The Secret of Dreaminder

Everyone should use this simple and great tool: Dreaminder

My dear friend Peep has often been a source of inspiration. When I recently went to visit him he showed me The secret, an interesting documentary about the Law of Attraction: when you REALLY (deep inside yourself!) wish for something the whole world, and its elements, will conspire for you to get it. Or, as I rather see it, when you really wish for something you'll better see and grap the opportunities around you and therefore are more likely to reach your dream.

Thus, the key is to believe in your dreams...

Studies have shown those who write down their dreams (call them goals, objectives...) and, with the time passing by, keep reading (and maybe reformulating them) are much more likely to reach/fulfill them!!

We dedicate not enough time, taken as we are by all the daily activities, to understanding and formulating our dream. And when we do so, they look so unreachable that we rather put them aside than bothering on pursing them.

Peep has created this very simple, useful and fascinating tool: Dreaminder. An online system that will help you to write down your dream; you'll get a reminder as frequent as you wish (default 1 year) and you will also be able to network (in the full respect of your privacy) with people that may have similar goals.

The whole, let me say, is a not for profit initiative from Peep and Sarah. My promotion of such a tool is only driven but my believing on it!

Give it a try...

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'

It's going to be Prague!

In July I'll start working for Uniglobal Research (UGR), a company I still know little about but enough to expect already a lot: the atmosphere seems good and the team youngish and international... definitely an environment I look forward to getting involved with.

UGR is a conference company: Uniglobal Research is a leading knowledge sharing institution. We are a leader in focused, tailor-made business events; serving a wide range of industries in the financial sector. We cooperate with decision makers and senior-level executives all across the globe. Our objectives are to inform, educate, train and entertain in order to provide our clients with a high degree of satisfaction and profitability.
I hope there is no copyright over that, otherwise I'm already in troubles!!

There I'm going to be a Conference Producer, a profile I really like and I hope it will suit me.

So here I'm again: ready to cope with a new country, a new culture, a new job, a new network of friends! It doesn't matter how often you will do that, fears and hopes will always make it a challenging experience... and I'm definitely looking forward to it!!

Meantime the net helps me preparing to get to know Prague... and if you know anyone looking for a flat mate in Prague then I'm the one!

Leaving aussie land, getting home the long way and looking forward...

9 months later, rather than becoming a father, I simply decided to go back blogging!

It's a shame to go through so many great experiences with just one post and a few pictures, but people and places to remember are many and space and time not that much...

• Australia: 18 months of easy life in Down Under
• A long way home: Dubai, under construction
• A long way home: London, the triumph of love
• A long way home: Benelux, 3 countries 3
• A long way home: Malta, too close to home
• Don Augusto: home sweet family!
• And now what? Conference Producer?!

And now what? Conference Producer?!

My soul vacation is over... Soon it has been time to face a big problem: what the heck am I going to do with my life?! Where to head my career?! Those who have dealt with me in the last year, and probably more, know I?m not new in this challenge.

I spent a 3 weeks time doing a crazy thing: I applied for an MBA. Now an MBA is already a commitment, but the one I chose was one of the top in the world and implied quite some both financial and personal effort.
Eventually I?m happy I didn?t make it! I really think it would have not the best step for me: still it was a good to apply as it forced me to answer questions which required a bit of self reflection... soon after I had applied I came cross a professional profile I started to like and I'm ready to give it a serious try: the profile of Conference Producer!!

A Conference Producer works for a b2b conference company. S/he researches trends and needs of an industry in order to come up with a conference topic. Based on that, s/he develops an agenda and finds speakers among the key managers of that industry. In order to sell the conference and generate profit for the company, the producer writes and designs the conference brochure and coordinates his work with sponsorship, marketing and selling teams. On the day of the event s/he will launch the conference (and maybe Co-Chair it) and make sure everything run smoothly; Eventually the producer takes care of follow up activities like invoices, budget closing and conference feedbacks.

In short the profile of Conference Producer seems to put together a few things I discovered about myself: my need to work on a project of which I see both starting and ending point; making my degree in Business worth; working on PR and networking; putting an event agenda together; giving me some space to fulfill my "attention seeker" aspect...

I have applied to a few companies around the world and it seems something is moving... soon I hope to finalize the details of what I hope will be my next employment... But that will eventually be another post!

Don Augusto: home sweet family!

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Being back home is weird!.. for a few minutes... then, all of a sudden, you find yourself back into the reality you have always known! Interacting with my family and friends takes quickly a smooth path and seems to put between brackets all the great adventures I have gone through in 20 months away from home.

And so here I am, home sweet home.

But one of the most fascinating things of traveling around is to discover, by comparing, much more about your own place. When Rajat came to visit I had the chance to do nothing I had ever done before: traveling in Sicily! (see pictures here) And once again I found out the beauty of this land, which makes me proud and frustrates me at the same time!

Mom is doing well: she over cooks and over takes care of me... My sisters make fun of that, but some time it gets too frustrating!! A few friends eventually got graduated and some even got a nice job... some not that nice! Unfortunately, despite the happiness of meeting them, my chats with those old friends too often remind me how lucky I'm to have become a "peri lunga"... a "long feet"... a traveler!

A long way home: Malta, too close to home

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Despite its beauty, Malta came with a bad timing... not just because I got 1,5 days of rain (which is so rare there) but also because after almost 2 years away from home it's quite frustrating to be so close but not there yet. Anyway, I visited the place and definitely noticed a few similarities with Sicily: a relaxed culture and a mix of dominations have shaped these 2 great islands in the middle of the Mediterranean sea... I believe they are not to be missed and I must promote Air Malta, an airline that could let you visit both places.

A long way home: Benelux, 3 countries 3

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Amsterdam was boring!! Oh yeah... I'm not a smoker and I do like girls... But what's the point of going to Amsterdam alone when it would so much more fun to share that city with an old friend?! And so I visited this beautiful city which is much more than coffee shops and red light districts, but on the other hand I often wished I had a friend to have fun with: I must admit I would have had my share of smoke had I been with someone to go back to teenager time with.

The surprise however was Belgium, where I visited Antwerp, Bruge, Gents and Brussels and Luxemburg (of which I just visited the city). It has been a great time and was excellent to be back to some social life and with excellent companions like Eloisa, my host with whom I finally had an old promised hot chocolate, Fabian a random Swiss guy with whom was fun to share Bruge and Gents and Agata, tough as any polish girl and our party leader, and almost random meetings that once again reminded me of the great network of AIESEC.

A long way home: London, the triumph of Love

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Mighty London... finally London for me was not just going from an airport to the other.

This time I visited the city after 15 years... London was my first experienced abroad when I was 13 years old: I spoke no English and was with a big group of Italian with only a guy of my age whom therefore lived in the same family as mine and who I simply hated!! Beside that, hanging around the beautiful city brought out random memories of great places. London is a great city...

Gabriele, a school friend I had seen again only weeks earlier in his trip to Sydney, has been a great host and once again a good come back to the past. Already after high school Gabriele understood that the opportunities were to be found outside Sicily: he moved to London and now he's a quite successful sound engineer.

However what brought me to UK was the Gibbs' wedding... a small nice ceremony in a small nice town near Ipswich that simply was a triumph of Love! I loved the speeches given (the bride's dad, the witness and the groom) and the whole atmosphere and wish Vicky and Shaun all the best... as Cheryl, with whom I was glad to share this lovely day, and I wrote on the card for them: it's not what do you live for, but rather whom!!

A long way home: Dubai, under construction

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I'm sitting there... for a moment the funny thought of feeling cold runs through the smoke over my head I actually feel cold; I mean, I feel cold in Dubai!! What the heck... Or maybe it's this shisha... maybe it's because I'm not a smoker and water pipe makes me high! With an exaggerated hand movement I shove away the smog from my face and along with it any thought of coldness... I'm now able to see again the Egyptian guy talking.

We are sitting in a doggy place... it's past 11pm, we are in a parking lot on the sand... but still: there is a table, chairs, people and water pipe. I grew up so much used to diversity that it seems so normal being in a group with people coming from so many different places, carrying different backgrounds and cultures. But here in Dubai, with Egyptians, Estonians, Americans, Turkish, Lithuanians and an Italian of course, I get the chance to remind myself of such a beauty.

What we are talking about, or rather what I'm listening about is Dubai... The negative sides of Dubai! The difficult role of a woman, the impossibility of display any affection (PDA... Public Display of Affection) the drinking (non drinking!) the no sense, the inconsistency of daily life things.
I think Dubai it's a city without a present... trapped between a very culturally rich past and economically rich future.
In Dubai you'll easily find out that everything is about being the biggest, highest, fastest, XXXest of the world, and experience that here is definitely a worth experience: it's a city literally under construction! Towers, malls, villages, business districts, airport and even islands... the whole aiming to overtake in extravagance and luxury what already is in Dubai, which is not nuts!
But in Dubai you'll also find hidden slavery in the form of non integrated Asian people (above all Indians and Pakistani), social barrier are strong and foreign integration with Emirate people is not easy to witness...

The Muslim atmosphere often has to deal with the arrogance of a "superior" western culture but it's probably unable to really explain itself and the beauty of it's root. It would be amazing to find out how many people would chose to follow the Islamic doctrine if it were better understood... or we were keen to understand Islam better!

I also experienced a funny desert riding sand dune and dancing belly dance... I went to the North tip of the peninsula... I had a look at Iran and wonder how would it look like to live in Oman, where I was!

I believe my experience in Dubai has been extremely fascinating thanks to insight I got from my dear friend Peep and his own friends there... It's amazing what a better idea you get from interacting with people living there that are anything but tourist! Thanks Peep!!!

Australia: 18 months of easy life in Down Under

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I left Sydney and Australia...

I still cannot find a better expression to describe Sydney than "easy life". Australians are friendly and cheerful people, the sun shines often and opportunities are there for everyone...

But that is not what made my experience in Sydney so fascinating...

Alenka and Jerry have been going through the pains and smiles of starting with me such an adventure, working and living together... love and hate are two non contrasting feelings that you can share only with those you get closer with!

Despite the tough American culture within GE, the working environment has been simply amazing and there I found inspiring people and friends for a lifetime: managers and mentors, a great working team, soccer companions and soccer world cup rivals, runner for a never to be run competition, coffee drinkers, impossible deadlines, squash competitor, birthday cakes, reconciliations and Brooklyn must goers... Jason, Chav, Julia, Liz, Kevin, Sarah, Lisa, Vicky, Mangala, David, Alex, Barry, Ross, Cheryl and I could keep going with those that left earlier or those who just saw me leaving...

Outside the working hours I built an interesting network: those who reminded me an Incredible India, the large "Polish" gang and their Christmas and Easter large families, the AIESEC network always present... I became a bit of an actor and writer, I tried rugby, I never really stood up on the surfing board or reached the top of the rock.

With the trips of first my sister and then my father I had a great look to a wonderful land that has it all... but snow! The Sydney harbor is probably one of the best modern show the world offers, but you don't come to Australia to visit its cities but rather beaches, islands, cost lines and desert... all right, you can get snow if you really look for it!!

To make a long story short: many new friends gave me a better understanding of the world; I've shared countless laughs; some girls passed by my heart leaving again no sign but nice memories; eventually I haven't said many good-byes: I still think I will apply for Permanent Residence to Australia. If and when that would actually come truth is not given, but at the moment time is not a concern and the world has still much to offer.