Jeffrey MannDoing events in Sydney mean long flights for analysts who live in Europe, but it is worth it. Not to take anything away from Orlando and Cannes, but the smaller Symposium events in Cape Town and Sydney are my favourites. The smaller scale makes them more intimate, so that it is easier to make contact with delegates and vendors. It actually is possible to bump into people, or look for them with a chance of finding them at the receptions. I have given up on that a long time ago at the bigger events. I have not been able to go to Tokyo Symposium, but I expect it also has this advantage.
The issues attendees are dealing with are pretty similar to what I hear in the rest of the world, with a few Australian accents. Getting users to understand and use the facilities offered by social software remains a challenge, but the immense distances and isolation of many offices in Australia affects adoption.
I spoke with many government clients, and this was always a factor, both positive and negative. Distance makes usage of social software more urgent so that isolated users or constituents can participate fully in community activities, but also makes it more difficult to deploy, with face to face training often impossible, spotty bandwidth, and skepticism towards technology solutions.
The most intriguing thing about the visit was the coffee. I love drinking coffee in Australia, whether it is the supposed coffee capital in Melbourne or the cafes in Sydney. I watched carefully to try and discern the differences between a cappucino, a latte and the uniquely antipodean Flat White. The first one was clearly the most different, with lots of froth and a sprinkle of chocolate usually. Lattes and flat whites are pretty similar though. The former have a bit more milk and froth, but for many baristas the main difference seems to be that the milk for lattes is poured through the jug spout, and over the edge for a flat white. Either way, I had to limit myself to three in the morning to not get overly caffeined.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Ian Bertram December 2, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Being Australian myself and being a flat white drinker during the day (mornings are double espresso’s) the difference is simple. Latte’s have more foam on top than the flatwhite. In many cases, lattes are served in a glass while flat whites are in a coffee cup…Flat Whites are also generally stronger than a flat white….
If you go to all things on the web Wikipedia – it actually spells this out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_preparation
2 Jeffrey Mann December 3, 2009 at 5:17 am
Rather than read about the differences (that would be too easy), I think i will continue my field studies — every chance I get.
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