The Belgium IT Security and Storage Expo was a great success!

(I am back to the USA in Portland, Oregon this week, so these posts relate to last week.)

However, that wasn't to say I didn't encounter a few challenges during my week in Belgium. The first was getting to the venue. The Belgium Expo is a large complex of buildings to the north of the city. The local IBM team suggested I go to the facility a day in advance so that I would be able to see where it was and how to get there.

I was staying in the center of town, in Place Rogier section. I had many transportation options:

1. Take a taxi. It was raining this week, so finding a taxi was difficult.
   
   
2. Take the bus. The Bus #260 goes directly from my hotel to the Belgium Expo, but only goes once an hour.
   
   
3. Take the metro. The metro operates frequently, and the Haysel stop is right in front of the Belgium Expo complex.

Upon arrival to the building complex, I was unsure of which building I needed to be in. Standing in front of the beautiful Building 5, I found this legend that provided the answer: Building 8. In front of Building 12 was a map that showed where Building 8 was located on the campus.

For this event, IBM joined forces with IBM Business Partner I.R.I.S-ICT to have a fabulous booth, with plenty of experts and equipment demos. As is often the case, the team had to work late into the night to get all the equipment set up, all the podiums and counters constructed, and the demos fully operational.

Apparently, I was not the only one to have troubles finding the place, so I did not feel alone. Some with cars drove around the complex several times before figuring out which parking lot to park in. Others parked at the first spot they found, and still ended up walking as much as I did.

For future reference, If you plan to attend any event at the Belgium Expo, either (a) ask for more explicit directions, and (b) plan to do lots of walking!

technorati tags: IBM, Belgium, Storage, Expo, I.R.I.S.-ICT