Every year I usually have several chances to meet with the Club of Amsterdam and the Waag Society (two Dutch organizations) and this time I was asked to give a speech at their event "The Future of Children." In the past, I have experienced web conferences where you can see everyone talking to you, but this was the first time I had ever participated in a meeting with so many people in Amsterdam and talked over a television broadcast viewable by countries of the EU. The session began at 7 PM their time, which is 2 AM in the morning for us...so that night at 12:30, Toshi and I were alone in the office preparing for the conference, and until the time came, we sat and drank too much coffee and ended up giving ourselves hearburn. When it was time, it was hard to imagine that I was actually on Webcam and that there were people watching me in my office, and halfway through the session I even forgot I was visible at all and scratched my back.
At the Amsterdam location, Simon came to the rescue around 4 AM when the discussion section started - I'd asked him to help since my mind was really starting to slow down with sleep.