Recently I had the opportunity to partner with a fellow Scrum Training company in China. It was important for Braintrust to partner in China in order to grow our business internationally, help out a partner company, and —quite simply—because it was cool.
The partnering company was OutSofting. I met Julien Masloum (President of OutSofting) last April when I went to Shanghai for the Srum Gathering. He and I talked about our companies partnering in the future when we met there. May of 2011, that talk became a reality.
As a Certified Scrum Trainer, I am one of only 117 people in the world who can offer Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Product Owner Training. Because there are not that many, our services are in high demand. Companies value the certifications and we are the only ones who can deliver that training. So the partnership was a great benefit to both of us. If you or your company are considering making a move like this one I highly recommend it. It is a great way to ensure your company’s global strategy and diversify your client base.
In addition to the professional questions I receive about my travels, I am also frequently asked about the food there. What did I eat? Well, inevitably we would go out to dinner after the training meetings, and at dinner I took the opportunity to try something more exotic. I was pleasantly surprised.
One night I tried Eel, which while not bad tasting, I did not realize you were supposed to separate the meat from the skeleton, so I actually ate the skeleton which made it taste more crunchy that the dish is intended to have. Next, I tried snails. Yes, they cook snails in other places besides France ☺ Snails mostly taste like the broth they were cooked in. They really didn’t have too much of a unique taste, but they were very earthy. I also tried duck tongue and goose legs. The duck tongue was sweet, like tender bar-b-que, but again here I ate the cartilage, which you are not supposed to eat, and with good reason. The cartilage is awful. The goose legs tasted like salty popcorn, and the inner part of the legs were actually very tasteless.
