Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 11:41:35 -0500
Subject: Weekend Update: November 30-December 5, 2001

Another late Weekend Update because I have been on the road for company
and customers.

We took my father-in-law out to dinner last Thursday to celebrate his
72 birthday.  He visited with us for a couple of weeks and enjoyed his
stay very much.  He likes to shop in tax-free New Hampshire across the
border and stays until he fills the back of his van with merchandise.
We all had a good time.

Faith and John arrived for a weekend visit Friday night.  I had
already packed but was mindful of my morning flight the next day,
being concerned about getting through the new airport security.
Joy and Dad C accompanied me, arriving just before 6AM for an
8 o'clock flight.  I breezed through the check points, but afterward
the line got longer and slower.  Still, 90 minutes lead time would
have been better than the two hours I allowed.

Not much happened in San Jose until mid-Sunday afternoon when a number
of other Cadence people began to arrive and set up their demonstration
areas.  My group had a table to display our advances in technical
documentation and to coax a few customers into commenting about how
well (or otherwise) they thought of our stuff.  While it may sound
boring to layman and customer alike, customers actually like seeing
how we might improve their lot, especially if they can get "back door"
support through the exchange of business cards.  Part of the value
of the conference is the schmooze-fest that makes connections.

Now the fun parts occurred in the evening.  On Monday night, Cadence
sponsored a customer appreciation night at the San Jose Tech Museum.
Customers and employees were treated to a wet bar, buffet meals,
access to the museum, live band music on several levels of the 
museum, and entrance to the Imax theater to watch the "Wild 
California" show.  This was much better than last year's Modern
Art museum.  Tuesday night was vendor night where Cadence and competitors
hawk their wares to the conference attendees.  Normally, this is like
corporate trick or treat where toys and other goodies are handed out
to entice someone to check out their products.  The pickin's were
fairly sparse, I thought, because the vendors were saving their
nicer give-aways behind their counters for people they thought 
were potential customers rather than just the run-of-the-mill
candy-grabber like me.  These people are not interested in talking
to a publications manager; they want the tech heads.  Wednesday
night was Cadence's demonstration night where we show off new
technology to further entice customers.  More toys and raffles for
bigger ticket items are on the tables. Our publications demo booth
was little different, handing out personal, battery-operated fans
to selected customers.  "We're your biggest fan," was embossed on
each fan and yes, batteries were included.

The value to me beyond the customer focus is the opportunity to meet
face-to-face with other folks at Cadence from a wide variety of
functional organizations, some of which turn out to be very important
and fruitful meetings.  This conference, more than any other in the
course of a year, provides me with that best opportunity and this
year was no exception.

I went out to dinner with my documentation compatriots each night,
making a dent in the better parts of cow meat.  We did back out of
the hotel restaurant after the prices and menu just weren't within
our graps of understanding.  On another evening, our navigator got
us lost.  We knew that were were in the wrong neighborhood when we
looked down on the lights of Silicon Valley because we wanted to
find a restaruant *in* the valley.  Eventually, we retraced our
tracks to where we should have turned right instead of left and I,
as their navigator was duly apologetic for getting our dinners in
our bellies 45 minutes late.

As I write this, I am headed home and looking forward to a little
pasta, a little rest, and companionship.

Mark

P.S. I've attached a small picture of the hard work I have
to endure at these conferences in the evening.
-- 
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ Manager, PCB Enterprise Publications