Fun Facts
Population 1,603,797 (6th in USA)
State Pennsylvania
Notable People William Penn (1644–1718), Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Purpose: First ADEA exhibition for Virteasy Dental (https://www.virteasy.com)
Diary
Dates: 17-24 March 2022
Visa Process: Online visa – very simple 🙂
Arrival
Things got off to a rocky (who happens to be from there) start at Philadephia with issues sending the simulator through DHL, on top of ongoing COVID restrictions. I was flying direct from Morocco, so had to get a COVID test at the airport. Max four-hour delay for the results and my flight was in 4 hours. Lady luck would have to be on our side for this one.
One hour passes. Two. Three. Four. The flight is being called. I’ve been trying to get through to the COVID test company with no luck. The one time I did they said the result was available on the online platform. I got in. The button to download was greyed out. I rung again. Sorry, we’ve having some problems with the platform. “Last call for Mr Markey and Mr Huan”. It’s not looking good. The airline crew refuses to put me on without the QR code, even if the company has confirmed my result as negative. The flight leaves and I’m still on the ground. They find me another flight later on (the QR code arrives 20 minutes later) but I have to go to Montreal for a night (where I was just a few weeks ago as it happens). A Chinese guy comes running to the gate. He’s panting. He’s sweating. “I’M HEREEEE”. “Sorry sir, the flight has already left”. He lays down flat on the floor panting. I go to check if he’s alright but he can’t even talk. Inside I’m thinking I should be as emotional as this guy, but for whatever reason, that’s just not in my makeup.
Going Shopping
So, not only was it flight mayhem, but at the same time, delivery mayhem. The simulator never actually arrived as planned.
Therefore, we needed to so some shopping. A TV, a VR headset, some 24-hour marketing printing.
Turned out to be an expensive trip.
The Event
In the end the event was a relative success. Thankfully, we had some R&D haptics from our friends in Canada and the game-changing element is the VR headsets, which is exactly what we pushed on the big screen.
The People
Paco found a great games bar and each night we did a bit of snooker, some sort of disque-sliding game and the like. We met some local students, had a couple of nights out and generally enjoyed ourselves.
