Free At Last!
Arrived a few hours ago in Cork, Ireland where Tom Raftery, his beautiful wife Pilar and his enchanting 18-day-old son Enriquez greeted Paula and me at the airport. We bonded over a late lunch and now I'm enjoying my first European blog since arriving in Europe.
That's because the Clarion, where the good folk at IT@Cork are putting me up, has free broadband. This in itself would not be such a big deal, except that we have been at the Melia White House in London since Sunday.
There, we were offered the most expensive broadband connection I have ever seen: Ten Pounds Sterling for one hour. That's about $23an hour, enough for me to abstain from my well-known blogging habit.
Instead Paula an I played tourist for every minute that we could. Adriana Cronin, who talked the good folk at Content 2.0 into letting me speak there gave us a guided tour of Oxford, where she spent "the happiest days" of her life she told us. We also enjoyed a barge ride down the Thames River to Greenwich where timeon Earth begins and ends. Next week, she will be a dinner guest at our house in California and the guest of honor at a blogging dinner Tuesday night at the Utah Hotel in San Francisco. She's in town for the BlogHer Conference. Please join us if you can.
A great deal happened in London and Content 2.0 was well attended by passionate thoughtful people. I had spent some great time with Hugh and we discussed the incredible Stormhoek story which just keeps getting better.
I'll write more next week when I get home. There's a blogger's dinner tonight. Tomorrow I speak about Web 2.blah at the IT@Cork conference. Then Paula and I will tool over to the Ring of Kerry before coming home from a hectic, whirlwind one week tour.
It's nice have spent face time with so many old blogging friends and having made so many new acquaintances. It will be nice to have connection all the time back home.
(NOTE: I changed this post to read TEN pounds, not one, which is the correct figure)
Welcome to Cork, theres not a lot to see here, so I'm glad that you'll get to tour the ring of Kerry which makes for a nice excursion.
Posted by: James Galvin | June 07, 2006 at 11:00 AM
Hi Shel, thanks so much for your input into the Content 2.0 conference - as a speaker and audience participant. And to Adriana for arranging your participation.
I'm glad you found it stimulating and were able to hook up with friends and make some new ones! Look forward to reading your further thoughts on the day...
Not sure if you're aware - but Mike Butcher blogged each session live:
http://www.content2point0.com/2006/blog
Sorry I didn't get to meet you properly - I was running around all day during the breaks. I hope we'll get to meet up the next time you're in London. Have a great time in Ireland!
Best,
Deirdre
Posted by: Deirdre Molloy | June 07, 2006 at 01:49 PM
"One Pound Sterling for one hour. That's about $23an hour."
You missed out. Depending on exchange rate, it would have been around $1.80 an hour. Still expensive but not as bad as you feared.
Posted by: davidtebbutt | June 07, 2006 at 02:03 PM
Looks like you were the star of Content 2.0. You seemed to get the most mentions on the official blog. Well done.
Posted by: davidtebbutt | June 07, 2006 at 02:20 PM
David,
Sorry you missed Content 2.0 yesterday. I looked for you. That was a typ. It was 10 pounds not one, and I will correct it in the copy.
Posted by: Shel Israel | June 07, 2006 at 04:22 PM
And I thought sixteen pounds Sterling (about US$32) for one day at the Sheraton Heathrow two yearas ago was expensive. I wonder if management ever reviews their Internet revenues as a separate line item... or just keeps asking why nobody uses their Internet service. Just switched hotels at Las Vegas eBay Live to get free high speed Internet...
Posted by: Jim Courtney | June 08, 2006 at 05:56 AM
It has been fun to be personally involved with the Stormhoek Blogger Dinner meme, Fellow blogger Alan Weinkrantz and I hosted the the first one in the US.
We did a podcast about the campaign with the folks at the dinner (lunch) ;-) I am really excited to see how this translates to ROI for Stormhoek in the US.
Posted by: Kami Huyse | June 08, 2006 at 12:07 PM
It was great to have a chance to spend some time with you and Paul while you were in London.
I am now in San Francisco on the way to Techdirt Greenhouse and speaking tomorrow at Vloggercon. The vibe is incredible here and it will be hard going back to social media sleepy UK. :-)
Posted by: Adriana Cronin-Lukas | June 10, 2006 at 09:13 AM
Good morning, I have never been have London – but I do not live so far – have Warsaw in Poland;)
I am now have Wroclaw in South - West of Poland and in suite I come back has Paris or I cross 50 % of my temples – but this is not for vacation. J my friendship Mr Shel
Posted by: Alice Buses | January 06, 2007 at 08:33 AM