Paris - Presentations and Pavements

2005-06-08

Just on the Eurostar on the way back from presenting at an IBM event, on Project Portfolio Management. It would be very dangerous for anyone to pretend that “portfolio management”, “programme management” or other such topics are somehow new – rather, what we are seeing is that the tools are starting to support the concepts in a more comprehensive way than they have in the past. The hard bit, as Lawrence Webb would say, remains in the human layer.

Today, I’ve mostly spent coming home – making my way to the Gare du Nord via various cafés, stopping for espresso and email before moving on. I walked through the Marais and to my favourite corner of Paris, the Place des Vosges, which somehow maintains its sun-dappled serenity despite the noise of scooters in the background. The meaning of mobility to me is to be able to keep up with the job (white collar in my case) from a Parisian street, as easily as from an office desk. We’re still a long way from that but perhaps that’s a good thing – imagine the chaos if everybody started taking their work to the public parks.

Reality check – three hours on the Eurostar and I’m just about caught up with my email. One can have too much accessibility.