IBM Germany Headquarters - Stuttgart

Since Laura had to go back to work in New York for a week, I tried to come up with a plan so I wouldn't be stuck in the quiet town of Kempten by myself the whole time. I already knew I was going down to Zurich for the weekend, but on Monday I came up with a new plan: drop Laura off at the Munich airport Wednesday morning, and then head up to visit Steffen again in Heidelberg so I could see some more of the city, and watch the quarterfinal game of the Euro2008 between Germany and Portugal with him. It was a very last-minute plan, but I got ahold of Steffen Tuesday morning, and he was willing to take me in, even on such short notice and in the middle of the work week. I knew I could work from anywhere with an internet connection, so as long as he didn't mind it, I'd work from his apartment on Thursday while he was in the office. Another idea I had was to stop at the IBM Germany headquarters in Stuttgart, to work Wednesday afternoon with a couple of teammates who work in that office, since it was right on the way to Heidelberg. I thought this was a good opportunity to see them and do something work-related that might look good to my boss at home.

So, that's what I did. Wednesday morning, I drove Laura the two hours to the Munich airport for her flight back to New York, and then went directly to Stuttgart, about another 2.5 hours. When I got there at around 2:30pm, I parked and went to the reception desk of building 4 to call Stephanie and Wolfgang so they could meet me. I must say, the IBM facility in Stuttgart does not have the nicest appearance. It is a bit outside the main city area, just off the A8 highway, with little public transportation to reach it. Nearly everybody drives to this office, so there was a large parking garage to leave the car, both rare for Europe. The facility itself consists of 4 buildings, each about 5 floors. They are older buildings that looked in rough shape from the outside. This might be part of the reason that they are building a new IBM facility and plan to move locations to about 30 km away (which I think is pretty far to move that many people, especially if they live close to the current office), within the next year.

After I called up to them, Stephanie and Wolfgang came down to meet me and brought me in. The first stop, as seems customary here, was in the cafeteria to grab a coffee and catch up a bit. Then Stephanie walked me up to show me the work space they had reserved for me, before we found a conference room for a 3:00pm conference call that Stephanie and I both had to attend. It was neat to join the call with all our teammates and my boss in the US, and be able to tell them, "this is Gary and Stephanie from Stuttgart."

After the call, I setup my laptop to check e-mails, etc., but mostly I talked to Stephanie and Wolfgang for awhile, catching up and telling them all about our European adventure thus far. Stephanie has a similar work function to me, except that she works in Germany with European accounts. Wolfgang is also part of the IBM International Sales Organization, but he works on the operations and data side of the team. The only time I had seen either of them in person was at our annual worldwide meeting, outside of Atlanta, each of the last two years, so it was nice to see them again and I actually learned a couple new things about the way they work in Europe, and IBM Germany in general. Stephanie normally works from home, and had just come back from vacation the day before, so it was really nice of her to come in to the office specially for me. I wasn't in the office long, but it was a nice visit. Wolfgang stayed with me until a little after 6:00pm, but that was his limit. So after they gave me some better directions to avoid traffic up to Heidelberg, we said our goodbye's and I was on my way. Heidelberg was only about an hour away, and Steffen said he'd be home from work between 7:00pm and 8:00pm, so it was good timing.