André in motion

First photo impression from Las Vegas

I have already uploaded some photo's to give you a first impression of my first day in Las Vegas. I thought that I have seen everything, but this is a "grazy" city. I really have enjoined my first day in this city of casino's and gambling. It's great.

www.flickr.com More of Andre le Fevre's photos tagged with Vegas

I am leaving now for San Francisco and Las Vegas

It's Wednedday the 23th of January 2008, 9.10pm, and I am sitting in the Crown Lounge at Schiphol airport. I am waiting for boarding my flight to San Francisco. My plane will leave at 11.10pm, and I really hope that there will be no delay.

I will be in San Francisco from Wednesday the 23th up to Friday the 25th of Janaury to participate in the GlobalEnglish new hires training. I am really honoured that I can do my part for this training.

On Saturday the 26th of January I will leave San Francisco, and fly to las Vegas, because we will have our 2008 Sales Meeting (Year Start) over there. The official meeting will start on Monday evening the 28th of january, so that offers me the opportunity to do some sight seeing in Las Vegas. I have never been there before, so I am very curious. I am staying in the Mirage Hotel for two nights and after that I will leave to the Red Rock Hotel where we will have our meeting. The meeting will be from Monday the 28th of January up to Thursday the 31st of January.

I will fly back form Las Vegas to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to Amsterdam on the 1st of February, and arrive in Amsterdam on Saturday the 2nd of February.

I have my photo camera with me and will take some pictures during the coming days. I will put them on my weblog after I am back in the Netherlands. That will be in the week of the 4th of February. I am really looking forward to the coming days and I am excited about all that will happen.

You will hear soon from me.

Gerrit, our tame crow!

It’s true! We have our own tame crow. His name is Gerrit and for the last two months he is a part of the family. Every morning when we open our kitchen door Gerrit flies in, sits on the top of the kitchen door and starts shouting (it’s a sneezing sound) for food (bread). After a few pieces of bread he leaves and sometimes he comes back at the same day, later in the afternoon, but most of the time he waits till the next day. I have put two video’s on my weblog to show you that it is really true.

 

Iceland: A nice experience!

Iceland. Cold and a lot of rain, but a very nice experience. A beautiful country with very nice and friendly people. I have never been to Iceland before, but on the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th of June I had to be there because of three very interesting appointments for GlobalEnglish. GlobalEnglish, the best company in the world, offering a real professional solution for Business Communication Skills in English (disclaimer: I am working as a Global Account Executive for GlobalEnglish).

All my appointments were squeezed in one day, the 6^th of June. I had to arrive the day before to be on time and therefore I had some (little) time to go to the Blue lagoon (A by an old and dead volcano heated and terrible like rotten eggs smelling lake) . Everybody who I know told me to do that. Going to Iceland and not visiting to Blue Lagoon is almost a crime. It was really very relaxing to take a swim and I enjoined it very much. I have made some nice pictures while I was there.

I stayed in the Keflavik hotel in Keflavik. It was a nice hotel with a good Chinese food restaurant. I stayed there for two nights and I really liked the food.

The 6^th of June was the day of my appointments in Reykjavik and the outcome is very promising. There is already one company out of the three that will go for a Pilot with GlobalEnglish, and I am sure that one out of the two remaining will follow this year.

I have also uploaded some photo’s from the hotel, the airport (Keflavik International Airport) and my journey on Iceland.

www.flickr.com

Technorati Tags: GlobalEnglish, Iceland, Reykjavik, Keflavik, Keflavik hotel, Blue Lagoon

Conference: "HR in a Difficult Environment" on May, 16 2007 in Moscow

I have been in Moscow on the 15^th and 16^th of May. I was an attendee at a HR conference with the title: “HR in a Difficult Environment”. It was organized by the AEB (Association of European Business). The location of the event was the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel in Moscow. Wow, what an impressive hotel and that in a former “communistic” country. Unbelievable what a luxury I found there.

The conference itself was on the 16^th, but I arrived at the 15^th and had some time to spend in Moscow (I have never been there before). And of course I have been visiting the Red Square and the Kremlin. I have to say that I was impressed by the beauty of this city (from what I was able to see of course) and the friendliness of the people living here. I have taken some pictures to give a little bit of an impression.

One thing is true. Moscow is a very expensive city. More than other cities I have been visiting. I will not mention prices (that’s so frustrating), but what I can say is, don’t go there without a full wallet!

On the 16^th I was at the conference. I have met a lot of interesting contacts. Contacts that can be of interest to GlobalEnglish (disclaimer: I am working as a Global Account Executive for GlobalEnglish). Not only contacts for myself, but also for some of my colleagues. Yes it’s true. Business Communication Skills in English are very important in Moscow (in all of Russia), because more and more Western European and USA based companies open offices in Moscow (and other cities). And in all those companies English is the standard tool for communication. So there is a lot of potential for GlobalEnglish. There were about 240 attendees at the conference and they were all from Western European or USA companies. So a lot of work to do!

I have add some photo’s from the conference as well.

 

www.flickr.com

Technorati Tags: GlobalEnglish, Moscow, Baltschug Kempinski Hotel

Francois Bourachoit as GlobalEnglish Rookie of the year 2006.

Francois had to leave the GlobalEnglish Company Wide meeting in Bodega Bay (CA) on Thursday the 2^nd of August. So he could not be present at the Awards Night Diner and missed the opportunity to collect his reward as “Rookie of the year 2006”.

The A team had a very informal meeting on Thursday afternoon, just after the Wine Blending event and Mahesh then told Francois about his “Rookie” award.

Because Francois had to leave but wanted to say some nice words to all of us, I have made a short movie of this.

 

Technorati Tags: GlobalEnglish

GlobalEnglish Company Wide meeting 2007

The GlobalEnglish Company Wide meeting 2007 was held at the Inn at the Tides in Bodega Bay (CA) from 30 July to 3 August. It has been a great and inspirational meeting to me. It was the first time for me, because I just joined this amazing family in January of this year.

GlobalEnglish is not just a company. It’s really a family! A family with mixed cultures and wonderful people. I am very proud to be a part of it and of having met all my colleagues from all over the world.

I have made some photo’s and uploaded them so that everyone can see something of this special meeting. Please feel free to comment on this if you want to.

My special thanks goes to Deepak Desai, our CEO, and to Mahesh Ram, Tom Kahl, Antonio Pastor, Joe Minutoli, and Inga Pedersen as our management team. You have all done a wonderful job. I am impressed!

www.flickr.com

Technorati Tags: GlobalEnglish

Automonteur

Gisteren, 14 juni, was Najib Amhali (cabaretier)

te gast bij Robert ten Brink in het programma klasgenoten. Een aangenaam programma vol met leuke verhalen.

Er zat wel één heel bijzonder verhaal tussen. Dit verhaal had betrekking op de toekomstdromen die zij toen als klasgenoten in 1984 (basisschool in Krommenie) hadden. Wat wilden zij later worden en wat is het uiteindelijk geworden? Er was één klasgenoot van Najib die vertelde dat hij altijd had gedacht dat Najib automonteur in een blauw overal zou worden, maar dat het gelukkig toch nog goed gekomen is met hem.

Wow! Daar zeg je toch heel wat.

Ik denk niet dat deze klasgenoot zich bij deze uitspraak heeft gerealiseerd dat automonteurs hiermee in een toch wel heel negatief daglicht worden geplaatst. Wat is er mis met het beroep automonteur? Ik ben maar wat blij met deze mannen en vrouwen die er voor zorgen dat mijn auto veilig is en blijft om er in te rijden.

Ik denk ook niet dat er enig (bewust) kwaad achter zijn uitspraak zat, en ik moet eerlijk bekennen dat ik mezelf ook wel eens heb betrapt op dit soort uitspraken. Ik leer er dus alleen maar van.

Wees altijd (zeg ik nu tegen mezelf) voorzichtig met wat je zegt en hoe je iets zegt. Voor dat je het beseft heb je een ander (onbedoeld) gekwetst. Het is zo gebeurd.

Herkenbaar?

Waar ben ik allemaal mee bezig?

Ik was wel even blij met het afgelopen lange weekend. Even geen werk. Even op adem komen. Dat zeg ik trouwens niet, omdat ik niet met plezier zou werken. Integendeel. Ik heb het reuze naar mijn zin bij GlobalEnglish. Het is echter wel heel erg arbeidsintensief. Gelukkig wel, zeg ik daar dan gelijk bij. Ik moet alleen oppassen dat ik mezelf niet voorbij loop en begraven wordt onder allerlei organisatorische elementen.

Er staan zoveel afspraken op stapel. Veel belovende afspraken, dat wel! Ik zit binnenkort in Moskou, Oslo, Frankfurt, Reykjavik, Luxemburg, Brussel, Billund en oh ja en dan ook nog Amsterdam en Arnhem. Dat betekent alle vluchten boeken, de hotels boeken en alle andere zaken regelen die daarbij komen kijken. Vooral het regelen voor een visum voor Rusland heeft veel voeten in de aarde. Veel papierwerk en dan maar afwachten of alles op tijd in orde komt. Maar ik vertrouw erop dat alles netjes op zijn pootjes terecht komt.

Ja, het gaat dus goed met de "Business Communication Skills in English"! Ik merk aan alles dat er een enorme behoefte aan is. Nu nog wel even scoren (verkopen), maar ook daar heb ik alle vertrouwen in.

Ik heb het dus druk, maar daarbij reuze naar mijn zin. Ik heb een mooi beroep als Global Account Executive - Europe bij GlobalEnglish. Dat is een feit!

Oh, oh, waar blijf je nou?

Het is niet dat ik niet wil, maar het is gewoon een kwestie van tijd vrij maken, er gewoon voor gaan zitten. Ik beloof het (mezelf), er komt heel snel een posting aan.