Last Monday, we had again a big consortium meeting (which involves all partners) of the European project MACE. This time, the meeting was held at Open University of the Netherlands, in downtown Heerlen. So unfortunately, no nice trips for me, but still it was something to live towards and I can say I really was looking forward to meeting everyone in person again; a video conference just does not give the same feeling as real-life interaction. Also, apart from the meetings themselves, a MACE meeting is often a lot of fun, just talking with my fellow colleagues and having a beer together in the evening. We held the meeting in the OUNL Bologna building, where the Learning Experience (LEX) Centre is located. After my first plans to have the meeting at Terworm Castle, I didn’t think this was a good idea, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. To my big surprise, everyone seemed to enjoy the place a lot! I think especially the hospitality of LEX secretary Barbara made everyone, including me, feel at home immediately, and also the atmosphere was very relaxed from the beginning; maybe also the loungy feeling of the LEX building made us feel that way, I’m not sure. Have a look for yourself below.
The part I enjoy most of MACE meetings are the social events. This time, we were the ones that planned the meeting so we were also allowed to pick the restaurant 
We picked the Auberge de Rousch, because we already had a meeting there once, and the food was of very high quality; also it has a very good atmosphere. I think it was also a good decision, food was good and I think we all had a splendid time. I must say I had an amazing time; every meeting we get to know each other a little better, and it seems that every meeting results in more and more laughter. I think our table was certainly the loudest, and I really enjoyed the company of my other MACE colleagues; Tally, Dirk, Christian, Marius, and Elisa, whom I was teasing a bit now and then ;). Unfortunately, the evening went by too fast, so fast even that Till and Tina weren’t able to join us, and hence all the efforts of Elisa to safe them some coupons for drinks were in vain. Before I noticed it, we were already leaving and I was already travelling back home through a quite heavy hail storm; probably Mother Earth’s way of keeping me awake 
Next day, was the main meeting day, and therefore started quite early (too early!) at 9.00 in the morning; I arrived, still sleepy (also because a quite heavy but fun weekend) at 8.30 and Tally and I tried to welcome the new guests as well as possible. Because a lot of new people joined, this day was also the longest, it was not until around 18.00 that people were finishing up, which left me cleaning up and rearranging tables and chairs in hurry. Luckily, Alba, Marius, Christian, Matteo and Furio were so kind to help me, because most of the OUNL stuff left already and I was fearing I had to do most of the cleanup myself. Unfortunately, also my attempt to organise an ad-hoc meeting didn’t seem to get that much enthousiasm at first, most of all I think, because people were not enthousiastic to go to Maastricht, and second because I couldn’t really give them some nice Dutch restaurants in Heerlen (as I explained I’m not too fond of Dutch food ;)). Therefore, me and Marius came up with a different solution to meet up on the Pancratiusplein in Heerlen and then see who would turn up. Finally, we were joined by Roland and Marion from Humance, Stefan and Christian from FIT, and Stefan from EAAE and had a simple, but nice dinner at Oppidom. When we left Oppidom, only Roland, Stefan and me were left, and not wanting to go home yet we went to Café Bracke, were another big MACE group joined us and made the evening complete (see photograph below, taken by Elena Bogani). It was again a fine evening, which again passed too quickly, and finally leaving me in a hurry to get at least some sleep before the next day.
And then it was already Wednesday, the last day of the meeting. A lot of people left already, which made the group a lot smaller, and most of the discussions a lot shorter. Till gave a nice session for us developers, and I had a couple of nice chats with Alba; even one about work: we are preparing a paper for ICALT 2008 together, and face-to-face some things are just a lot easier to be handled. Around 15:30 the meeting ended, which left me dead tired and also a bit weary that all these nice people were already leaving for home…I really missed their company the day after…but well, we’ll meet again soon, and then again in lovely Ancona…See you there!