Profitable Lies

Today was the say that we had to leave "Planet Imagine Cup" and return to real life. Many thanks to Microsoft for setting up and running this amazing competition.

We got to the airport at just the right time. Found the just the right queue for just the right flight. And were told that the plane was just full. Apparently Air France use this novel technique where they sell more tickets than there are seats on the plane, on the rather strange theory that there are people out there who would spend one and a half thousand pounds on a journey and then not turn up to take it.

The charming lady at the desk told us that this would mean that either:

1. We would have to travel on a different plane and arrive later (bad)
2. We would travel on the same plane, but in business class (very good)

At the time of telling, the story sounded like a good deal. All we had to do was not make a fuss and return in forty minutes to find out which of the two options were ours. So we went off in search of breakfast and returned all hopeful to find out if it was smoked salmon and posh seats all the way back.

It was not. It was a different flight and later arrivals. By now of course it was impossible to change things, but we were offered some cash compensation and a chance to use the business lounge while we waited for our later plane.

I had the feeling that we had just been "handled" and that the mythical business class upgrade was exactly that. Never mind though, there was still the comfy chairs and free WIFI at the airport to look forward to, to say nothing of the wodge of euros that would soon be ours. Except they wouldn't let us into the lounge...

After a bit of a fight, we got in, connected to the WIFI, had a free drink and a bun and waited for our flight. We were considerably cheered when one of the VIP judges turned out to be on our flight too. If it's OK for him, it's fine for us.

We ended up using Air Korea, who provided excellent customer service and the best range of on-flight entertainment I've ever seen on a plane (even though I watched "Wild Hoggs", which I now know is a move best avoided). And I had leg room.

We got in precisely ten minutes later than our original flight and two of us managed to get our compensation euros as well (although because of another piece of daftness from "La Premiere Airline Francais" one of our party missed out on the cash).

Then it was a mad dash across town to miss the next train back. I finally got into the house at 11:15 after 25 hours traveling. I think I'll sleep tonight..

Seoul Shopping

I feel rather bad about this. Rather than attend the World Fair part of the Imagine Cup awards I instead snuck out and took a trip round Seoul. I'd checked that I wouldn't be needed for anything, and it is rather unlikely that I will get to this wonderful city again in a long while, so it was into a taxi and off to the shopping district.

Taxis in Seoul are ace. They are very inexpensive and very efficient. Some of their drivers can speak English too, which is nice. And they have air conditioning, which is all important.

So, all we had was two bits of paper. One had the name of the shopping district written on it, and the other had the name of the hotel written on it. Both of them contained the only Korean language that we had on us. But at no point did this seem a problem. The sun was out, the people were friendly, and away we went. Of course I had both cameras, and of course I took loads of pictures. Most of them will be up on Flickr later, for now here are a few choice snaps.

We found this little market square area. This is the layout of the stalls.

Then we found ourselves in a video game arcade. This was tucked away in a side street. Even so there were plenty of machines.

Single player

This guy was seriously good

Draw your picture, take a call. That's multi-skilled...

The old and the new

Side street

After spending a few hours happily wandering around and steadily accumulating bits and bobs we found another taxi, gave the driver the other piece of paper and headed back to the hotel. I've got some pictures of the trip, which will appear later.

By the time we got back it was pretty dark, but the air was clear and so it was time to take some night views.

The view from the 11th floor

...and another.

Seoul is wonderful. If you get the chance to go, just go. And take me along too...

Update on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 08:48AM by Rob

I've been thinking about this post. I'm wondering if it makes me seem more brave/stupid than I actually am. We did go off without much backup, but we had made sure that people back at the hotel knew where we were going and when we were due back. We also made sure that all the taxis that we took were proper ones, stayed in sight of each other and never strayed too far off the main streets.  My impression is that Seoul is no more dangerous than any big city, but that is not a reason for taking undue chances.

..and the winners are....

Thailand, Korea and then Jamaica. Wonderful stuff. And Ireland (who were also splendid) were amongst the winners of a special BT award that will help them take their idea even further. The top six teams of the Software Development Challenge all produced entries with genuine "wow" and the standard has been excellent. You can find out more here.

This morning I got to wander round and chat with the entries. I saw quite a few that had been presenting to my group of judges, and lots of other ones which I'd not seen before. There are some very clever people out there. Everyone I talked to was very keen to come back again next year and was asking out ways that they can make their presentations better. I'm going to have a trawl through the comments that I noted down and put out some general points in a later post.

The Power of W

I'd never heard of W hotels before I came to Korea. I have now. This place is amazing. I could (and probably will) devote an entire post to my room. I've no idea how I managed to merit such lavish accommodation, but since it will probably never happen again, I'm making the most of it.

On the way to breakfast you pass this "wooden video wall". A camera in the middle grabs a video frame which is then used to orient thousands of little wooden blocks to show the picture. It does work, and the blocks make a super trickling noise as people walk past and the picture changes. I want to build one.

This is the view from the hotel restaurant. I suspect it looks even better by night. Say hello to Dennis and Nannette.

These are made of logs which have been sliced and fitted together to make art. Amazing.

Sometimes it feels like you've strayed onto the set of a sixties spy movie.

The lift has these amazing hanging lights. They are red when you are going down....

...and green when you are going up.

I'm sure I could get tired of living here. Maybe in 100 years.

Imagine Cup Top Six Rock the House

Today was the day that the top six contestants in the Imagine Cup Software Development Challenge got to strut their stuff in front of hundreds of students, a bunch of VIP judges and press from all around the world.

And by gum they were good. I was very pleased that a few of the teams that I thought were excellent had made it through to the final. Frankly, I wish they could all get first prize.

Rogerio gets things going

They guy in front of me was certainly on message.....

All the top teams at the end of the auditorium.

Very well done people. Your lives just changed a little bit....