Trying to blog from Shanghai...

It's funny.. I can't see anything I post on the blog page, but through a feed on Facebook I can see my updates.. but i can't post any photos onto Facebook.. but I can use Picasa.

Using the internet from China can be a challenge, although this is a very small problem compared to last year when I was here with Mark, and he was trying to download the latest RC of version 6 from here. Since downloading a file of that size wasn't working through our network, Mark had to find alternate ways to access the latest build. Something about splitting the file onto newsgroups, etc. I still don't like to think about that, it was a stressful few days last December!

So this is Day 2 here in Shanghai, were we have spent the last 2 days visiting clients and Education partners. Personally, I was feeling a bit somber today, being 9/11 and all, and so far from home, remembering where I was that fateful day 6 years ago.

Back to present. We visited a few studios here that have set-up outsourcing pipelines, and it was interesting to hear and try and help solve a set of concerns and issues that are the same, but different. When supporting a company that provides outsourcing services, the support requirements range from strictly modeling and or animation, to full project pipelines. I met with an Art Director today that is managing over 2 dozen simultaneous projects with a team of just 130 artists. While he stated that the projects ranged from Big to Small, the fact that all those projects going on at once doesn't leave time for training and development. Speaking of Big and Small, they had the funniest conference room names.. Small 1, Small 2, Small 3.. Big 1... etc. I found this both amusing and brilliant in its simplicity.

Tomorrow is a big training day, where we bring out new material to the local market. It's going to be an intense 6 hours, with Nikki doing the training and Alex doing the translation.

I should have more blogging time as the week progresses, although Shanghai, as always, is a complete whirlwind and the days are over before I realize it!