Things to do before attending a technical conference
Hello all,
Back after a lonnnnnnnnnggggggg time... I am in Riva del garda, Italy now..Came here last sunday and staying here till friday. Going to Paris on saturday and returning to sweet Bangalore on sunday.
I came here for a conference on Artificial Intelligence. Wanted to tell some points which will be of useful to ppl who go for conference.
1. First and foremost. Check for the power/switch type of the country you going. I came here without knowing the switch type and had real trouble finding a adapter that works. It is really difficult to search for something without knowing the local language.
2. Check about the internet connection in your hotel. Yeah. All hotels say they have internet connection. But check explicitly whether they have broadband internet connection in all rooms. I checked in to the hotel and asked for internet connection. They said it is there in the room. They were mentioning only about the Dial up connection all the time. That too they expect you to have a dial up connection that works in Italy. :( Hence make sure that the hotel has a working broadband internet connection before making the reservation.
3. Check what are the things that are covered in your Hotel tarriff. This will help you in spending unnecessary money. Most hotels here provide u with complimentary breakfast and in some they give dinner also. Hence make sure that you know of this and utilize it to reduce the overall expenses. (That too if the company is not paying for your food. :-))
4. Try to get to the airport nearest to your destination. My travel agent booked me to Venice which is like 4 hours drive from here. There is a closer airport at 2 hours distance which obviously my travel agents system did not tell. Also, make sure that you know about your train/bus timings. I had to wait for 1-2 hours at 2-3 places. Hence make sure that you are landing in to the nearest airport and you know the route you going to take along with all the timings.
5. Check how the calling card works. The first thing you may want to do is call ur home and tell tht u r safe... Hence make sure that you buy a calling card in the airport or online..Check with someone who already lived in the country to know more about other communication.Don't rely on the Airtel calling card selling guy who tells 60 minutes calling time for anywhere to India. Though in reality, it may be much less.
6. As my friend Aravind pointed out, have a book which lists some basic question in English and local language. Though you don't have to learn it, you can point out to ppl and get it answered in directions. Yeah..Not an easy way..But I believe most of them doesn't talk English. 80% of the ppl I talked here can't speak/understand English.
7. If you are going for some presentation, make sure that you have a headstart so that you spend time looking for other things in the country and not spend time in the presentation.
8. If you have wireless router, bring it along with you so that you can connect to some common network access and share it with others.
9. Try not to reach your destination on sunday evening. This is the time where almost everything is closed and you will have difficult time to get anything you want.
10. Look for the map of the area. It will be really helpful to move around.
Hope this helps! Feel free to add things in comments that I missed.
Mani.
Back after a lonnnnnnnnnggggggg time... I am in Riva del garda, Italy now..Came here last sunday and staying here till friday. Going to Paris on saturday and returning to sweet Bangalore on sunday.
I came here for a conference on Artificial Intelligence. Wanted to tell some points which will be of useful to ppl who go for conference.
1. First and foremost. Check for the power/switch type of the country you going. I came here without knowing the switch type and had real trouble finding a adapter that works. It is really difficult to search for something without knowing the local language.
2. Check about the internet connection in your hotel. Yeah. All hotels say they have internet connection. But check explicitly whether they have broadband internet connection in all rooms. I checked in to the hotel and asked for internet connection. They said it is there in the room. They were mentioning only about the Dial up connection all the time. That too they expect you to have a dial up connection that works in Italy. :( Hence make sure that the hotel has a working broadband internet connection before making the reservation.
3. Check what are the things that are covered in your Hotel tarriff. This will help you in spending unnecessary money. Most hotels here provide u with complimentary breakfast and in some they give dinner also. Hence make sure that you know of this and utilize it to reduce the overall expenses. (That too if the company is not paying for your food. :-))
4. Try to get to the airport nearest to your destination. My travel agent booked me to Venice which is like 4 hours drive from here. There is a closer airport at 2 hours distance which obviously my travel agents system did not tell. Also, make sure that you know about your train/bus timings. I had to wait for 1-2 hours at 2-3 places. Hence make sure that you are landing in to the nearest airport and you know the route you going to take along with all the timings.
5. Check how the calling card works. The first thing you may want to do is call ur home and tell tht u r safe... Hence make sure that you buy a calling card in the airport or online..Check with someone who already lived in the country to know more about other communication.Don't rely on the Airtel calling card selling guy who tells 60 minutes calling time for anywhere to India. Though in reality, it may be much less.
6. As my friend Aravind pointed out, have a book which lists some basic question in English and local language. Though you don't have to learn it, you can point out to ppl and get it answered in directions. Yeah..Not an easy way..But I believe most of them doesn't talk English. 80% of the ppl I talked here can't speak/understand English.
7. If you are going for some presentation, make sure that you have a headstart so that you spend time looking for other things in the country and not spend time in the presentation.
8. If you have wireless router, bring it along with you so that you can connect to some common network access and share it with others.
9. Try not to reach your destination on sunday evening. This is the time where almost everything is closed and you will have difficult time to get anything you want.
10. Look for the map of the area. It will be really helpful to move around.
Hope this helps! Feel free to add things in comments that I missed.
Mani.
posted by Mani | 6:15 AM
5 Comments:
Add this to your list ...
Be sure to take your friend with you who can lagh at you and have the time of his life seeing you get into all this trouble
enada anand ipdi soltaan... i can see the troubles u had more than the fun... however its vice versa to us... the troubles u had <--> fun for us ;)
Anand,
Yeah da.. A friend is a must.. to laugh at me and for me to laugh at him.. tht too when u have no one to talk.
Aravindh,
Tht post captured only the pain points..I will quickly follow it up with my fun stuff ;-)
Things to do on returning from a conference abroad:
1. Get chocolates for friends. ( lots of 'em ).
2. Treat your friends for all the good time (??!!) you had at Paris.
3. Upload snaps and send the link.
Idhula onnaachum panniyaa daa, dubaakkuru.
Adey.. so artificial intelligence conference enna pa? I was expecting on the lines of how to prepare for the conference and you never mentioned about the conference only..
Dharma
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