Team members: Bobby Voicu (main organizer), Raluca, Elena, Roxana, Pyuric, Sorin, Gabi, Bluarto, Olivian, Buddha, Adrian Ciubotaru, Tudor Galos, Laurentiu, Zoso.

What went right?
- Delegation by trust: Bobby VOICU asked on Twitter about some locations we could see on our road;
- Checking things better: Bobby VOICU also checked the locations we were suggested to visit with the team members;
- The transportation was fine (thanks to Mercedes-Benz), the accommodation was great (due to the other sponsors too:  Green Pixel and Microsoft), the plan for the days was beautiful;
- I have a rather unusual way of eating (healthy?), sleeping (a lot?), communicating (only on some terms); Nobody objected to my behavior;
- Lots of breaks during transportation;
- Good drivers;
- Good locations to visit;

What would I do better?
- I personally prefer things to be a bit more structured – keeping a tight schedule,
- I would have preferred to know more things about our location, plan for the days, things to take with us; Basic stuff for event organizing;
- At the end of the event we went from Oradea to Cluj-Napoca and back to Scarisoara to see a few people; There are two alternatives to this route:
a. The people could have come to Oradea on the previous days and see us;
b. We could have gone directly to Scarisoara;
- I would have preferred to have a better communication via email with the other participants to the event prior to the event itself; A Yahoo! Group?

What did I learn?
- It was amazing to me to see that people from Bucharest watched some locations that were very familiar to me (my grandparents live in a area which we visited that day); To me the grass was just as usual, the scenery had nothing special, and I’ve already seen that; To others it was an “Wow!” sensation; A bit different;

_______
Bottom line: Lovely event, with a few things to improve.

I think that the difference between virtual and real life is mostly seen in communication (spoken in life versus written on the Internet). Why is that? In real life communication I can be happy and I can transmit with all my senses the way I’m feeling to the other person. On the Internet, I have, at most, some jokes, some bad words and some emoticons. But most of the time is a my-oh-my very much impersonal communication, mostly in a serious manner (or at least perceived that way). So the toughest difference comes from what is virtual life mostly about – communication.

But where is it only a fine line between virtual and real? I think there are a few domains that follow this condition:
a. Movies – yes, it’s better to see them at the cinema, you are on a chair, large room, some smell, some taste (pop corn and drinks), some social engagement (laughs, movements, scary moments); but all-in-all you can get an almost-as-good experience right from the comfort of your own home; Get some friends and it’s even better;
b. Music – Sure, the atmosphere in a Opera house, in a disco or at a concert can’t be reproduce; But reproducing music in a digital era gets quite simpler; Again, social part can be a different experience in real life;
c. Reading – Yes, I know, a book is generally better for the eye, for the posture, for the feeling of yet; And you might remember more things while reading a real book rather than an e-book; In the same time, finding things to read (not necessarily books) on the Internet is quite easy and find it one of the pleasures in life;
d. Typing – I write pretty fast and I can type with about the same speed; It’s not the same thing, but I can get a good sensation while typing on the keyboard; But the structure of words that is formed inside my mind is pretty much the same;
e. Digital photography – I have no photos in my room, other than those for diplomas and IDs; And I miss none; I can’t quite compare the sensation of watching a digital photograph or a printed one, but I do compare the space of a digital photo on my hard drive versus the space of a real stack of photos on my desk;
f. Communicating via headphones and microphone versus meeting live – Communicating live has some obvious advantages (body language, a broader view, a clearer transmission of data, a better hearing option); But when talking with some very close persons like this, I can get a pretty real feeling; Anyhow, it’s much better than typing.

I think these are pretty much the most important things that are similar in life with those on the Internet.

Coming back to the experience of sitting in front of a PC – is it real or virtual? The chair I sit on, the desk, the computer, me – are all real -, but my imagination is trapped in a virtual world. I think that’s the difference. Or at least until I hear some loud sounds on my opened window.

How do you feel about this blog post on virtual and real life experiences?

I think the one thing that’s most important when writing a press release is … (drums rolling) telling the full truth.

Sure, in Public Relations (acronym – PR) there are alternatives to that:
a. Omitting some truths;
b. Emphasizing the least important things from the journalists’ perspective;
c. Promoting the products and the company.

I think that if you do a Press Release (same acronym – PR) and try to mask the truth, sooner or later the journalists will penalize you for that.

The journalists suffer since you present a not-that-true Press Release.

What could happen?
a. In the first scenario, the Press Release won’t be published at all;
b. The journalist could try to understand the whole picture by himself; He won’t get the full idea, he might get things wrong, and that’s even worse than not having a Press Release published at all – it’s published with the wrong data.