Last month we were invited for 2 important meetings that took place in 2 different countries (Germany & Belgium) and we had only 1 day to handle with this new IT business opportunities.
We decided to travel by car directly to Düsseldorf from our HQ location in Katowice on Wednesday (25th of July). We arrived smoothly in the early evening hours in the city center of Düsseldorf. Because our first meeting had been arranged for the next day (Thursday), we had some time on Wednesday night to go out and taste delicious Italian pizza (which we love). Later on, we went for a leisurely walk around Düsseldorf.
The very morning on Thursday I was woken up by my colleague who had just came back from his short run around the city. I was really impressed by his discipline to get up so early. We ate a pleasing breakfast, packed our stuff, and left our hotel room, heading for the first meeting.
For those who are about to visit Düsseldorf we suggest going round the city center when travelling by car – or trying to use the public transport, in other case you will get stuck in traffic (there are really big construction sites and road improvements).
Finally we managed to find the Client’s HQ and we joined the meeting. We must say that it was a very productive discussion, especially when considering the reason of the meeting, which was to finalize the contract agreement and define our first moves in cooperation in the software development process. The project is crucial for us when it comes to the technology background (Cloud & Security); programming languages: Java, JavaScript; development process (Scrum). Just right after the meeting we were invited for a delightful lunch (in the area close to the Rhine river, where we tried to learn a little bit more about our future business partners.
Shortly after that we left to Gent – our second meeting destination.
After a few hours of travelling we finally arrived at our Client’s HQ in Gent. We went directly to a conference room where our Client had planned to discuss with us the evaluation of a-few-weeks close cooperation. This Client signed a cooperation contract regarding software development services in the Microsoft technologies at the end of June 2012. We are currently having 6 developers full time engaged in the development process – therefore the meeting was strictly connected to the way of managing the team, communication lines and reporting. Moreover, the project engagement forecast for this, and the next year was determined. After few hours of discussing the way we would like to continue the cooperation, we were invited for a dinner.
The Client took us with his car to the oldest restaurant located in the Gent city center. We have to admit that not only the place impressed us, but the food as well.
We had a great time as during the dinner we discussed not only business cases, but also topics related to our private life, like: hobbies, holiday plans, etc. We could feel like we had known each other for a longer time.
After a very pleasant evening we went for a short walk around the city center of Gent. We stayed overnight in Gent and in the morning hours on Friday, 27th of July we left to Poland. It was one intense but also very important trip where we combined business with pleasure. In the upcoming days we will provide you with a short description of our last trip to the UK and our new IT business opportunities (which won’t be less interesting).
