Boot Camp North, Part Deux
August 2000
Copyright 2000 by Foster D. Coburn III
When last I was seen in Ottawa,
the "Spring" temperatures I was promised
just didn't pan out. Four of the fives days during my stay were covered
in snow. Being a desert dweller, I can't say that I take too kindly
to that icky white stuff. So I made sure that the next Boot Camp
was held in August. It's just got to be warm then, eh?
Getting Prepared
So there I was on Monday afternoon packing my suitcase. It was somewhere
around 112 degrees outside (that's around 45 degrees Celsius) and I was
trying to decide what to pack for Ottawa. I made the decision to not
pack any kind of coat, but I did throw in some long sleeves just in
case. And being summer, I just had to include some shorts.
The bad thing about flying from the West coast to the Northeast is that
you have to leave really early in the morning. So there I was pulling
out of my driveway at 5:30am when I usually don't even get up until 8.
Upon arriving at the airport, I did get a pleasant surprise. I fly a
lot and so I got upgraded to First Class. Maybe this trip won't be so
bad after all.
Oops, I spoke too soon. I boarded the plane and started to get used to
the seat where I would be planted for the next six hours. Out of the
cockpit came the pilot to greet his passengers for the day. Unfortunately
he was the bearer of bad news. Air traffic controllers had delayed our
departure for at least three hours because of delays in Newark. So back
off the plane I went grumbling about how long a day it was going to be.
And as soon as I was back in the gate area, the pilot came out and
informed us that the delay was lifted and that we could reboard.
Luckily there were no other surprises on the flight to Newark and we
got there right on time. Off the plane I went running through the
airport to the commuter gates. My flight to Ottawa was slightly
delayed but only by a few minutes. We boarded the small commuter
jet (no First Class in sight here) and all seemed well. After a
short taxi we were told that something wasn't quite right and
that we were returning to the gate.
Turns out we had a big mechanical problem. So they put us back
on a bus to the gate area. We were told to stay in the gate area
as they didn't know when they would call us back to the plane.
All of the passengers paid attention except one rogue family,
the Mortimers. It wasn't a very long wait before they called us
again. We all boarded, except for the Mortimers, and the plane
door was closed. Just when it seemed time to leave, here comes
a van with my newest enemies. They all had bags in hand from
various fast food establishments. It seems that the Mortimers
left the gate area to feed themselves and further delay our
flight. This wasn't the worst thing they would do to my trip!
We landed in Ottawa about two and a half hours late. Most of
the delay was due to our sick plane, but some of it thanks
to the family from the Bahamas. Since I was now in another
country, I had to go through Immigration and Customs. If you remember
the last trip,
this was quite the hassle. But this time I came armed with a
letter from Corel that they had hired me as a Management
Consultant. Gotta do what NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
allows you to do, training is a big no-no. It took about 20
minutes to get my work permit secured and I was off to baggage claim.
As I was the last passenger to get to baggage claim, my luggage
was easy to find. On one side of the carousel was my big bag
full of Boot Camp materials. And on the opposite side was what
looked to be my duffel bag full of clothes. It looked exactly
like my bag, but a closer look at the nametag showed it was the
bag of my buddy, Mr. Mortimer. Guess somebody didn't check the
nametag on my bag. The laminated business card and the large
Priority Handling label just wasn't obvious enough to the luggage thief.
Off I went to the airline complaint desk to report my stolen
luggage. We filled out the forms and I was off through Customs
with my lone bag. Geez, would have been nice if they would try
and match the baggage tags with my claim tickets. That would have
prevented Mr. Mortimer from stealing my clothes. So the next
time you're in an airport and the security personnel want to check
your claim tickets, remember this story.
Finally I'm out of Customs and Tom is impatiently waiting to
take me home. As we start the drive back to his house, he drops
a big bomb. "Did you hear that
Mike Cowpland resigned today?"
Wow! It seems that every time I'm in Ottawa something big
happens. I was there the day they bought WordPerfect, again on
the day they bought the MetaCreations products and now when their
only CEO steps down. This news will certainly make for an
interesting week and I guess our tour of Corel will have to
skip a visit to his office.
We hadn't been at Tom's house long when the airline called. Maybe
they'd found my bag, I thought. Think again. In their haste to
fill out my claim ticket, they had accidentally given me some
extra paperwork. I had the gasoline bill and the weight & balance
report for the return flight to Newark. And they needed it before
they could proceed! So it wasn't long before a messenger arrived to pick it up.
Off to bed I go. For me it's only 8pm at night because of the time
change. So it takes a while before I can convince my body to sleep.
Yet I know that I have to sleep soon as Tom's kids will be up much
earlier than I would like. After a few chapters of
Hannibal
I was out like a light.
Our Wednesday agenda was fairly light. Most important was harassing
the airlines to find my clothes! After my first call, we headed off
on some errands. Those of you who read about the first Boot Camp will
recall that Tom sounded like a seal by the third day and so we
decided to rent a PA system to make it easier on our voices. We chose a place
called Wall Sound & Lighting
based on some recommendations. It seems that they are the company that
handles many of the larger productions that come through Ottawa.
While Tom was handling our order, I was looking at the many
autographed photos on the wall. Note to self, send picture to Wall Sound!
There were quite a few performers that I had never heard of before.
I found out that was because they were Canadian groups. One name
stuck out--Kim Mitchell. Who's that you say? I had just downloaded
one of his songs from the early 80s--Go for a Soda--using
Napster
only a few days earlier.
Next stop, the Corel Learning Center to set up all of our new audio
toys. Took us about five minutes to set it up and another ten to figure
out that I'd plugged a couple of things in the wrong place. After a
brief sound check, we were all set for lunch. This also gave me a
chance to read the
local newspaper's take
on Cowpland's resignation.
Last stop, the grocery store. We had to pick up a few things for
dinner. And I had to go to the bank next door to get some local
currency. You'd think that the grocery store would be pretty much
the same. But I found quite a few differences. Milk comes in bags.
Now I don't drink a lot of milk, but I'd not seen it in bags
before. All the packages are in both English and French. This
certainly makes them more interesting to read. But one of the
biggest surprises was looking through the snack isle and seeing
that Oreo cookies were made by Mr. Christie. A good friend of
mine works for Nabisco and will be quite surprised to learn this.
Once we got home, it was time for another call to the airlines.
Each time I called, I got a different person and had to explain
the whole story again. And each time they claimed none of the
information was in their computer. Supposedly Mr. Mortimer
hadn't even noticed that he had my bag yet.
After dinner, we decided to go to the park and ended up at one
along the Ottawa River. Even with Tom's borrowed sweatshirt,
it was pretty darned cold. How those windsurfers could stand
being in the wind and water was beyond me. And I wasn't the
only one who found it cold so it was a pretty quick stop at the park.
OK, time to call the airlines again. Now they are telling me
that they have found my bag in Newark and that it never made
it to Ottawa. Great, when do I get it? Not yet. So off to
WalMart
I go to get some essentials for the next day. After luggage is
lost for 24 hours, you get a whopping $25 shopping spree on
the airlines. Strangely I knew this, but the airline employees
had to ask around to find out the limit.
We got back to Tom's house just in time for
Survivor.
I was a bit surprised to find it on
Canadian television,
but relieved that I wasn't going to miss the next to last show.
I figured for sure that this would be the episode when Richard
got the boot, though it was Sean whose torch was extinguished.
The big morning had arrived. Time for the Boot Camp to get underway.
Picked up the supply of doughnuts from
Tim Horton's.
I remembered not to ask for fancy this time after making that
mistake at the first Boot Camp. If you haven't heard of Tim Horton's
before, it is because most of their 1700 locations are in Canada.
At present they have 100 locations in the US.
Joanne Wells, Director of Professional Services, opened the Boot
Camp with a brief welcoming keynote to our attendees and she also
addressed the big changes at Corel in the past few days. Her take
on the ascension of Derek Burney to Interim CEO and President was
extremely positive. Tanya Lesage, Training Partner Program Manager,
also gave a brief welcome. This Boot Camp certainly wouldn't have
happened without all of Tanya's work and so we offer her a huge thank you!
Attendees came from all over Canada and the US with the farthest
being from San Diego and France. We also had a few of Corel's
Product Specialists and a Technical Support representative to
keep us on our toes.
Day one progressed without any big surprises. The instructors
taught and the students absorbed. We had scheduled some hands-on
time at the end of the time though the students were ready to
leave as soon as we finished. One of the students had been very
frustrated to find out the course was hands-off (even though we
clearly state that in our materials), but by the end of the day
she found our method to be much superior to hands-on training.
By far the best news of the day was that a suitcase with my
name on it had arrived at Tom's house.
Yes, it was my bag and nothing was missing. But wait, there is
something else in here that isn't mine. A t-shirt and the label
reads "Made in Canada". Strange since the airline claims the
bag never left Newark. My take is that Mr. Mortimer did have
the bag and the airlines are covering up for his stupidity
in not checking the name tags. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Thursday night Tom and I decided that we needed a little exercise.
So if was off to the gym. He swam a few laps and I spent my
time pedaling a stationary bike. We both lifted weights for
a while and then decided to shoot a few hoops. Let's just say
that it was an exercise in futility. Neither of us are very
good and it took quite a while before we could sink a shot.
Guess that's why we are software gurus!
Friday is the big day of Boot Camp North as we get a tour of
the main Corel headquarters. So after a couple of hours learning
PHOTO-PAINT, we all piled into cars and drove five minutes over
to 1600 Carling Ave. I had spent part of the morning trying to
convince Tony Severenuk, Product Manager for CorelDRAW, to give
the class a demo of CorelDRAW 10. Yes, they're working on it.
According to published reports it is due to ship sometime in
November. I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you.
Guess that means you'll just have to wait longer to hear more.
Tony was pretty excited to show it off, but the marketing folks
just wouldn't let it happen. Seems they want the first public
showing to be at the Seybold trade show in early September. Bummer.
I was part of the second group on the tour. We all started on
the third floor. This is where the developers live. We were
explicitly told to keep our hands away from the cubicles and
not to feed the programmers. As we wandered through the cubicles
we found that many of them were away at lunch. People who were
looking closely noticed quite a few posters on the wall promoting
CorelDRAW 10. They later found out that those posters were
actually images of the box. We got a picture of one, but strangely
it came out rather blurry. Maybe it's cause the lawyers would be
really upset if it weren't blurry.
I'm going to point out one developer in particular, Alex Vakulenko.
He is a scripting guru. You might know him from his popular Web
site, Oberon, or from the many scripts that you find included with
CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. I found him hard at work in his
cubicle and drug him out long enough to get a quick picture.
We all escaped the third floor without harm and headed back to
the first floor for tours of Corel's Web developers and the
"toy room". Over the years, CorelDRAW has gotten an ill-deserved
bad reputation from service bureaus. So you might find it very
interesting that Corel has their own in-house service bureau that
outputs film for all their manuals, advertising and other printed
materials. And of course all of this artwork is created in Corel
products. Included in their arsenal of "toys" are four imagesetters
including "Elvis", the massive Agfa Avantra 44. There are also
machines for creating both Agfa Proof and 3M Matchprints. So if
your service bureau blames CorelDRAW, they just aren't facing reality.
After the tour, we all ended up in the meeting room for a talk from
Tony Severenuk and Rick Fortin. Considering that the marketing folks
had put duct tape on their mouths, they did a great job of answering
our questions...as long as we didn't ask about CorelDRAW 10. They
did unveil the poster of the Draw 10 box for those on the other tour
who didn't sneak a peek.
Well we had a lot of fun on the tour, but it was time to head back
to the classroom for more training on PHOTO-PAINT. While Tom was
teaching, I was milling around at an empty desk. As I wanted to
check in on Tiger's progress in the PGA Championship, I used the
Macintosh G3 on the desk to get on the 'Net. I had no problem
using the Mac, but I've got to say that those new hockey puck
shaped mice are not a step in the right direction. Normally I
don't use any mice, but that one was just plain uncomfortable.
After class was over, Tom and I hurried back to his place. We
planned on taking a sightseeing tour of Ottawa before the class
met for dinner. Our tour went by the Supreme Court and then
we drove right up to the front steps of Parliament. Oh no,
the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) didn't seem too
happy about that. Seems Tom was going the wrong way on a
one-way street. So we turned the bug around and headed back
out in the correct direction.
Tom pointed out the US Embassy. Oops, that was the old one.
Then a ways down the road we saw the new one. It had a lot
more security than the Canadian Parliament. Further down
the road we went in search of Michael Cowpland's house.
Since he wasn't in the office, we thought we'd pay him a
visit at home. I had heard rumors of his $14 million home
with the gold plated windows. When it was first built in
the exclusive Rockcliff area of Ottawa, the neighbors
weren't too happy. As we pulled up, it was pretty obvious
which house was Chez Cowpland. To say that it sticks out
would be an understatement.
The original plan was to just take a picture of the front
of the house. But we noticed there were three other gentlemen
running around in the driveway taking pictures of the
Lamborghini, Porsche and Bentley. So we decided to get a
picture of the cars as well. Tom just couldn't stop there.
So he rang the doorbell and spoke with Mike's wife,
Marlen,
on the intercom. While Mike would recognize our names (we hope),
Marlen had no idea who we were. Mike wasn't due for another
hour so I patiently sat on the front porch and waited for his return.
While I would have waited longer, our Boot Campers would have
wondered what happened. So we reluctantly got back in the
car and head off to Tucker's Marketplace. I gotta admit this
didn't sound like the best place when I first heard about it.
A buffet dinner? I get enough of those in Las Vegas! But this
is by far one of the best buffets I've ever had. The selection
is incredible and the quality is great. And since I was footing
the bill, the price wasn't so bad either.
Saturday morning brought our last day of class. But a funny thing
happened on the way to the doughnut shop. I told you that I
found things to be more different than expected at the grocery
store. The sign we saw along the side of the road was even more
surprising. I can only guess the demand for this particular
product is much higher in Canada than in the US. And it was so
popular that they had already sold out the next day and were
offering Pepsi instead.
We started class that morning talking about Printing and Color
Management. They are certainly important topics, but not always
terribly exciting. So we took a quick break between sessions to
get a picture of the two students and myself who all lost their
luggage on the way to Ottawa. Hmmm, of 12 people who flew to
Ottawa, 3 lost their luggage. I'm beginning to see a pattern
here. Yes, everyone did eventually get their bag back.
Before we finished the class, we all gathered for a group shot.
If you notice a few extra smiles, those are the folks who won
one of the fabulous door prizes that were given away. We had a
copy of CorelDRAW 9, Corel KnockOut 1.5, Corel PHOTO-PAINT
Digital Camera Edition, a Corel computer bag and a Corel balloon.
At the end of the day, several of the students took CorelDRAW
certification exams. Tom and I spent the time packing our laptops
and the massive sound system we rented. After getting everything
loaded in the car, we said goodbye to the students and headed out.
The story could end there, but Tom's kids wanted to play hockey
after dinner. Hockey, doesn't that require ice? Suffice it to say
that it isn't something we do much of in Phoenix. But this was
road hockey with a tennis ball. Kinda hard to whack a tennis ball
when it is constantly bouncing. So this American wasn't very good at it.
Now we can bring an end to the story. There were no surprises on
the way home, in fact my plane was a few minutes early. I will
leave you with just a few of the unsolicited comments from the
Boot Camp attendees. Their comments make it all worthwhile.
The seminar was excellently presented and organized. I learned a lot from it
and will surely recommend the seminar to my other colleagues.
Well done...Outstanding!
Clear, concise, open to questions, lots of info and tips!
Very well taught! Easy to follow and teachers were very knowledgeable and
funny at times.
The class was really great and super helpful. Tom & Foster--you guys were
both very entertaining and very knowledgeable. Also very approachable...My
biggest problem is going to be how to look busy since stuff will only take
half as long now.
This Boot Camp was excellent training - there were many tips and tricks I
would not have found in 200 years!
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