En route to the MySQL Staff Meeting in Orlando, Florida

While some colleagues have already arrived in Orlando to meet fellow MySQLers, my plane from FRA to MCO (via DTW) does not leave until 10:20am tomorrow. Currently I am staying at my parents' place in Heidelberg, from which I will be picked up by an airport shuttle service early tomorrow morning (5:40am, ugh!).

I am looking forward to meeting with the other members of my team as well as old and new colleagues from the different departments. There seems to be some kind of outdoor team building event taking place on Wednesday afternoon - we have been split up into mixed groups and were asked to bring comfortable clothes and a light sweater or jacket. I hope I am not too jetlagged by the end of the day...

This will be my fourth MySQL staff meeting - when I joined the company in 2002, I was lucky to attend the third staff meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia right during the first week when I started my new job. Back then, we were around 40 people in total - the entire company still fitted in one coach that brought us from Helsinki, Finland to St. Petersburg. It's amazing to think that this staff meeting will host the tenfold amount of people!