So work brought me to Paris & Berlin. . .: My first work mission

A week ago I was in sunny Brazil! Myself and several other colleagues headed there for work to attend the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The IGF is an annual event that brings together thousands of people who have an interest in the development of the internet. This year it was in João Pessoa, Brazil also known as the eastern most city of all the Americas. A year ago when I was in Brazil I has visited this same coast but never made it to this city in particular. While the location was beautiful, the event was not exactly my favourite.

The view from my balcony and preferred place to work

I arrived on a Saturday and several of my colleagues were already there. As this was our only free time before an intense week of work, we headed to the beach - by far the best day of the week :) And we even squeezed in a little chat about spectrum management #nerds

Cabo Branco Beach

And then the work began. The venue was a lovely 45 minutes away on a good day, over an hour on a regular one. "I'm still on the bus :(" became one of the phrases of the week. My first introduction to the IGF was an hour wait in the blazing sun to get through security and then another hour to pick up badges, followed by horrible connectivity and realizing the adapters that we brought wouldn't fit in the plugs a the convention centre - only the hotel.

Line #1

My colleague - Homard La Crevette's - solution to standing in the blazing sun

Line #2

The rest of the week consisted of sitting on panels, organizing sessions, WhatsApping each other to figure out where people where and of course, sitting on the bus!

My boss on a panel, some of you may recognize the Canadian with the beard :)

Me looking totally panicked because I found out at 10pm I was on this panel at 2pm the next day, three quarters of the speakers didn't show and it was on a different topic than I was told - awesome!