On February 23 Microsoft invited me to an industry event at Sushi Samba, which is located on the 39th floor of the Heron Tower in London.
I have never given a standing presentation right next to a floor to ceiling window with the clouds closer to me than the ground!
The event was nice, as it was the venue. Thank you for inviting me, Microsoft.
Walking towards my London Shoreditch office
to meet the Swiss investor and his impeccable suit,
leaving the City bankers’s coffee-holding fast pace behind,
I notice the absence nobody seems to
Where did he go?
His sleeping sack and pillow still on the sidewalk
as annoyingly positioned in the corner as always
But he’s gone
.
I wonder and I worry
his failing body, almost as absent as his lost gaze
Yesterday I was invited to attend the official launch of the Mayor’s International Programme at City Hall, London, where I met some of London`s top entrepreneurs, mentors, and the Mayor (who gave a short speech using 007 as a reference).
One of my companies (Kanteron Systems) has been selected as one of the 35 companies forming the initial cohort.
The programme will support high growth businesses from London’s Technology, Life Sciences and Urban sectors to expand their businesses internationally.
Yesterday we went to see a couple exhibitions at Somerset House, in London.
The first exhibition we saw was “TINTIN: Hergé`s Masterpiece”. Basic but obviously appealing, it was too crowded to be enjoyable.
The second one was “Big Bang Data”.
While undoubtedly interesting, especially for someone who works in, teaches, and loves bid data and technology like myself, to me the most interesting aspect of this exhibition is that everyone who was there had already experienced the subject.
On December 4 I was lucky enough to be invited to visit Ai Weiwei`s exhibition at the Royal Academy.
I knew I would enjoy it since Ai Weiwei is one of my favourite artists. I knew even my son, my wife and my mother-in-law would enjoy it, since Ai Weiweis art is highly figurative and symbolic, even to the point of being obvious with his latest works (which makes its appeal that more far-reaching if slightly less elitist).
December 2 I went to the Tate Modern with the whole family, since my mother-in-law was visiting from overseas.
I really like how it is set up according to concepts, rather than chronologically, by artists, or by styles. It feels more like an art gallery (which it is) than a museum. It puts things into the subjective focus of the curator. I wonder how much the artists themselves would agree with the collection parameters, but it definitely is a welcome departure from the more traditional museum logic.
In the past few days I have had quite a few “interesting” meetings.
On November 26 I was invited to the Pre-Christmas Reception at HSBC corporate offices, along with other business owners/entrepreneurs: a weird mix of industries and interests (which I find a complete waste of business networking time). But one thing was completely homogeneous: wherever you looked, there were men. Middle aged, white, balding, dark suit-wearing men. Just like me.
