #balticmvp11 hashtag ![]()
Link to: Powered by MVP — Latvia
Sinergija 10 & more !
I took some time this morning to recap on the recent event in which I had the pleasure to participate. It was in Belgrade, Serbia, and I already talked about the previous one in this post.
Sinergija is one of the most important event in the Balkans, together with some other events. ITPros and Developers had the chance to interact with each other and meet a lot of Microsoft folks and international speakers sharing their experiences on Microsoft products.
Also, this year Sinergija was at it 10th anniversary, which made the event even more important.
My colleague and friend Borko Kovacevic wrote some notes regarding the event which I guess it’s nice to share with you. Sinergija 10 gathered more than 1500 people on each of five days of the conference, and more than 3000 people on all Sinergija related events!
Some numbers:
5 days
150 technical presentations
30 business presentations
30 conference partner
1500 people on Technical Conference
700 people on Business Summits
150 speakers
80 IT Influencers from all over CEE
100 Press Representatives
150 Sinergija staff members
120 MS employees
1.500 people on Sinergija Party
1000 visitors of gaming and EXPO events per day
I specifically highlighted the Influencer n° as, together with the CEE HQ, we organized an Influencer Summit inside the event, where MVPs, Regional Directors, Student Partners and “Influencers” could meet and interact with us for a full day.
There were a lot of people who I personally met during other events and I have to tell how much I appreciated all the discussions and talks with them, representing almost 15 Countries in Central and Eastern Europe. MVPs from Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Poland, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.), Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania, I can’t even mention all the people that was there. We also had Tomislav Bronzin (Vice President INETA Europe) and Bernardin Katic (Director at Large) who represented INETA Europe and GITCA who were available for discussing community and User Group issues and requests. Even the local General Manager from Microsoft Serbia came and make a short speech during our event which I think was fantastic !
In the evening, the organizers gathered speakers and Influencers for a dinner on a boat. We had a bus talking us from the hotel to the restaurant and the venue was really super ! We had the chance to talk about different topics but, fore and foremost, having all these Countries represented for me was a great experience (it’s always is).
There are several anecdotes I would like to share: on a personal note, I really appreciated the chat I had with MVP Bojan Jovicic about social skills (thank you for your advices !!)
And I’d also like to ad we had a great time talking about communities with Valdis Iljuconoks (nominated as the Official CEE MVP Photographer
) and Maciej Pilecki !
There are several pieces of experiences I grab with myself after the event. One in particular, which is nothing new but worth to mention is:
“Strategies are important, but without relationships they are gonna fail”
See you soon ! ![]()
Visiting US under Visa Waiver Program
On January 12th, 2009 the United States of America introduced the new ESTA - Electronic System for Travel Authorization that contemplates (and obliges) to register online receiving a preventive authorization for travelling to the US. Information requested are almost the same that are requested, during travel, using the I-94W Form (the little green card you get on plane).
Every passenger needs to:
- Fill in his/her own questionnaire (for couples travelling together, they both need to do the procedure);
- Provide an e-mail address where to receive the confirmation and a phone number;
- It is suggested to do it in advance, when you already have the travel plan, and within 72 hours before the trip;
- During registration, you need to have: Passport, complete travel plan and hotel name and addresses where you’ll be staying
This procedure is mandatory to travel but it really takes a few minutes to fill in. You’ll then receive a confirmation e-mail within few moments.
So, if you plan to go to the US, don’t forget to register here !
Link to: ESTA
TechEd (online and offline)
I recently participated in the TechEd EMEA Developers, which took place in the beautiful Barcelona. I won’t cover the technical sessions here (which many people already did) but I’ll focus on something else.
Basically I had 2 main targets in my mind:
- Promote the MVP Award Program
- Network with as many people as possible
I’m very satisfied with both of them as I would say I accomplished them both. I was attending the Community Booth (which was right in between the 2 Ask The Expert Zones), being available for the customers who wanted to know more about the Program.
“the ATE Briefing”
I guess this is the first time (ever!) in which I don’t get any questions like “Who are the MVPs?” “What is the MVP Program?” or, even worse, “Is that a Microsoft Certification?”. It seems all the attendees visiting and/or passing through our Booth were very aware about the MVPs which is great! I also wanted to promote the Program internally among my peers, and I did that, meeting with some colleagues of mine from EMEA and showing the impact of the Communities and the MVPs as key contributors of them. I always refer to Coca Cola when I talk about “promotion”: “if The Coca Cola Company does advertisements throughout the year, then I suppose anyone, any Company, any team, even any individual would need some!”. One of the things I also did was to interview Karen Young in a sort of Q&A interview on the “MVPs and the Power of Community” (you can find the full version in the TechEd Online main page).
I also had an interview with Channel 9 (thanks Christian !), very informal & funny, which I guess will be published very soon..
The mingling part was the fun part: meeting with all those MVPs (from Croatia to Latvia, from Greece to Romania, from Italy to Malta, etc..) was very energizing. Anyone who knows me is aware that the passion I have for the communities is driven by the passion of these guys that voluntarily share their technical expertise every day in the online and offline communities and User Groups. Being there and talk with some of the people I unfortunately don’t meet very often was even better! And then dinners and parties have been another important part of the event ![]()
I cannot mention you all but a special thanks goes to all who have contributed to the success of the event and particularly to all who have contributed to the “quality time” I had ![]()
Best Airlines in the World?
Do many of you travel much?
I found this website very interesting: Seat Reviews, Airline Reviews, Airport Reviews and even Lounge Reviews.
They also give an Award for each category and each Region, based on a Worldwide Survey.
Good thing is: all the reviews are made by the users (by the users, for the users: love it!
)
Seattletizers
Termine da me coniato durante una serata di “bagordi” (ma perchè ho messo le virgolette poi?
) per definire gli abitanti di Seattle, via di mezzo tra Seattleties e appetizers… ![]()
Sono tornato proprio ieri, dopo un mese e mezzo di Internship, una specie di affiancamento ad un gruppo di lavoro di base a Sammamish legato sempre al mondo delle Community.
Esperienza unica, indimenticabile, sia sotto il profilo umano che professionale. Seattle, viverla come cittadino, è davvero magica. Per noi, nonostante i grattacieli e le notizie che ci provengono da Oltreoceano, non è altro che una cittadina di provincia. Ma il senso civico, quello è davvero unico (unico anche rispetto a molte altre città americane, NY in primis).
Gente che ti saluta per strada, ti chiedono “cosa fai stasera di bello?” in ascensore, ti fanno immettere in un’altra corsia senza dover ringraziare (lo facevo sempre ma poi ho visto che qui non è usanza, è semplicemente una regola di buona norma). Per chi guida poi, 2 regolette da tener presente: ad alcuni semafori, col rosso, si può girare (a meno di cartelli che dicano il contrario). Agli incroci, “a bocce ferme”, passa chi è arrivato per prima, e a seguire tutti gli altri (in ordine di arrivo). Le code sembrano infinite ma poi non lo sono, in autostrada c’è una corsia preferenziale per chi è in 2 o più di due (e tutti, dico tutti, rispettano queste legge). Il clacson è opzionale mentre il vano per il caffè di Starbucks è di serie su tutte le auto ![]()
Ho imparato molte cose laggiù, ho parlato con parecchi colleghi della MVP Organization ed altrettanti Gruppi di Prodotto, conosciuto volti nuovi, rappresentato EMEA e ovviamente l’Italia.
Come ho già detto in un altro post, non vedo già l’ora di tornare !
P.S: Avrei tanto altro da raccontare ma è notte fonda quindi, se riesco, torno a dormire… ![]()
Happy Thanksgiving !
Finalmente, dopo tanti giorni di corse – rincorse, fra meeting e 1:1, riesco finalmente a scrivere qualcosa.
Oggi è il Thanksgiving Day, giornata in cui, storicamente, si esprime gratitudine a Dio, celebrata la prima volta dai Cristiani e dai Nativi Americani nel New England circa 3 secoli fa.
E’ una festa che “conta più” del Natale: di solito al Thanksgiving si sta con la propria famiglia mentre Natale si passa con il parentame. Ma è proprio a partire da oggi che inizia il countdown per Natale: e la città è vestita a festa..

Stamattina Downtown si presenta così:

Sole, freddo becco e negozi quasi tutti chiusi (cosa alquanto insolita da queste parti). Mentre domani è il “Black Friday“, pazza giornata in cui la gente si accampa già alle prime ore del mattino di fronte alle catene di negozi più importanti (Macy’s, Nordstrom, Frys, etc) per i super-saldi.
Un’esperienza indimenticabile: avere la propria casa è totalmente diverso che stare in un freddo hotel per qualche giorno: ti senti proprio uno tra i Seattleties ![]()
Per quanto riguarda il lavoro, ho avuto l’opportunità di incontrare moltissimi colleghi e amici, sia della MVP Organization che dei vari Product Team (da Forefront a Exchange a SQL a Vista). Ciò che è davvero stimolante è il fatto di condividere la stessa passione: tutti conoscono le Communities, tutti vogliono fare qualcosa per migliorare il Programma, tutti accomunati dalla stessa passione.
Avrò ancora qualche giorno da spendere, cercando di incastrare i vari appuntamenti: meno male che ho la macchina visto che faccio spesso avanti – indietro tra Sammamish e il main Campus (non vi dico la sera quando sono atterrato che casino col cambio automatico
).
Tra le mie varie escursioni (non troppe, per la verità
), mi sono innamorato di un posticino carinissimo chiamato Edmonds.

Classica cittadina americana dove tutti si conoscono e dove, ovviamente, il senso civico e la gentilezza sono parte integrante di queste piccole comunità (un negoziante di abbigliamento che chiama 4 ristoranti per vedere se avevano ancora posti liberi per questa sera, una signora che ci lascia il parcheggio libero poichè dove avevamo parcheggiato non si poteva, etc…).
Detto questo, non mi resta che andare a farmi un “Medium Latte” da Starbucks, pensando già adesso al MVP Global Summit quando torneremo qui in massa ![]()
Sunset on Elliott Bay
Su questo shortcut di Live Maps si vede parte della Baia, dove abito e pure il traffico in tempo reale: utile prima di uscire di casa !
W.A.S.P.
Sono seduto in un tavolino dell’aereoporto di Londra (Eathrow) e mi è venuto in mente un post…mangiando le patatine!
Il titolo è provocatorio: WASP, in passato (e immagino ancora oggi in uso) sta a significare “White Anglo Saxon Protestant”. Insomma, se non rientravi in questi canoni (quindi ci metto dentro le persone di colore, gli Italiani, gli Irlandesi emigranti a causa della grande fame, etc etc) eri praticamente un tagliato fuori (se non peggio..).
Ma questo post non vuole essere provocatorio ma, al contrario, esaltare una “virtù” o più che altro un modo di approcciare la vita comunitaria degli anglosassoni: cercare di comprendere un atteggiamento loro avvezzo che si presenta molto spesso e che è sicuramente da ammirare.
Mi ricollego a questo punto a questa piccola, seppur carina, esperienza di vita vissuta: sono qui bello tranquillo che mi mangio questo sacchetto di patatine bevendo una birra in attesa del volo per Singapore e, quasi per caso, mi metto a leggere quanto scritto sulla confezione.
L’immagine l’ho voluta lasciare a grandezza naturale così , cliccandoci sopra, potete leggere anche voi quanto scritto sul retro della confezione. Oltre a spiegare i motivi per cui le sue patatine sono le migliori di tutta la Gran Bretagna (tipico degli Inglesi !), scrive, alla fine della sua descrizione dettagliata che quasi ti fa venir voglia di comprartene subito un altro pacchetto, “Please let me know what you think” Firmato: Will.
Non pago di ciò, alla fine mette su tutti i riferimenti, dall’indirizzo dell’Azienda al sito web all’indirizzo di posta (second me lui avrebbe messo perfino il suo indirizzo di casa, si sa mai
). E conclude con: “If you have any comments, we would LOVE to hear from you”.
Lo so che per quelli di voi che viaggiano tanto è cosa normale, ma per tutti gli altri, secondo me, è quasi una cosa assurda! Ve lo immaginate, faccio un esempio assolutamente a caso, l’Amministratore Delegato delle Patatine Pai che scrive sui pacchetti il suo indirizzo email e che sarebbe super-felice di sentire cosa ne pensano i consumatori delle sue famosissime patatine? Bah, mi suona un tantino strano..
Sta di fatto che gli anglo-sassoni (e ci metto dentro tutti: dagli USA agli Australiani, dai Canadesi ai Neozelandesi, etc) in queste cose, parlo di SERVIZI e di cura del CLIENTE, sono un palmo sopra di noi. E queste piccole manifestazioni le trovate anche quando andate in qualche hotel dove vi martellano con Survey su Survey o quando scrivete a top gurus come Scott Guthrie, Clemens Vasters od altri, perchè ci tengono davvero al cliente, alla comunicazione, e, nell’esempio che ho fatto, agli utenti finali. Forse un 20% sarà anche marketing puro, ma credo il resto sia voglia di migliorarsi sempre, di confrontarsi, e poi di essere gentile. Solo a Seattle mi è capitato, nello stesso giorno, di essere salutato per strada 3 volte nello stesso giorno per strada da perfetti sconosciuti… E, ovviamente, noi italiani viviamo la realtà americana (anglosassone in genere) in modo molto distaccata mentre l’intera comunità del Commenwealth si sente molto unita. Totalmente diverso da quello che succede in Italia: quando vediamo noi Walter Zenga all’aereoporto (mi è capitato stamattina) puntiamo il dito, lo segnaliamo ad alta voce, corriamo a farci fare una fotografia (ma perchè mi ci metto in mezzo???!!!
) e così le “star” diventano ancora più star. Mentre qui non è così (a parte rari casi), no davvero..
Detto questo, ora ESIGO dal Sig. Tyrrell (ormai diventato l’amico Will
) una fornitura mensile delle sue mitiche patatine all’aceto !!! ![]()




























