Russia Tour, Day 0: YVR/YYZ/ZRH/LED

Here it is: Day 0* of the upFront.eZine tour of Russia. It's hard to believe it's happening after just two months of planning, beginning when David Levin of Ledas (and of isicad) sent an email, subject line: Coming to Russia?

It came to my mind (in particular while reading your reports about Bricsys and Graebert) that probably it would be interesting and useful in many aspects if you could visit Russia to meet several interesting actors of the local CAD/PLM market. For instance, it's likely your reports about ASCON, TopSystems (TFlex) and maybe activity of world CAD leaders in Russia (for instance, Autodesk-Russia is extremely active) would be valuable both for Western and Russian readers. If you find this in principle reasonable, we can try discussing more details. 

Heh: there was just one answer I could give Mr Levin: 

I would love to visit Russia, and to meet with software companies there. Russian software companies are held in high esteem by us in "the West," but little is known about them. I look forward to seeing what we can arrange -- perhaps for September?

So, precisely two months and 137 emails later, here I am at Vancouver International Airport, at the start of 11,825-kilometer worth of flights that go though Toronto and Zurich to arrive at St Petersburg Sunday afternoon at 2:15pm (1:15am, Pacific time).

In one of his last emails before my departure, Mr Levin reminded me that in Moscow MCAD can have a meaning different from "mechanical CAD":

Note that "MCAD", when pronounced in Russian -- especially in Moscow -- has a strong association with a popular abbreviation for "Moscow Circle Automobile Doroga", where Doroga means Road and which is for a highway around Moscow. No problems, just FYI. 

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*) This is Day 0, because I arrive in Russia tomorrow, Day 1.

Comments

[Mikhail]

I'm native Russian and the first cool impression about trip USA-Russia - flight from USA to Russia is about 24 hours, but from Russia to USA - about 8 hours. Cool, isn't it? Because you leave USA "today" and arrive to Russia "tomorrow", but on the way back - all is "today".

Time zone's game. Of cause you are about 9 hours on a plane both way.

[Vladimir Malukh]

Ralf,

looking forward to meet you in Moscow, 8th of September, around 10.30am in Sheraton hotel.

Have a good flight.

See you then.