These travel experiences of mine come in different flavours. However, front and centre to everything is technology. This one had the flavour of a skill test. Ok so let me back up. I took the Uber at 5 am to London St. Pancras train station. My train was at an ungodly 6:15 am. This was my first trip on the Eurostar. I was bound for Ghent, Brussels, to give a talk there. I thought I was so well packed and prepared! I had ticked off all items on my checklist! I was feeling pretty smug as I boarded the train. Little did I realize I would have to bring all faculties my small brain could conjure up, to bear. I took the laptop out to review and edit my presentation. I had saved it on my desktop and found to my dismay that I had packed my laptop without the power cable with battery pack. I had left it at home. The cable had been plugged into an extension which was behind the bicycle beside the bed. It had taken some awkward maneuvering to get the cable plugged in. In my early morning bleariness, I guess I had not bothered to unplug and pack it! So now I had to think clearly. My laptop battery would drain fast giving me no access to my presentation! Assuming the worst, that I would not have access to my desktop, I tried to email the presentation to myself. The wifi on the Eurostar kept going in and out, so I tethered my phone to access wifi on the laptop. The phone signals were weak. I was counting down to the power going off on my laptop. I had to somehow email the talk and PowerPoint or connect to VPN and save it on the server. I grew a little frantic as neither option worked. I always carry a USB, this time I did not. So saving on a USB was not an option either! I made a mental note for the next time. I texted my co- workers who had gone ahead and asked them to help me find a store that sold laptop chargers in Ghent. After all the conference was at a university. As I was nearing Ghent, my attempt to email the presentation proved successful. However, neither of my colleagues had come with their laptop for me to be able to use their cable or laptop, for that matter to do last minute edits. What a strange confluence of unhappy coincidences! I had no choice. I had to buy a new cable. I somehow knew everything would work out.
I stayed calm and enjoyed the bus ride from the train station to the hotel, where I had requested early check in! In an hour I was at the conference site. We went to the electronic store. The charger that I was looking for was unavailable. It was not available anywhere in Ghent and with the presentation the next day, there was no way I could get one online delivered to my hotel on time. But the young man at the counter appeared really smart. With words of encouragement from me about his apparent ingenuity and my trust in him to find me a solution, he appeared determined to help me out! Finally after many minutes of pondering and unpacking devices that did not work, he landed on an adapter which was wattage compatible with my laptop and with plug in provisions for USB b, c ports. He also found me a long cable to connect adapter to my laptop with the “c” head. Such serendipity, since I had not brought a compatible plug to charge my iPhone. 65 euros later, everything worked out! I thanked the young man profusely for going against store policy and opening several sealed packs to check until he landed on that adapter. I was very persuasive and he wanted to help out his “mom” age person. He broke rules to get the job done. And he sold product for his store. He had known he would if he landed on the right thing. Such acuity, empathy, flexibility and awesome customer service from an obscure corner of Belgium. He was a leader. I wondered if all kids were trained this way and got my answer the next day. After a nice Indian dinner that night, I polished up my presentation, also waking up early. The only constraint was I could not work without my laptop plugged in. The presentation was a resounding success, provoking conversations on AI and ethics. It just took one curious, bright and passionate geek to make all the difference.
The next morning on my way to Brussels, I asked a young man for train information since the electronic board was unintelligible to me. He admitted having difficulty reading the board himself and whipped out his phone, looked it up on the app and provided me the right information. He even got on the train to confirm with someone else! Long live geeky young technophobes who want to help! The world is safe in their hands in the age of AI!
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