Who needs sleep when you have Amsterdam?
This year’s annual ESOMAR Congress took hundreds of market research professionals to Amsterdam in the middle of September. If this doesn’t sound like a recipe for mayhem, you clearly don’t know the market research industry (or you don’t know Amsterdam).
Of course, as I was traveling to Amsterdam for business and was accompanied by some colleagues, I wasn’t able to take a lot of time to explore, but I certainly did my best to make the most out of my time–like not sleeping much so I could be sure to get some play time in after work time was done. To give a better understanding of how I got to know this city during my short stay, here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:
Bicycles... everywhere!
The scenery inside an Indonesian restaurant
A little mustache party to keep things interesting
A quick snapshot of dinner at Segugio, an amazing Italian place near the city Center
Like London, I’ll need to re-visit Amsterdam in order to have a more complete understanding of the city, but my initial reactions are mixed. On the whole, Amsterdam feels disjointed, with exuberant positive energy trying to mesh with a dismal gloom that hangs over the city. There are parts of Amsterdam that were so friendly and vibrant, while other parts that seemed so very dismal – even when it wasn’t raining (which was rarely). Undoubtedly there’s a lot I didn’t get to see or do, but my run-in with one red-light alley (not the entire district), numerous canals, coffeeshops (as a spectator ONLY), and bicycles EVERYWHERE leaves me without a solid opinion.
