Well this is a must-add old post...One week stay in San Francisco and visits to hi-tech world's central server Silicon Valley drew was definitely our most unforgettable time during our Master. But for me, the impact of this trip was far beyond the business workshop; rather, I breathed the freedom in the air, I was amazed by its huge, fast, powerful, pervasive commercial culture, and moreover, the rooted-in entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley.
May 12th, 2007.
Our first picture after officially entering into land of The United States. Not surprisingly, we were "friendly" reminded by certain customs officer that the place where we took the photo was not for tourist sightseeing. Oops.
May 13th, 2007. San Francisco city tour. Museum of de Young, Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39.
May 14th, 2007. Cisco campus in San Jose.
We were so lucky to have a real-time video conference with its London-based management team. The audio/visual experience was so real and spontaneous. Hopefully Cisco guys will soon make huge money out of it.
Comparing with all visited companies, Cisco is my favorite. It has been in the valley quite a long time, but still maintains very nimble moves in new product development and very innovative in managing people (I am very impressive on its "open space" office layout). People in don't look as young as Google's, but they seem quite comfortable about their job. My comments for CISCO: open-minded & down-to-earth!
May 15th, 2007. Sun Microsystems.
Every visited company in Valley is so proud of themselves, well, they have reasons, but some are becoming outdated, and losing curiosity to the new guys playing around. They shouldn't.
May 16th, 2007. Google @Mountain View.
As a group formed of Tech geeks, Google is absolutely the most exciting company we've dreamed for so long time. We've done Google projects both on Corporate Strategy & HR Management; besides, my life is totally surrounded by Google, read my previous post
"Living upon Google"
Google @Mountain View is completely a university campus. To live there, you've got to be genius or nerd :p It's amazing because you can just go there and settle down, bring your laundry, walk your dog, play the basketball at 10:00am, and take free food from everywhere...but you've got to be really smart and crazy to achieve hight performance. As we are not allowed to take pictures inside, hope these outdoor glance could satisfy your curiosity for the moment.
May 16th, 2007. Hewlett Packard
HP is well known in China for its family style management, that day I also saw it from its "Digital Living Room". The idea is to enable the whole family to play together with the integrated entertainment devices, such as its touch screen tea table. I was also enticed by its new transparent "box" designed to allure professional gamers---just look at the way of those complicated crossing wires and chips and circuits, isn't it sexy? Oops, really, I don't know since when I've becoming so INTO "tech" stuff :p. Thanks to my GEEK classmates.
May 17th, 2007. EA Games.
Well if you happen to be a gamer, just name any famous title now occuring to your mind right now! No wonder, they are all from EA Games :P
The company's lobby is a place where your audio & visual senses are fully activated. It is a heaven of digital entertainment. The last picture shows all of its game titles produced. And I believe they have more.
May 17th, 2007. IDEO "Innovate through Design".
@IDEO's 5-hour innovation workshop, we experienced an intensive brainstorming & prototyping process of developing the original idea to real world product. Once again, the power of creative commons, the team work, the pressure handling...Well I'd say what I've learned from the Business School makes sense :p.
May 17th, 2007. San Francisco Dinner & clubbing.
Apart from above...
The following was my first intimate touch with my STREET SMART Mac & Apple's flagship store @San Francisco. Thanks to DivDiv to catch the sweet moment, Javier as my Mac counselor, Alex to supply the desk :p
Now as a Macintosh user, I realize that most complaints about Mac are actually from non-Mac users, because only after you use it, can you really know what is "user-friendly" and what a Personal Computer should be like :X For those wanting to know more about Mac, read my post "
15 Reasons to Get a Mac"
Some happy moments @airport, bus, Hooters...
For more "official" report about our trip, visit our program director's blog
"Our Week in San Francisco I-IV"; for "fun & non-main-stream" opinions, visit my peers' reports
"San Francisco & Silicon Valley" as well as "
Silicon Vally, not alley anymore..."
People said last Friday was the longest day, luckily I was right in downtown Madrid that night and close enough to the delightful weekend Jazz...
