Last week I had the privilege of speaking at the Netherlands Lotus User Group Conference on Contemporary Document Management.  Like last year, this conference was great.  Wow, the venue, the organization, the content with some 400 attendees.  They really run a nice conference over there.
Thanks to Marnix and the NL BPs.

Aside from my little speaking stint, I was able to get some work done over a couple of days with Silverside B.V, our Business Partner in the Netherlands and visit some customers and prospective customers.   Thanks to Roland, Effy, Robbert, Femke, Kasia, Peter and Janneke...they always make my stay enjoyable.  In driving to some customer locations, I got to see some of the countryside and was really loving it.  Thanks to Effy from Silverside for driving because coming from North America, driving in the NL makes driving in Boston seem like a cake walk!

So, this time for me the trip was a bit more special.  At DLI.tools we concentrate so much on DOCOVA development that it was nice to get out of the office, sit down and just listen to two customers and a business partner discuss DOCOVA and how they are using it.

NL is just a cool place to hang out.  It is the land of bicycles, canals and tall people.  You've got to love it when you're six foot one yet feel short.  Which brings me to what I call "The Dutch Paradox",  which is this.  I've been in hotels in Amsterdam, Gouda (yes, as in the place where the cheese comes from) and Utrecht now and frankly, they can really squish you in.  I mean, it's interesting to see things like thin bathtubs and staircases in which only one person can fit at a time...but when I...a relatively short person in the context of the Dutch population...can't turn around in the shower without hitting the soap dish...well it gets me to thinking...why do the fine yet giant people of the Netherlands put themselves through such torment?

This time too, I stayed it Utrecht in a hotel by the central train station. You've got to love the trains.  One stop and I was at the Amsterdam Arena for the conference.  One stop in another direction and I was in Gouda. Two stops away from the airport.  Awesome.

Ok, so, below are a couple of photo's from the conference and of the Netherlands.

Some of the folks from Silverside, our NL Business Partner.
From left to right; Kasia, Effy and Robbert.


This is the speakers dinner.  Held in the stadium part of the complex.


This is in Gouda.


Canals, canals...everywhere canals.  Amsterdam.