31 Mar 09 Impressions of Houston, TX
Last week, I took a business trip to Houston, TX through work. It was my first major business trip (if you don’t count the 30-minute drive I once too from Morris to Benson to review some designs for Morris Commercial Printing).
Houston was different. I read online that it had no specific zoning laws, and the city felt like it was kinda thrown together, with people building whereever there was land. As a result, its size was huge–urban sprawl was unbelievable. It seemed massive compared to Minneapolis. It also had an interesting rhythm of neighborhoods–mall, then an oil refinery, then a drainage ditch, then a residential development. It didn’t seem to happen in any specific order.
The business meeting went very well. I was well-prepared, but felt like I needed to improve my own facilitation and recap capabilities. Since a lot of the technical discussion was way over my head, it was hard to keep track of everything. Thankfully, I was with two senior developers and a managing director who was once a senior developer. As a result the team was fairly well-set to discuss things with the client and it went well.
The food was amazing. I had barbecue chicken pizza the night we got there, and then the night after I had chicken carbon with jumbo shrimp and butter (fresh from the Gulf, I’ll warrant). Overall, the trip was a success. I didn’t take a single picture, unfortunately.
12 Mar 09 Houston, TX
I’ll be taking my first ever business trip to Houston, TX for March 25-27th. This will be something completely new for me: this will be the furthest south I’ve been in the Western Hemisphere, and my first visit to Texas. I’ll be so close to the Sea again!
I’m going down there to have a meeting with a client and discuss a project with them. I’ll be taking point and doing a lot of the presenting to the client, and I am already practicing and trying to become an expert in the next couple weeks.
Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get a chance to explore the nightlife a bit while I’m down there!
Tags: business trip, houston, Texas, traveling, travels
