MIC...KEY something something MOUSE

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Orlando, Florida for a work conference. It was absolutely incredible. They flew about 3,000 Partners, Directors and Managers from all over the US (and a number of other countries) to Orlando for three days of intensive training. It was very well delivered, and we learnt a lot from it. The venue was incredible. We took over two hotels, which looked as though we actually owned them. There were big banners out the front, the lobbies were in stunning corporate theme, even down to the room keys which were presented in a holder that was specially themed and printed for the conference.

The conference venue was incredible. It was like a normal office. Obviously with so many senior staff there, the conference wasn't going to stop work for a week, so they provided complete work facilities, including LAN broadband connections, printers, on-site support for technology, office supplies and everything. It was so amazingly well done that you couldn't help feeling incredibly proud to be part of the event and the firm.


For dinner on the Wednesday night, we had an off-site function, so we went to Universal Studios. It was oppressively hot, so having more than one or two beers was not going to happen, and the hot food didn't go down too well either. Fortunately, work paid for our admission into the park, so we went through searching for all of the water rides. Luckily, there were no queues so we cycled through the rides and managed to get completed soaked every time. It was nice and refreshing.


What I found most amazing was the number of people that I knew from other offices. I've only been here 10 months, but already I know an amazing number of people from the different jobs I've been working on. Particularly seeing them in the one place at the one time made it clear that I've certainly established some good networks and friends throughout the US in the time we've been here.

Once that was over, Alicia and Kyan flew down for a few days. There was only one reason they came down, and that was to see Walt Disney World. Over the three days we were there, we went to Magic Kingdom, Disney MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom was very much like Disneyland in Hong Kong, and similar to the one in Paris. It was a lot of fun, but we felt like we'd already been there before. On
the Saturday, we went to Disney MGM Studios, which was great. It had a lot of the things that Kyan liked, including Little Einsteins, Jo Jo and some of the other characters from Playhouse Disney. At all of the parks, Kyan loved seeing the characters, almost as much as Alicia did.

It was certainly the best day of the three, although the heat and humidity were killers. Orlando's the same distance from the equator as Brisbane, so it certainly felt like being back home for summer. It made us remember part of the reason why we left in the first place! Every afternoon at 3 o'clock on the dot, we received a thunderstorm for about 30 minutes, then it went away. It was very much like the
storms we used to get in Brisbane, and made the afternoon cooler, if not a little muggier.

On the Sunday, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was very different to the other Disney parks we've been to, having an animal theme (believe it or not). I don't know the history of the place, but it seemed a lot newer and was certainly better laid out than the other parks. The weather was just as hot as on the other days, but there was a lot more shade and water sprays around which kept us going.

That night, we have flights back to New York. Unfortunately, these were on different airlines, and Alicia and Kyan had a connection in DC. There were a
million reasons why that wouldn't have worked, but we actually landed at La Guardia airport about 4 minutes apart. It couldn't have worked out better. We got home very late and very tired, but it was a great weekend, and certainly worthwhile; even if the weather was so hot. We've done Disneyland in Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo, and Disney Sea in Tokyo, each time without children. We could certainly get more done and have more fun for ourselves. A word of advice - Disneyland is not for kids. Leave them at home!

The funniest thing about the whole weekend is that I keep having to leave Kyan at home to fly off to work somewhere. This time was the same, except Alicia and Kyan came to meet me. Kyan probably thinks I work with Mickey Mouse now that he's seen me at 'work'. Some days, I think the same too!