The Council Will Meet

It’s been a busy few days (why do I keep finding myself writing that)…Within EMC I have become the executive sponsor (read owner, organizer and facilitator) of what’s been labeled as a technology council. Last Thursday and Friday saw the first meeting of that group. I had planned to make things as easy as possible on myself by ensuring that the gathering took place in Pau. So far so clever. However a plane, train and automobile (taxi) strike in Paris and the South West of France made things inordinately more complicated on the Wednesday as people battled to arrive from London, Amsterdam, Munich, Rome and Stockholm. Oodles of credit have to go to that group because we managed to get everyone together only one hour after the original rendezvous for the opening dinner on the Wednesday evening. The meeting itself was a success as we covered a lot of ground and got a lot clearer on what we should and still need to do. It was most refreshing because we were essentially cut off from the connected world (i.e. no internet and therefore no emails), and because we were talking about topics that we don’t normally have the time to talk about, it really felt like we were in some sort of vacuum which enabled everyone to focus and concentrate. These days, a meeting without people multi-tasking and doing their emails at the same time as supposedly listening is most definitely something noteworthy!