2018 Resolutions

- more friendships
- more warmth from the heart
- continuing with passions for women's equality, environmentalism, and health/wellness
- staying strong and taking care of myself
- having fun
- being balanced

A Poem for 2017's Departing

After a while

After a while 
you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't always promises 
and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and and your eyes ahead with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers
And you learn that you really can endure, that you really are strong and you really do have worth and you learn and you learn 
with every good-bye you learn.

Author: Veronica A. Shoffstall

The Dance: A Belated Christmas Present

This past weekend I went to a jazz club because a DJ I knew was scheduled to play there. I didn't make it past the first set. 

I met a person who happened to be a woman of Dutch origin. We danced for a while pulling others into our groove. Creepers stared at us, the females on the dance floor. Our intent was not to swoon each other but to have fun.

The person shared with me that she was studying to be a "house doctor". We shared frustrations about our perceptions of working women in her culture and my own including forced expectations of motherhood. 

After the person left the jazz club where the trance music blared, I heard an American accent. I approached the source, which was the voice of a person who later stated she had been living in Amsterdam 10 years after arriving from Boston. With her was Silver, a person of unknown origin. 

My energy sparked high around this ambiguous couple. I followed them by bike on an adventure to The Place Where You Dance All Night. I had been to the location before, but it was much less crowded. 

"What's your Disney Princess?" I asked the person, who happened to be female and a venture capitalist. 

"Let me think about that." she said. 

She nodded to Silver, who pulled out a tube of lip gloss for her. 

"It will come to you," I told her. "But for now I will call you Jasmine. Maybe other times I will call you Sapphire."

#amsterdam #magic

Quotes of the Week

Forrest Gump: That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of the town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on goin'. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on goin'. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on goin'.

Forrest Gump: Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was goin' somewhere, I was runnin'!

Ireckon this is a marathon, not a sprint.

12-Oct-2017: Two weeks ago, I started working with a company called IRECKONU. My office is (coincidentally) located in the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium, where I'll be standing in three days time to run my ninth marathon.

17-Oct-2017: I finished the Amsterdam Marathon with a personal record! 02:55 and some change.

My sister, Jordan Roberson, was a huge inspiration during the race. She has struggled with drug addiction for a large part of her life, but she recently celebrated two months of sobriety -- I'm so proud of her.

Being in the international crowd was also incredibly inspiring. I heard so many languages along the 42.2k route and felt proud and lucky for my status as a global citizen.

"Dorothy, we're not in Austin anymore."

Meanwhile, in my professional life, I am learning so much about the hospitality industry and the technology used within it. I have also had the pleasure of working amongst a very talented, driven leadership and software development team. The feeling is humbling and occasionally overwhelming. Cheers to crawling, walking, then running...

Life is a marathon, not a sprint!

Startup Fest Europe

The Netherlands continues to amaze me...

This March I stumbled upon the New Dutch Wave at SXSW, and now even more of the magic of this innovative country is unfolding. This week's adventures included attending New Materials for Building a Sustainable World hosted at Plant One in Rotterdam and EnergyFest hosted at the Shell Technology Centre in Amsterdam.

It's interesting to observe how corporates and government are helping connect emerging companies with investors. I heard several really good pitches at the New Energy Challenge segment of EnergyFest, which was coincidentally narrated by Josh Baer (an Austin startup scene celebrity).

I was also blown away by Eva Gladek, an American who is making waves here in Amsterdam with her firm Metabolic. Willemijn Peets was another inspiring character I had the pleasure of meeting in person; she was a former UT student who founded a company called Searious Business that helps find innovative uses for plastic waste.

Prince Constantijn van Oranje giving a keynote at new Materials.

Clear solar panel design by wellsun. 

Hydrogen car by BMW.

Peter Schwartz, business strategist at Salesforce, sharing his futurist viewpoints.

NetWORKing . . .

Amsterdam is full of networking opportunities! 

I've been using MeetUp to scout out events related to my interests and professional goals. So far I've learned that the startup scene is thriving in this city. Ford hosted a "Make it Drivable" at Merkspace, a startup hub, and I also attended a discussion on Design Thinking at Rockstart, another incubator. 

The infographic below seems like it will come in handy for sales developments:

I was also really inspired by Rockstart's Smart Energy Accelerator Demo Day and plan to keep in touch with its Program Director, Freerk Bisschop. 

Next week marks StartupFest 2017 in the Netherlands. More to come...