Right now there is no need to get the wrong idea about all of this as I actually enjoyed it even if the majority of people were the academic types. So of course I am talking about the Cartographic conference in Paris that I attended at the beginning of July at Port Maillot, a big shopping come conference centre that is found on the street that runs off the Arc de Triumpf. Yep it was a pretty good location to go to each day even if it was a way away from where Tara and I were staying.
So where do I start? OK lets start on the Sunday.
Tara and I got into Paris on the Saturday and went through little Dakar, so named because within one corner we were walking through the middle of a total Afro-Franco neighbourhood. Yep we were the only white folks walking the street and I reckon that Tara was the only girl that did not have her hair braided. It was a little freaky and to be totally honest a little off putting so we took a quick turn left and we were out of it as soon as we got onto it. Sometimes places just don't feel right and this was one of those places.
Anyhow we got in on the Saturday got to our hotel and had a bit of a look about in a brand new area of Paris that we had not stayed in before and settled in for the night with a bottle of wine. Nothing all that different to the norm but it had to be an early easy day as tomorrow I was heading out to the conference centre to register and of course Tara was coming along with me to make sure that I did not get lost, bless her.
Sunday came and we got out there and amidst all of the workers I got to register and pick up the all important conference bag and my pass which made me feel strangely good. This must mean that some part of me is rather nerdy but I am OK with this afterall I am starting to enter my "mature years". After picking this up we left after a photo or two and got on with the holiday. It would be my last holiday day in Paris for starting tomorrow I was "working" again and even had to iron my shits and trousers. You should have seen what this fine craftsman had to work with....a freaking travel iron and a table!! Can you believe that, but it was a job well done and one that would have been applauded in the backroom of any Perth drycleaning establishment.
OK now to the run down of the conference. I will do it all in one hit as a day by day account really is not needed especially when really the only thing that changed day to day was what I had for lunch. The conference started with the opening talks which for the most part were given in French but all of the useless English only speakers like me were given these headphones that allowed you to tune into the translators who spat out what was said in English. This was really great but inbetween you also got to hear them bitch and moan about the person giving the talk about the speed or poor grammar they were using. Note to translators....this is not required.
The speakers throughout the conference on the most part were academics who were either still at uni as a study bod or a lecturer at uni who taught stuff. Not many people giving the presentations were actually in the field of production which made be scratch my head a little but either way not much I could do about that. The fact was that a lot of the things that they were talking about were just studies into things or a method that they were using to create generalisation and the like. A lot of it was pretty interesting but some of it was a little blah. A lot of the blah came from Americans which got me thinking how many universities are there in America and maybe just maybe some of them should be closed.
It was good however to talk to a few different people in the field about things that were in the pipeline technology wise and a lot of these things are now being sent on the back of a turtle from Long Crendon to Mandurah so that we do not have to lug them about Ireland.
Another good part of the whole experience was the end of day drinks with my beautiful wife at our little bar just around the corner who seemed to have a cute barmaid for every day of the week. That was OK but the greates thing was being able to live a bit like a Parisian for a week catching the metro with all of the workers, dressed like a worker and actually getting treated better than I would have if I had a camera hung around my neck. Couple this with the little coffee bar that I frequented before the conference for my short black and it truly made the whole experience magical.
Would I do it again, yep and hopefully that can be in Dresden in August 2013. Might even be able to present if the whole 3d thing gets off the ground but that is two years away and at this moment I will just remember the experience that I just had in Paris July 2011.
