Through the Interface

This week I've been in Toronto for an internal summit of our Research Engineering team. On Monday I stopped at the SWISS lounge by the E gates at Zurich airport. It was nice to hang out on the balcony overlooking the planes... they even have binoculars you can borrow!

Shortly before we left a quick rainstorm hit. As I boarded it was getting sunny again, though.

The flight was largely uneventful. On arrival I zipped through customs and immigration and took the UP Express to Union Station.

As it was a really quick trip, I'd planned on going straight out for dinner with Toronto-based ex-Autodesk friends. Tomas (who was also visiting from Bonn) and I met up for vegan Vietnamese food with Rhys, Simon and Azam. It was really nice seeing them all!

As Tomas and I walked back to the hotel, we literally stumbled on some team-mates having a drink after their own dinner. Despite the drooping eyelids we joined them for a quick one.

On Tuesday the summit kicked off in earnest. These events are really valuable for the connections that get made, the commonalities uncovered and the fresh ideas generated.

We had a team dinner at Mercatto. The family-style food was very nice, and we found out that the bar had an Italian aperitivo called Select: it's one I drank with Marco when I was in Venice for the Biennale - it's less sweet than Aperol and less bitter than Campari. It's really very refreshing!

Marco was very impressed we were able to find it outside of the Venice region.

This dinner was a really good chance to meet members of the team - who are more AI-focused - who had not been part of the summit itself.

We were mostly staying at the Chelsea Hotel, so stopped off opposite for a quick drink at the Queen and Beaver pub. It was really hot, so Charlie was very happy to have her fan.

Tomas too, for that matter.

On Wednesday I was up early with jet lag, so headed to the gym on the 27th floor to burn off some of the previous day's excesses.

Marco's team rarely get to see each other in person, so they were very happy to hang out together.

Between sessions I popped by the new Research area in the Toronto office. It's a really nice space next to our newly expanded Technology Centre.

Wednesday was the last main day of summit presentations.

Following this was a team-building: we went to a cooking studio called Dish that runs corporate events.

It was a lot of fun. We were split into four teams; I was on Team 1, responsible for the starter.

We were the only team who had to plate their own course - the Dish staff took care of plating the remaining courses, so we could enjoy our dinner.

Here's our creation, a cold soba noodle salad with purple cabbage and edamame, yuzu vinaigrette, pickled watermelon radish & crispy tofu. I was mostly responsible for crisping the tofu.

The second course was a carrot ginger miso soup with herbed carrot relish, togarashi fried wontons & chili scallion oil. This course was probably my personal favourite.

The main course was a pan-seared chicken breast with citrus soy beurre blanc, cabbage and radish slaw & sesame glazed cauliflower. Although as I don't eat meat mine here has more tofu. Which was also delicious.

For dessert we finished off a brown butter financier with yuzu curd & gochujang cookie crumb.

All in all the dinner was spectacular. It's the first time I've participated in such an event, and despite an absence of culinary talent I enjoyed it a lot.

On the way back we had one more at the Queen & Beaver….

... which had some fun goings-on in the men's toilets.

Thursday was wrap-up day, where we discussed chat we'd experienced during the summit and made plans.

I was really happy I managed to get hold of another ex-colleague, Alex, before the week was over,

Back in the office I got to catch up with Hali from the Tandem team and Mike (from our team).

It's always nice hanging out in the iconic Toronto office, I have to say.

The interns were participating in a mocktail competition - which was very inventive and fun...

... before Frederik and Bon hosted a Pride Quiz.

It was a really good week in Toronto. I learned a lot about my colleagues and their work, and even a little about myself.

The trip back was uneventful. Several of us flew out around the same time from Pearson, so could hang out for one last cold beer before heading to our respective gates.

Many thanks for Tony and Charlie for organizing and hosting the event. I'm looking forward to the next one!