A view I will be missing… 

The last week has been a strange one, separated from family and at times unsure of how long I’ve been away, I’ve been in San Francisco. Initially a sort of flying visit for Chirp it turned into a two week stay. It’s been difficult at times but wonderful on the whole and that is largely thanks to the people and organisations below who I feel I need to say thank you to. 

Firstly to Twitter. They have been amazing. I had two incredible offers of places to work this week, Twitter and Stamen. I feel so lucky and privileged. Twitter provided us with space, lunch, drinks and above all in so many ways, company and friendship. Thanks to Biz, Ev, Chloe, Isaac, Ryan, April, Taylor and Robin in particular for a great week and great conversations. You have beautiful offices. Thank you for sharing them with us all.

Secondly to Stamen. Thank you to Eric and Mike for the offer of deskspace, which due to a manic meeting load I was only able to take up on the Friday afternoon. I had a wonderful afternoon in the beautiful and creative surroundings of their new offices, which keep so much of the good feel of the first offices, but are light and airy and a space where thoughts, conversation and ideas just flow. Thanks to them also for a great lunch with Eric, Ben, Mike and Aaron and many others. Food for the body and mind.

Thanks also to friends at Google. Patrick Chanezon invited me in for lunch which then morphed into a part afternoon talking to the team about AppEngine and many other Google technologies and also talking through the morning’s announcements at f8. 

And speaking of f8, a big thanks to Sophy from Facebook who managed to get me in to see the keynote and attend at the last minute. I’d also like to thank the many other friends and firms that fitted me in to their schedules at the last minute, and sorry to those who I couldn’t fit in, I’ll be back very soon. In fact, the hotel is booked and has some of my things in store as there was no point in taking them back over the atlantic.

During the middle of the week I hit a bit of a low, and I’d like in particular to thank Kevin Marks and JP Rangaswami for inviting me to a fantastic dinner in Palo Alto where a group of very smart thinkers including Salim Ismail totally took my mind off of how much I was missing home.

I’d also love to thank the hotel where I stayed. The Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf. I was so well looked after by them and in particular Kit Wichlan their manage. Although it’s not as convenient for the Moscone as many of the hotels nearby I’m booked there for I/O as it’s just full of good people who help. 

Last but not least, Virgin Atlantic. Last year when flying Upper Class for the first time in my life Virgin delivered such awful service I nearly left them as a frequent flyer (I’ve only ever flown transatlantic once with another firm). I felt I couldn’t change and that has been rewarded. They’ve been phenomenal, from trying to fly me out through New York to get me home earlier, to rescheduling me back to the West Coast when they had availability, I can’t fault them. Their phone support has been amazing, staffed by lovely friendly helpful people who despite the very stressful conditions they were working through couldn’t have been nicer.

I also of course have to thank my lovely wife. Who has coped for much longer on her own with our two lovely boys, Tom and Sam. Thank you Bex. They’re calling the flight now, I’m coming home.