IBM
0221 International Meetings of Biomedical
In the early days of Biomedical most of our meetings took place in Paris, where our European HQ was. This became something of a routine. Thus, late at night - carrying hand baggage only so I could get rapidly through the terminals - I would fly to Paris; to Charles de Gaulle airport. There I caught the shuttle bus into Porte Maillot, where I stayed in the hotel above the terminal. The hotel was something like 500 feet high and had superb views over Paris. On the other hand, I was so tired -- and so blasé -- that I never opened the curtains to see the views.
The following morning I would go in by the Metro, to the Arc de Triomphe which was the next stop along the line, and walk down Avenue Wagram to an ordinary IBM office where we had our meeting. The only difference from my normal day to day work was that, in the evening, we had excellent meals in the best Paris restaurants. Having said that, even these posed problems. They always started too late and I always ate too much. As a result I nearly always felt uncomfortable afterwards.
The routine changed when we had one meeting in Germany, in the Bavarian Alps above the snowline. It was at a skiing hotel, immersed in the snow. As such it was more interesting, and we enjoyed a number of additional pursuits. Thus there was a competition for shooting, in which I won second prize -- my performance had declined from Imperial College. Other than that I can only remember – about the meeting - that, in terms of politics, the nurse who had come aboard to provide technical expertise was starting to throw her weight around -- Len relied on what she thought, even though she didn't know that much.
My one really memorable experience occurred when we had a spare a few hours. I decided to go up the mountain by the nearby ski-lift. I set out, dressed only in my pullover and trousers since it was a nice day, going up the ski-lift only a few hundred feet – as I thought - to the top of the nearby hill. Unfortunately, as I started up it, it started snow. What was worse was that, as I came to the top of the hill, I realised to my horror that it the ski lift went straight of the top of the mountain; without any stops on the way. As I got finally the top, I was frozen to the marrow and barely made it back down again.
The next meeting was rather more adventurous, but actually saved money. Thus we met in Stockholm and had day-long meeting there. Then we caught the overnight boat to Helsinki. It turned out that sleeping on the boat was much cheaper than sleeping in a Stockholm hotel. In Helsinki most of the party met in the morning and then had the afternoon of sightseeing -- Pat was with me and went on this sightseeing. Unfortunately two or three of us, from the leading countries, were called to an emergency meeting and I never got to the sightseeing.
That night we went back Stockholm, again by boat. It was notable for being caught in a very strong gale, with the waves reaching eighty feet; as high as the bridge. On the other hand, as these were very large ferries -- something like 60,000 tonnes -- it wasn't actually appreciable when you were lying down. Accordingly, for once in such conditions, I didn't feel very sick. On getting off though, when I stood on dry land, I found the land swaying underneath me; as a result of spending so many hours in an unstable environment. I was amused to hear one of my colleagues explaining, to a senior IBM manager, that the reason that the whole of Stockholm was swaying was that it was built on piles. He hadn't realised that the effect was the result of our own experiences..
Each year I made a trip to the States to meet with the people in the factory and development laboratories. Latterly we went to see the ECG machine being developed in Poughkeepsie. For once management had taken a sensible decision and shut down the Mount Kisco operation, but - under threat of losing its senior engineers - it had moved ECG development not to Dayton in New Jersey but to Poughkeepsie in upstate New York. It was pleasant enough driving up there, perhaps most notable for having breakfast at the diner on Westchester County airport. It was still a traditional US diner and served the excellent food you could still could get in such places. It is a pity that they seem to have disappeared since then.
For once I stayed in central New York. Previously I had stayed out of New York and had to drive in to experience the sights New York. Even so, I had taken in all sights; from standing at the top of the World Trade Centre to driving through Harlem. But I never got a real feel of New York -- and in fact I rather hated it. This time, staying at the Hilton on the Avenue of the Americas, essentially on the edge of the Rockefeller Centre, I got a very different feel of New York. This was despite the fact that the Hilton hotel, with a thousand bedrooms, was soulless -- and someone stole my alarm clock from my bedroom. But, for once, I got some feeling for what central Manhattan was about. In particular, on the Sunday, I went to Fifth Avenue and watched the Greek Day parade. Literally thousands of the families with children paraded past in their Greek finery. I found it a very emotional sight and almost came to tears a number of times. It was then that I understood the commitment by the ethnic communities in America to their own nations.
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