Day 8-Back to the US of A

May 22nd-

Saturday was very busy and nerve- racking. We got to the airport to find ourselves in a very stressful situation. We were all stuck in very long lines to check in and check our bags. They opened up the service lines which are typically reserved only for checking bags after self check in.

The line took forever, especially with all of the people who just needed to check their bags who were allowed to cut the line. I finally checked in, checked my bag which again was way above the kilo limit (even after I bought a new suitcase while in Munich...at least I didn't get charged this time).

With some of us ahead in the first of many security checkpoints and a few still waiting in line to check in, a group of us got in another long line for security. We managed to get through that line faster than the other few who were in the other security line and continued through to the other check points. We weren't sure we were going to make it to our flight and we were convinced that since we had surpassed everyone else, that if anyone made the flight, we would be the only three to make it.

Luckily, we all made it onto the flight...

We landed in Charlotte an hour early, went through customs/immigration and still had a 2 1/2 hour drive home. By the time we made it home, it was 8pm (2am Munich time). I then was so wound up that I stayed up until midnight (6am Munich time) so I slept until about 1pm the next day...can't remember the last time I did that. All in all, it was a great trip and experience, even if I was jet lagged for a few days!!

Day 7- The last full day

May 21st-

Friday was our last full day in Munich. We only had one company visit. B/S/H which was another very interesting visit. Having been a designer, I am familiar with a lot of the different appliances created by B/S/H and the speakers were all very interesting to listen to in terms of their projects and processes.

After our company visit, we had a free day. We got to watch the Glockenspiel at the Marienplatz and then had a free day to go shopping in Munich for Beer Steins, souvenirs and some of the best chocolate ever!! If you ever go to Munich, be sure to visit the Elly Liedle Chocolate shop...only a few blocks from the Marienplatz. Friday night, we had our farewell dinner at the world famous Hofbrauhaus which was a lot of fun and a great end to a wonderful trip.

Then back to Park Cafe for a continuation of our last night extravaganza.

Day 6

May 20th-

Thursday was spent visiting Red Hat and then Intel. Being that Intel was the company that I did my pre- trip assignment on, I was disappointed that our speaker didn't talk more about the infotainment system that they contribute their Atom chip to. When studying and researching the Munich Open Lab of Intel, they made a large deal about the infotainment system yet at our company visit our speaker made it seem like small potatoes for them.

After our two visits of the day, we got to go on a tour of the BMW plant and watch how the cars are made. It is almost all robotic, very cool to watch. We then got to walk around and look at some of the different models...the GT, the M6....yeah I want a BMW. Haha.

The week was quickly coming to an end. Only one more full day.

Day 5

May 19th

We started off in the morning visiting IBM. While I like IBM as a company, I was a bit disappointed, as they didn't get as much into their innovation or marketing as some of the other companies. They did however, put out a nice spread for us after. :)

Our second visit of the day was by far my favorite visit of the week...IDEO. IDEO is an innovation company with 8 office locations, 5 of which are in the US, and 3 international locations including Munich. The whole atmosphere and company culture really impressed me and has actually inspired me to change my concentrations in my MBA program. I now plan to have a concentration in marketing management and (product) innovation management. The nice thing about this switch from marketing and supply chain management is that the marketing and innovation concentrations are more similar and some of the classes actually overlap. This means that I can still graduate a semester early because of the one credit class and this trip, but I can also take next summer off to travel, hopefully to Israel per Taglit Birthright (that's a whole other story).
At night we had dinner at this really good Bavarian restaurant that had amazing asparagus soup
and later went for drinks at Park Cafe where they had HUGE pina coladas for $6, good music, tiramisu shots, GOLD chairs and interesting bathroom doors.

Day 4

May 17th

Second day of company visits.

Today we visted GE Global and Cisco. Both companies were very interesting, I only wish I was a bit more awake, especially during our visit to GE in the morning. After our company visits, we toured the Allianz Arena where both of Germany's soccer teams play.

This place is huge!
It seats 69,000 people. The weird thing is that out of all countries, Germany doesn't allow it's fans to drink in the stands of the arena, only in sanctioned restaurants. I guess it gets pretty rowdy during game time.

Later, we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate Brent's birthday. The food was really good and was a much needed break after three days of Bavarian food. At the end a huge piece of tiramisu was brought out with the biggest birthday candle I have ever seen with a birthday song playing in the background.

Day 3-First day of Company Visits

May 16th

It was an early morning and it was going to be a busy day- 3 company visits.

We started at Yahoo. Really cool company visit. We talked predominantly about Flickr, Yahoo's image sharing program. It was really cool to learn about and see how it works and we each got a year long flickr account so that we can share our Munich pictures for a week. I tried asking about any plans to integrate with email marketing companies, such as...iContact for instance. I think due to a language barrier, the guy wasn't 100% sure of what I was asking about but I got shot down. However, I still think there is potential for a partnership...something to bring up to my MarCom department perhaps.

We also visited Hype which is an innovation company based in Munich where we got to see the process they go through when working on projects for clients.

The last company visit was to Brain Lab. While extremely interesting, this one was a bit hard for me as I deal with my Dad's brain tumor as a part of my daily life and I know that all of the amazing equipment and software that BrainLab creates to cure brain tumors will never be able to help my Dad at this point. Other than that it was really interesting. Brain Lab also has 7 open offices that are designed after different places around the world...Very cool.

Monday night...more drinking bier!

Day 2- Dachau

May 16th- Dachau

I woke up Sunday feeling very tired and slightly hung over (wouldn't you after a few liters of beer?) It was time to visit Dachau...I knew it was going to be sad but I had no way of knowing just how sobering it would be.

There were only four of us who braved the trip despite the after-effects of our debauchery from the night before. It was a twenty minute train ride followed by a twenty minute bus ride but the experience was well worth the trip.

The camp was a lot larger than I expected. There were three bunkers still standing, one of which was reserved for special prisoners during the war. There was also another building which served as a museum, where there were a lot of gruesome pictures and a lot to read and take in.

We also saw the memorials for different faiths and the Nazi quarters. Lastly we saw the Crematoriums and gas chambers which were the hardest to walk through.

At the end, I bought a book about Dachau. I also got a lot of great pictures of the camp which I hope to use in more Holocaust memorial art that I hope to work on in the near future.

...

Later that night we went on a walking Bier Haus tour which was really interesting...we hit a few of the main bier haus' in Bavaria and saw how the process works.

It was another late night of drinking.

Day 1- Welcome to Munchen

Saturday May 15th-

We landed in Munich about 8:30am local time, and were picked up by our guide Cristina, after grabbing our bags from baggage claim and seeing the Goat that also took the trip. I am not kidding, there was a goat that rode the plane from Charlotte to Munich. Someone really cares about their livestock.

We got to the hotel which was one of the nicest European hotels that I have stayed at...King's Business Center, (not the first class location that was located across the street from Munich's finest- Boobs table-dances).

While toughing out jet-lag, we gathered in the lobby hotel around 2:00 to go on a guided walking tour of Munich- really cool city! We then went to our welcome dinner, followed by beer pubs and many of beers later.

It was a good group and I looked forward to the rest of the week.

World Traveler

Recently I was looking at my calendar and realized that I am doing a great deal of traveling in the next couple of months. I love to travel but I just may be overdoing it this time...

• I just got back from a weekend in Connecticut to celebrate the christening of my twin cousins Ava and Jules who have grown so much in their three and 1/2 months of life. They are so beautiful and I only wish I could have spent more time with them.
• I am most likely heading to Charlotte this coming weekend to have my second extremely painful tattoo removal session. Ouch!
  
• The following weekend, I am traveling to NC State's campus for part 1 of a Saturday 1 credit course on Product Innovation and Marketing. 8 Hours...but it will lead to me graduating from my MBA a semester early!
  
• The weekend of April 16th, I am celebrating my quarter of a century birthday in the city that never sleeps...that's right, I am heading to NYC to celebrate in style and I am so psyched...New York and I have had an ongoing love affair for 25 years so it only makes sense that I would return for my birthday. A lot is already planned... Flying in early Friday morning, checking into the 5 star hotel my amazing mom found on Madison... heading to the Plaza to catch the bus for the Sex and the City Tour. Doing a little Shopping and then dinner at Buddakan where we'll meet up with my cousins coming in from CT. Saturday starts with brunch at none other than Pastis (Favorite!), shopping at Century 21, DVF, H&M and hopefully Manolo Blahnik (What can I say, I'm a shoe girl) as well as some others. We are seeing the Billy Elliot matinee on Broadway and then heading to East Vilalge to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the city Las Palapas (Best Margaritas) with Catherine and Dianne. Sunday is still to be determined before we head back but I am super excited about this trip
• The next weekend is part 2 of the 1 credit course...only 4 hours this time...Nuff said.
• One of the first two weekends in May, I am planning to go to Nashville to visit one of my best friends from college.
• May 14th- Heading to Germany- 9 hour non-stop overnight flight from Charlotte to Munich for a week of studying abroad, the different marketing programs at different companies based in Munich. Also some cultural visits and of course a lot of beer drinking as to be expected...Maybe I should visit Raleigh's Beer Festival in April to warm up.
• I come back from Germany on May 22nd, only to leave the following weekend for Long Island to celebrate my cousin Eric's wedding. I am so excited to see my cousins and some family that I haven't seen in a really long time...It's also an excuse to dress up which I always love to do and it's my first Jewish wedding.
  
• A few weeks later I head to Delaware for my sorority sister's wedding which also constitutes a road trip with my best friend from college- should be a good time.
• A few weeks after that, yet another wedding in Northern VA for a family friend's son.

I think that's it for now...phew.

Deutschland here I come

This past weekend I found out that I got accepted to go to Germany for a week-long study abroad class in Munich. Not only is this an excellent opportunity for professional development as it will allow me to study the marketing systems of companies such as Siemen's and BMW, but I also get to visit a place that I have never been. I am hoping that in between company tours I will have the chance to visit the Marienplatz, Christkindlmarkt and Hofbräuhaus (the most famous pub in the world).

Another plus of going to Germany is that after completion of the study abroad course and a 1-credit course, I will be well on my way to graduating from Grad School a semester early which is very exciting both in terms of time and my wallet!!

Now I just need to whip out Rosetta Stone and learn some German.

Have you met the traveling gnome?

Yesterday I had a great experience thanks to my MBA program. I had the opportunity to go to Fuqua's Marketing Conference at Duke University. It was an all day conference with different sessions about marketing and I feel like the knowledge I gained was invaluable. First, Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke University spoke about marketing as the Faculty Keynote Speaker. I then went to Alain Groenendaal about Experimental Marketing in a Post Digital World where experimental marketing was defined as a planned event that leaves a brand impression on a target audience. This can be achieved by the following:

1. Educating/teaching new behaviors.
2. Bringing brand promise to life
3. Generating conversation
4. Making tangible the intangible
5. Expanding the brand's meaning.

Next Yaser Bishr talked about creating a "social footprint" and creating Evangelists in your consumers.

The next session was delivered by Kimberly Long, Brand Manager of Heinz Ketchup. who talked about Heinz change to reflect new campaign "Grown, not made." In this session, she talked about expandable consumption; how to use ketchup beyond burgers, hot dogs and fries, and how to use more in a serving, get customers to buy bigger bottles of ketchup, etc. She also talked about using the classic glass bottle in advertisements (just as Coke still uses the classic glass Coke bottle for advertisement) as well as the importance of equity tracking both before and after consumers saw the new campaign(s).

The next speaker was Brad Brinegar, CEO of the Durham marketing firm, McKinney, who is responsible for Travelocity's effective marketing campaign with the Traveling gnome. Brad spoke about Connection planning for complex segmentation- to consider who the right people to reach are and what conversations you want to have with these people. "Brands are the connection between someone and something. Transactional connections say 'I'm buying what you're selling' whereas personal connections say 'I'm buying from you'."

Clint McClain talked about building a brand portfolio, specifically regarding his position at Wal-Mart and the value of discovering the type of consumer that you plan to target in your marketing strategy.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the knowledge I gained at this conference. These are just some of the valuable things I learned yesterday.

The woman who lived in her shoes

My name is Jessica and I am a shoe-a-holic...I have a lot of shoes; tall ones, short ones, flat ones, boots, flip flops...I have it all...Well at least I did until this past Sunday when they mistakenly got brought to the Municipal landfill...I had a bag of five pairs of shoes that were picked up from the shoe repair shop after some much needed recapping on the heels. They were in a brown paper bag that was then placed in a plastic bag and they were waiting patiently for me in my parent's laundry room. However, at some point this sack of shoes ended up next to the garbage can and got brought to the dump with the rest of the "holiday" garbage. Let's just say I was in for quite a surprise when I went to my parent's house to pick them up and they weren't there. I wouldn't have cared so much except that out of the five pairs, one was a really nice pair of silver peep-toe Mary Janes that have mini-diamonds on the buckles, yes diamonds. The other pair was my french pink peep-toe JIMMY CHOO mary janes that I got in sale on Rodeo Drive this past summer while shopping with Erin in Beverly Hills.

I went to Saks 5th Ave last night in hopes of replacing my mangled JIMMY CHOOs with a new pair but I honestly wasn't crazy about anything I saw and if you're going to spend mega bucks on shoes, they better be fabulous.

After a disappointing supply at Saks last night, I went on a mission today and managed to find both my Jimmy Choos and my Silver Corso Como shoes on line, on sale and in my size....I should receive both pairs by the end of the week and will definitely think twice before bringing them to the shoe repair.

On a completely different note, I went to a cycling class at my gym for the first time and I am hooked...going back tomorrow.

Fire Alarms are overrated!!

I just got back to North Carolina yesterday in time to start what will hopefully be a much better year. I was expecting to be back on Tuesday which I was counting on to get my life in order for the year of 2010 before school and work take over...

Instead, I had to say goodbye to someone very important to me, my grandfather. He passed away this past Monday and he will be missed very much but I know that he is happy to be reunited with my grandmother. The plus to extending my trip home to Connecticut was more time with my new cousins Ava and Jules who are the most adorable babies ever! Jules




Ava

Jules


I also got to spend some much needed time with my lifelong best friend Melissa who was there for me all week, taking me to the hospital, supporting me at the wake and the funeral as well. I love you girl...you are after all "family".

However, the hotel we stayed at was terrible, the room was really small, especially when shared between three people for one week, the mattress felt like a sheet of plywood, there were 4 maintenance calls for the toilet that would never flush, a day without water while a plumbing issue was worked on (day of the wake), and 3 fire alarms, one while my brother was in the shower and two in the middle of the night prior to the funeral...Needless to say I will not be staying at the Doubletree on Post Rd again any time soon. Oh yeah, the breakfast that we were comped for the all of the inconveniences was cold, yuck!

It's been an emotionally and physically exhausting week and now I only have two days to knock out an on-going and self-induced honey-do list. I have gotten a lot accomplished today but still have so much to do tomorrow before I go back to work on Monday. At least I have another week before school starts and life really gets crazy.

With the new year, I don't have resolutions necessarily but goals...

• Take things in stride...know that I can't control everything no matter how hard I try
• Stay away from Toxic people, completely remove them from my life- it's not worth the drama
• Run and Run hard- my running shoes need to come out of hibernation alas!
• Cook more, eat out less- I got 4 cookbooks for Christmakah that are waiting to be broken in
• Live, Laugh, Love