TRAVELS AND FOOD

“I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

I travelled to the Gold Coast and to Brisbane today for work. Once again it was a very full day, with hardly any spare time. An early morning flight and late evening flight back to Melbourne ensured that I was able to get everything done. However, it was quite pleasant to catch the train from Brisbane Airport and commute to the Gold Coast, about 60 km away for a morning meeting and then on the train again for my meeting in Brisbane in the afternoon. The Airport train ensured that I was bale to get to the airport quickly during peak hour traffic conditions on the road. I am a strong supporter of public transport and utilise it at every opportunity, including of course, my daily train commuting to work.

The Gold Coast meeting was extremely interesting as it involved getting together with representatives of an Australian company that have developed health science-related imaging and animation products that can be used in secondary and tertiary education, medical illustration, research and public education. The facilities at the Gold Coast are state of the art and the staff includes many talented graphic artists, computer programmers, health professionals and administrators. I have been invited to become an Advisory Board member and it was very illuminating to see the operations and meet other members of the Board, as well as the company owners.

Lunch at the Gold Coast was very enjoyable and once again I was able to acknowledge just how fortunate we are in Australia in terms of our produce. We enjoy an immense variety of fresh food products that are available year round, given the length and breadth of our island continent. We are also very lucky in having a very wide variety of international cuisines available. Often the food is better in quality and preparation than the food in the country of origin!

The lunch was provided by a natural foods café in Helensvale, which has a Japanese emphasis. It was a beautiful spread of sushi, sashimi, smoked salmon, salads, fruits, vegetarian rolls and wonderful organic, freshly baked bread. Real orange juice to sash everything down with provided jus the right tartness and cleansing touch for the palate to wash it all down with.

The afternoon meeting at work went very well also and we achieved several important outcomes. Although I believe that modern technology can do a lot to assist communication and can help people meet over long distances through teleconferencing, skyping, video-linking, face-to-face meetings are sometimes best for achieving some outcomes.

Are there any times when you feel at work that a face-to-face meeting is the only option for a meeting and teleconferencing cannot substitute effectively for it?