Amsterdam!

Taiji in negotiations - Photo: Kaat van Wonterghem

I was in Amsterdam last week attending the 12th European ICOLC conference (International Coalition of Library Consortia). This conference was particularly exciting for me because I was asked to give a speech on “Taiji as philosophy in negotiations”. If you’ve ever read this blog before you will know that I practice Taijiquan and that this is a big part of my life. I negotiate national agreements for access to medical journals and other online resources for a living and really love that too. To be asked by my friends and colleagues in ICOLC to talk about the connection between the two was just an amazing thing!

I’ve been part of the ICOLC community for a few years now and I have the greatest respect for the knowledge and experience represented in the group. I didn’t count exactly how many nationalities there were in the room, but most European countries, Scandinavia, Japan, Turkey, Canada and USA were there.

It was great! People seemed to enjoy themselves and participated enthusiastically in the small tasks and exercises that was part of the show. Questions were insightful and to the point and I just had the time of my life! Enough about that …

I arrived Sunday morning and was welcomed by sunny and warm weather. The hotel couldn’t check me in so I just grabbed my camera and a book and went out for a walk.

Café on the water in Amsterdam

I really liked the statue of this Multatuli character, but had to look him up in Wikipedia when I got home. After snapping the picture I found a table at the café in the background and sat down with my book for a couple of hours 🙂

After that I continued my walk around town and shot a few more pictures. Amsterdam is beautiful, the people there are really friendly and this is a place I definitively want to visit again!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam