My journey to Engage #engageug #dominoforever #ibmchampion

Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 8:59 PM UTC

Only 12 days left to the highly awaited European conference around Collaboration Solutions (fka IBM ICS, now HCL Collaboration Workflow Platforms) - Engage. I am planning my trip already because I don’t like surprises when I am traveling. Flights and hotel is already booked for months now but the local transportation usually is a challenge when you visit an unknown area or city. I only once was in Brussels before but I had a car to get from and to the airport and to and from a small village near Gent almost 2 years ago.

This time I will use the public transport in Brussels which seems quite good - at least they have a straight forward website and a mobile app to plan your tour.

As I am staying at the Best Western Park Hotel near the venue (Autoworld), my trip will be from Brussels-Zaventem (the airport) to the Merode station which is also close to the venue.

It doesn’t make sense to buy a train ticket now but it feels good to have the app already installed from SNCB, the Belgian train company. Please choose the „National“ flavor of the app, there is an „International“ version, too. I guess you just have to put your credit card data to it and get a e-ticket - which is fine. The website says it will cost 8,90 EUR - which isn’t expensive for a 30 minute ride and similar to tickets in Germany.

Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.hafas.android.sncbnmbs
iOS App: https://itunes.apple.com/be/app/sncb-national/id403212064

My most challenging moment will be if I have to get in touch with the local people to e.g. ask for directions or anything else. Brussels is in the French speaking area of Belgium and I don’t speak any French. But from what I experienced so far Belgian citizens are very friendly and at least try to speak English, too.

To plan your total Engage experience please also consider to install the official Engage 2019 app on your device(s). This is great for planning the sessions you want to attend. As always, this app is brought to you by the generous Paul Harrison who again did a great job and improved the app once again.

Engage 2019 for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eightdotthree.app.agendapad&hl=en
Engage 2019 for iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/engage-2019/id1459253226

Of course I recommend to checkout the session I will present on Wednesday together with Jan: De07 - The NERD stuff

I am really looking forward to see you all there again - after I skipped last year’s event on the ship. Now it’s cars - so even more to explore!







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