After a relaxing long Easter weekend, on Wednesday I was back on the train to Zurich airport.
This trip is primarily for events we’re holding in Boston and San Francisco, but we decided to insert a stop in Los Angeles between the two, to catch up with a number of people there and and to visit venues for the LA28 Olympic Games.
But first, I had to get to the E gates at Zurich airport. Not that this was particularly arduous, I just happened to snap a photo on the train that goes there.
I’ve recently been granted frequent flyer status by Swiss (this is not a badge of pride for me, but it does come in handy when checking bags or getting a snack before flying) so for once I spent some time in the lounge at the E gates.
It seems that whenever I travel with the family, someone has the dreaded “SSSS” on their boarding card, and so has to get the enhanced security check. This time - as I was traveling alone - it was my turn. Luckily it was quickly done, but after that I ended up hanging around the gate for boarding.
The plane wasn’t huge, so I managed to be sat in an aisle seat next to a window seat. The window seat was occupied by a young lady who was coughing a lot, so I’m hoping I'll get through the next week without falling sick myself.
The flight was uneventful and I was very quickly through immigration upon arrival. I even had to wait a few minutes for my checked luggage (I really dislike checking luggage, but this was sadly unavoidable given the length of this trip and the variety of clothing I’ll need on it).
I'm staying at the Homewood Suites just along Drydock Avenue from the our Boston office. Here's the morning view from the 12th floor.
I headed into the office bright and early, as I was attending a session of the Neuroscience and Design class from 8am to 1pm. (It's from 2pm to 7pm in Europe, so it fitted in very well with this week's timezone!)
Parts of the office are very similar to my last visit in 2016.
Other parts are radically different, and for the better.One feature I was very impressed with was the fridge that was chock-full of Greek yoghurt. Yum.
Looking out across Drydock Avenue we had the treat of seeing a huge container ship being worked on.
I haven’t given regular updates on my Neuroscience and Design class - I’m learning a great deal, I’m happy to say - and the second of this week’s lectures was delivered by Suchi Reddy from New York. She’ll be at our event in Boston, which was a really interesting bit of synchronicity!
After the class was over, I headed for lunch with Dagmara, Jacky and Jon. Jon is based in Boston, so it was great to have the chance to hang out together.
Right afterwards we Lyfted across to Chandler Street, to the offices of MASS Design.
MASS Design is an Autodesk Foundation partner and a good friend of Autodesk Research, so it was great to get a tour of the office and talk about our common interests.
Our first night’s dinner was at Legal Seafoods, a Boston institution. And, most importantly, there’s one really close to the hotel.
That was it for Thursday… our big day in Boston is Friday, where we’ll be hosting our first event. I’ll explain more about what we’re trying to do with them next week.
