One Week to Go!!

This time next week I will just be getting on the plane to Hong Kong and then Istanbul where I will be spending two days before flying to Yekaterinburg.

The most direct route to Yekaterinburg for me was via Istanbul which is such a bonus as it gives me the opportunity to visit the places I did not get to see when I was there last year like Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, the Spice Markets, the Grand Bazzar.  I hope the demonstrations/riots in Istanbul don’t escalate …. although I am sure I will be OK as I will be spending most of my time in the old city and I think most of the trouble is around Taksim Square.   I am also going to have a couple of days in Istanbul on the way back and have booked on a one day (8.30 a.m. – midnight tour) that takes you to the real Istanbul (off the tourist track) and am going to catch up with Seda who was our in country CSC contact for Turkey.  She is having a son in late June so by the time I get back to Istanbul she should be a proud Mum to her new little boy!

We found out about our projects on Thursday.  I will be working with Kuldeep from India putting together a marketing strategy to attract IT Professionals to Yekaterinburg as a way to change the area’s economic structure.  We will meet with the client (Ural IT-Cluster)  this week to get to know each other and hopefully we will also find out a bit more about the scope of the project.  If anyone has worked on a talent/marketing strategy designed to attract professionals to specific locations it would be great if you could share any information with me that can be used in the public domain.