Tag Archives: local office

The attentive, regular reader might wonder – why have I been going to Saudi Arabia so often of late, when it’s hardly one of the most common tourist destinations? Indeed, I was here a year ago – in December 2024; before that in September 2023 (opening a regional office); and in 2022 I was here a full three times! And in all this is already my eighth visit here!

It’s quite simple really. Saudi Arabia is rapidly changing and developing (see those links above); you can see it in the more relaxed social rules, the number of buildings under construction, and the new airport terminals across the country. Naturally, special attention is given to the IT sector, and logically, cybersecurity is also a key focus. So for us, the Middle East is real interesting, and Saudi Arabia is of particular interest. Year after year, we’re growing here by double digits, and our Saudi business is one of the most significant slices of the company’s revenue “pie”.

So, of course, we have an office here, which I absolutely had to drop in on for an informal, friendly visit:

By the way, we already have more than 60 folks working here – mostly sales, marketing, and tech support.

Read on…

GITEX is one of the most important IT exhibitions in the world. In terms of size, it’s probably still second behind Barcelona’s MWC, but not by much (while on its website, GITEX confidently claims it’s the biggest). And considering that beyond its original event in Dubai they’ve also launched satellite exhibitions in Berlin, Singapore, and Marrakesh, with plans also for Vietnam, Kenya, Kazakhstan, and who knows where else… well, all such action seems to be turning GITEXes into the world’s main IT-exhibition places-to-be. But let’s talk just about GITEX Dubai today…

Read on…

Last week, the first ever GITEX Asia was held in Singapore – and I just had to be there…

Not that the original GITEX, which has been running since… 1980 (!) in Dubai every year, is disappearing or anything. It’s just that it’s getting all the more global – or should that be more local, given that Dubai is also in Asia. Confused? Don’t be! The more GITEXs the better is all you need to know!…

So what can I say about this newbie expo? Overall it was pretty modest: the venue wasn’t huge, and it featured only several dozen companies – a hundred tops. Not many big-name players, either. And in our field, it was basically just us:

Read on…

It was farewell to Cartagena, then 700km south and hello to… Bogotá – Colombia’s capital!

The last time I was here was in 2010, and due to a full business schedule back then there was no time left for a spot of tourism in the city. This time the schedule was just as full, but for good reason: we’ve just opened our third Latin-American office (in addition to those in Mexico City and São Paulo – taking the number of our overseas representative offices to over 30 (I’ve actually lost count!). So I was here in the Colombian capital for the official opening…

Latin America hasn’t been too seriously affected by the ongoing geopolitical storm, meaning users here have freedom of choice – freedom to choose the very best cyber-protection there is (and not have to settle for inferior alternatives as recommended by governments based on anything but quality). Accordingly, our business in the region is coming along just nicely, and we’ve got some great plans for the future here.

At present we’ve 30 employees in Colombia (sales, support, marketing), so, for now, our office is rather modest:

Read on…

After surviving the Fugu, it was time for a stroll. And since the Tokyo Imperial Palace wasn’t far from our hotel, we figured that’s where we should be heading…

Coming up – lots of photos, few words. Who needs words when you’ve got scenes like these? ->

Read on…

Hi folks!

Finally – I’ve done it: my first business trip of the year; hurray!

En route – a superb view of the Mount Damavand volcano. Oh what a beaut! ->

Our destination – Dubai. Why? To take part in the World Governments Summit 2024.

Read on…

Just back home after an important event in a country where… the strongest beer you can get is 0.0%! ->

Getting warm? (That, actually, is another clue.)

Still not guessed it?…

Will a pic of its capital’s skyline help? ->

Well?…

Read on…

Hi all!

Today, a brief interlude to my ongoing lux-adventure-tourism series – from Beijing! I was there the other week, and came over all nostalgic since I hadn’t been there since… September 2019 – nearly four years ago!…

The first thing I noticed was that the Chinese capital had freshened up: the air quality seemed much better – so much so that you can walk the streets without a respirator. And the photos taken from my hotel room (almost) showed the distant horizon! ->

In the past, the smog would get so bad that buildings just a few kilometers away couldn’t be made out. Here’s proof!

Read on: A visibly clearer, cleaner Beijing – no more stingy eyes or respirating!

My series of posts from both the Egyptian and Jordanian sides turned out to last longer than the trips themselves! As a result, there’s been a delay in my starting a new series from a different continent, which took place as far back as late November. And that continent is… South America. And the countries? Brazil and Chile!…

// Perhaps I should stop writing a sentence like the next one in my posts, as what it describes seems to go without saying for every business trip! The work portion of the trip was busy bust-a-gut intense! That is – lots of: meetings, presentations, speeches, interviews, new acquaintances, hand-shakes, and a lot more besides! Perhaps I need to also stop writing sentences like this one: After the work was all done, it was time for some rest-and-relaxation/tourism time – of both a quantity and tempo of similarly bust-a-gut intensity!… So in future, perhaps I’ll just link back to this blogpost and avoid the repetition! No – that won’t work; I’ll just try and be briefer somehow…

But before that “tourism till you drop”, a quick breather: some intro-photos and a few intro-words too…

I’ll start, logically, from the beginning: with the flight. Flying from Moscow to Brazil these days takes about as long as it does from Moscow to Australia (Sydney) – 19 hours up in the air – which is four hours longer than what it used to take. Before, for example, the first leg of the journey was Moscow to Paris (3.5 hours), and the second: Paris to Sao Paulo (+11 hours) = 15 hours. Now it’s 5 hours – to Doha – then +14 hours to Sao Paulo, which makes 19 hours.

But it is what it is. We just have to get used to living in the new geopolitical-transportational reality.

Read on…

Greetings folks!

It’s been a while, I know. My last dispatch was the one on our B-day bash mid-July! How time flies when you’re having summer fun…

The main reason I’ve been quiet of late was my month-long summer expedition to my favorite part of Russia – Kamchatka. As per tradition, I’ve plenty to tell – and show (in hi-res photos) – from that adventure, which is coming up soon in a series of travelogue-blogposts.

But, before I could even begin editing my pics and putting fingers to keyboard for the Kamchatka-2021 write-up – in fact, while still in ‘deep decompression’ mode after the month of euphoric exhilaration on the expedition – as soon as I was back home (as if to help with my decompression attempts) we were honored to be visited by a very special guest to HQ. And I mean really special. Yes, none other than former world champion chess player Anatoly Evgenyevich Karpov dropped by!

Yes – really! That Anatoly Karpov – the legendary Soviet-Russian three-times world champion, three-times FIDE champion, international grandmaster with scores of honors and awards to his name!

As already stated in the title – the red carpet was (just in case: literally:) rolled out, which we reserve for visiting ministers and other dignitaries, and, now, world-champ grandmeisters! ->

Read on…