OMG can Google throw a party or what?

I'm in London attending the Google product Experts summit. It is a gathering of over 600 people from around the globe who volunteer their time to provide product support for Google products. I've been in the program since Google photos was first released in 2015 and I've attended a few of these events, but this is the first one that was held outside of the US, and it is definitely the largest. Apparently it is difficult to get visas for the US, so fewer international PEs (Product Experts) are able to attend. Google picks up the tab for flying everyone here, the hotel stay, all the food, drink, and partying. The event took over the entire hotel - the Hilton London Metropole. 

PES = Product Expert Summit. They met us at the airport and drove us to the hotel.

Jim came with me and hung out during the 3 days off the event, then we're staying for the following week to explore London. We got here after an overnight flight from New Jersey. The plane landed at 6am and we were zonked. SO glad that Google arranged fort our room to be ready when we arrived rather than waiting for the l normal 3pm check in. We're went straight to bed and crashed till nearly 3.

On Monday I took the Google-provided bus tour of London, then there was the opening celebration. Food, drink, music, and performers. There were 3 party nights and each one had a theme. Monday night was a welcome to London and the performers were dressed up as beefeaters. Tuesday night was Alice in Wonderland with the red queen and her entourage strutting around and ... Off with your head! 

Wednesday night they loaded us in a bus and took us to the iconic madame Tussaud's where Google had rented the whole place for our private party. Have I said OMG yet?

Then there was the actual conference Tuesday and Wednesday. Mornings were keynotes with all 600 of us in one room and afternoons were breakout sessions devoted to individual products. 

Here was my schedule ... Conveniently printed on the back of my name badge, so I had it with me at all times and knew where to go. 

On Tuesday afternoon, my breakout sessions were at the Google campus in London. Apparently it is one of the biggest buildings in downtown London. Right across the street from kings cross train station of Harry Potter fame. They loaded us on a bus for the 20-30 minute ride and took us to a private entrance then escorted us too or breakout rooms. We didn't get to see much of the building. There was only one breakout session on my product, Google photos, so I attended some on maps, YouTube, and Google fi as well. 

Notice the headsets on the people in the audience. These are folks who don't speak English as their first language. All the presentations are in English so there are translators speaking thru the headsets. English may be the agreed-upon common language, but it was not the most common language spoken. I think Portugese was! And, then there were many more: Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Korean, Spanish, French, Italian ... You felt like you were in the United Nations. And, what an experience to get the flavor of what it's like to be an International company. Ok - so you have an amazing new product ... but when will it be available in Korean??

My favorite breakout session was for Google Fi Wireless. It was led by the Product manager for Google Fi and Google Voice, she was also tasked with managing the interface with Apple products. Her name was Siri! I was having trouble with Google Fi and Google Voice on my iPhone - so I was  in the right place! I couldn't help myself, I had to go up to her and say, "Hey Siri, can you fix my phone?"

Siri and Chris

All the presenters seemed very happy to be there and to be talking with us. I guess we are a unique audience for them. We're not customers, we're not bosses or even co-workers, but we are quite familiar with the product and we've signed non-disclosure agreements, so they don't have to be so secretive with us. We are quite expert on their products and may even make them aware of issues they don't know.  I can see where we would be a desireable audience for them.

London Bound - and arrived

Noticed the neck pillow - yep that's the warm jacket in disguise.

Finished packing. Stored everything in the van. Tried to check in online to no avail. Worried that the lack of spaces between our first and middle names would once again cause a problem (see past blog post)

Jimmy drove us to the airport - so nice.. got there at 1:30 for a6 o'clock flight. we were pleasantly surprised that checking in at the kiosk was smooth as silk, no problem with the name/space issue.

Found a work table with outlets and got some work done. Had one wine at the bar and it was time to board the plane. We had seats 3 rows apart but when a man sat next to Jim, he readily switched with me. Time to curl up for a6 hour nap. It's a7 hr flight. We get in at 6 am (1am for us) and we probably can't get into our room till 2 or 3. Hmmm

I hope to do a live from London at our 2pm Sunday show time - that will be 7pm London time. Well see.

We landed after an uneventful, perfect flight and, just as promised, there were the Google PE Summit representatives there to greet us and drive us to the hotel.

Registration for the event - there are over 600 Product Experts attending from all over the world. All on Google's dime!

Even better than the chauferred ride to the hotel was the fact that Google arranged for us to have early access to our room. We found it and instantly crashed (it was 2am eastern time.) In a bit we went down to the bar and met up with friends, then had dinner.

We found our good friend, Michael Daniels, right away

Joe Wehry has been my 'conference buddy' since 2016. He wasn't there last year, so I was thrilled to see him here.

Crabbing and Sightseeing on LBI

 Jimmy has lived on this island for most of his life, so of course, he has a boat! He's a great one for taking advantage of where he lives and one of the things to do here is .. crabbing! It was a beautiful day for a boat ride so we jumped at the offer to go out on the bay and see if we could catch some crabs.

Well, it was a beautiful day out in the bay anyway! We did catch a few, but they were all small and we put them back. The catching process is interesting; you just put a piece of fish on a hook at the end of a line, lower the line to the bottom (we were in 3-6 feet of water) and wait. Every once in a while you slowly raise the line and there may be a crab hanging on and munching on the fish. Then you need help with a net to scoop up the crab. 

We went out a second day and had more luck.

We still had a few days before leaving for London, so we decided to do some shopping, and some sightseeing. For shopping, we always check in at the Surf City 5&10. This time of year they're having their end of season closeout sale. It's always good for a tshirt or two and we love items with LBI logos. The real find though was a warm jacket - something we need for London and don't have! I was happy enough to find a warm, light, compact coat, but then I noticed the tag that showed how it stuffs into an attached collar pocket that turns it into a neck pillow for the airplane. What a find! Jim got one too. Here's a link to see it/buy it through our Amazon Store

You know the Surf City 5&10 by the lighthouse out front. A replica of the Barnegat Lighthouse at the north end of the island. And, check out these 2 photos: the one on the left is the original, the one on the right is after using Google Photos Magic Eraser - in one click - to remove all the poles and lines.

Speaking of the Barnegat Lighthouse, it was being renovated last time we were here and you couldn't see if for all the scaffolding. So, it behooves us to visit this time. It was a gorgeous day so we took the opportunity to walk all the way around and thru the bit of woods nearby as well.

We also climbed the 217 steps to get the view from the top!

"Old Barney" is at the northernmost end of the island. 18 miles to the south is the southernmost point. Jim decided we needed to see that today as well.

Looking south, toward Atlantic City, from the south end of Long Beach Island - LBI

Of course, the most beautiful sights are right from our back yard - well, Jimmy's back yard that is.

Reunion

 We made it up to LBI a week before Jim's class reunion. He had volunteered to be MC for the event, so there were some meetings to attend and a volunteer appreciation dinner at Buckalews in the south of the island.

We arrived early, so we took advantage of the location and walked a block to the ocean.

We've been visiting LBI for so many years now that many of these people are 'old friends' of mine as well! 

Jim threw himself into the role of MC. Even ordering a black shirt and a gold vest from Amazon. It was delivered to Jimmy's house and was waiting for us when we arrived. Don't you think he looks brilliant?! His school colors were black and gold.

A good time was had by all. And I met a new 'old friend' Nancy Fegley. Would you believe that she lives in Boynton Beach, just north of Fort Lauderdale. Jim has often mentioned that we should visit her sometime, but we never did. It takes traveling nearly 1500 miles to where they both went to high school in order to meet her! Maybe we will get together in Florida now?

We are frequent travelers

 When we left Chloe's Big Mill, we traveled a route we've been on before. Up to the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel, then north on the Eastern Shore.

Is it cool that we know places to go and stay all over the country? Or... is it lazy? When we left Chloes we could go inland toward Washington DC and maybe stop at Jefferson's Monticello and stay at a Harvest Host Alpaca farm - or we could go NE and over the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel and up the Eastern Shore, stay at the Pocomoke Elks Lodge where we've been before then N over the ferry to New Jersey.

Even if we did the eastern shore route we could stay at a Harvest Host Alpaca farm but it seemed like too much trouble, besides we prefer to have electric hook up we knew the Elks Lodge at it so we went the same way we've been before. The lodge was open this time and we had a drink at the bar and struck up a conversation with a couple who moved to Pocomoke from upstate New York they also turned out to be scuba divers people we had a quiet night and woke up to a parking lot full of Blackbirds

The drive to the ferry took longer than we thought seems that Google Maps took us on unnecessary back roads. But we made it just in time to drive on the ferry it was a beautiful day enjoying our houseboat for an hour.

I give it 50/50 whether it's cool that we are familiar with places all over the country, or we are lazy and don't make the effort to seek out new experiences. In any case, we enjoyed ourselves. 

After 11 days of Jim doing ALL the driving, I decided I needed to remember that I could indeed drive and I got us to our destination in LBI - driving the RV off the ferry and up the New Jersey Parkway to exit 63 and across the Causeway to Long Beach Island and the driveway of Jim's old friend Jimmy.

This will be home for a while. Not bad. We've been here many, many times over the years as we lived in our RV. It's gotta be my favorite parking spot in the whole country.