Today was a busy one. At 10am, our team met at the Bocconi building on the main campus to start our workplan. Of course Rita and I were the first ones to arrive at 9:50. Alex showed up next followed by Ashley. Everyone else just trickled in after 10. The main Bocconi building doesn't really have study room areas (well there are a few but not to accomodate a group as large as ours) so we met in one of the open spaces. Ashley took the lead in setting up the workplan, but a meeting that should have taken an hour ended up taking about three hours. Such is the case when you're dealing with 9 people, different cultures, and different personalities. We worked for about an hour and a half, then we had to leave to head over to Palazzo Mezzanotte for our client meeting. Palazzo Mezanotte is the financial center of Milan. We took the tram over, although we were all very unclear about what we were doing at the meeting today. We had been told that the client's board was having a day-long conference and that we would be presented to the client's board, which includes their member companies. But how long we would be there, whether or not we had to speak...all that was unknown. When we got there, we ended up waiting around for about 45 minutes before we were finally brought into the conference room. The room was primarily men, with maybe 5 women (there were at least a good 40 people there so it was noticeable). We took seats and the clients introduced our project, and the purpose of the study. Stefania spoke briefly as well. They were all speaking Italian so I only caught bits and pieces. Paola had prepped us right before we went in to say our name and country only, and for us Wharton folks we could mention that we are on exchange from The Wharton School. In the meeting, the director asked us to take the opportunity to say more than that although most of us just stuck with the basics. Afterward, one of the board members had a question (I think it was along the lines of how the study results would be used by Bocconi) which Stefania answered. I found out today that she can be pretty long winded when she wants to be. It seemed like she was talking forever. At one point, I believe the director cut her off, but then somehow she ended up speaking again. Who knows. I have a hard enough time keeping up with conversations in English. Right after our section of the program the board was dismissed for lunch, and we were invited. Lunch was light (literally - there was cheese, bread, italian meats like salami and proscuitto, fresh salmon, tiramisu, and apple sorbet; the only filling item was some type of meat pasta). The nice part was that we got to mingle with the board members which was quite an impressive bunch. We met the European area manager for Bottega Veneta - a woman - who was very nice and down to earth (and beautiful - she has very striking features). I also got into a lengthy conversation with the head of American Express in Europe - I liked him the moment he told me used to live in NY and go to school at NYU (the second person I've met here with an NYU background). He had a great personality, and gave me some inside scoop: the best personal Amex card to have in the states in terms of value is the Starwood Preferred card. At least that was his opinion. I'll have to check into that. He told us a story about how he owns a property on South Beach, and has some rapper friends (we didn't get into the details of who) who own on the same property, and they were bragging to him about their Centurion (plastic) cards. So, he just laughed and pulled out his titanium Centurion (which isn't even available in the states, supposedly; he said he was the one responsible for creating the card in Italy and expanding it throughout Europe but the U.S. has been slow to adopt it). We got to meet a number of others at the meeting, and there were a number of companies represented that we didn't even get to talk to. It turned out to be a nice networking opportunity. After lunch, we remained at Palazzo Mezzanotte to finish our workplan (at that point, our group was down to 7, because two of the girls had to leave). When it was all said and done, somehow I ended up with two roles: manager of the sourcing tracker (I could have predicted that one), and lead for the definition of luxury segment of the project. We have a presentation on July 16, which is what we are working toward at this point. It looks like there's a good chance I'll get to go to Rome if we get any interviews scheduled there, b/c the others in the group were uninterested. They're more interested in getting out of Italy. After the meeting, Rita and I found ourselves outside with Alex and somehow we got into a conversation about the group dynamics. Alex was explaining that many of the girls in our group don't like Ashley because she's too aggressive, and how her aggressiveness will hold her back in finding a job in Italy because people are turned off by her directness. I found it interesting since its a clear cultural difference. In the states, she'd be a CEO. I told her for the team's sake, I hope everyone can get along since they will be working together very closely for the next few months. While I will still be a part of the project after July, I will be working remotely so it's not as big a deal to me (although I happen to like Ashley...I like everyone in the group actually, but then, that's just me).
After saying goodbye to Alex, Rita and I left and stopped at Duomo for a hot second (the meeting was only a few blocks away - Rita stopped in the Gucci cafe, and I stopped in the tourism office). Then we walked down via Torino towards home and stopped in a few stores to window shop (hey, I can't shop every day - well, I can, but, then I'd be broke, and I'd have to call you for a loan). When we got back to the apartment, we both passed out and took naps since we had to be up for the fashion show in the evening.
We met up with Susanna at 9:15 to attend the fashion show at Istituto Marangoni. There were tons of people outside. When we finally got in, it looked like there were no more seats, and there were many people standing towards the back of the space. I was getting nervous b/c there was no way I was trying to stand for 2 hours in the back wearing 3.5 inch heels. Susanna pushed her way through the crowd and somehow managed to get us second row seats right near the beginning of the runway. Nice. The seats were reserved but I think she told the ushers that she was old and could not stand that long (she's not even that old - early 40's - you wouldn't even know it either b/c she seems so young). I was certainly grateful. The fashion show itself was AMAZING. As expected, the designs were mixed: there were things I'd buy and wear right now if I could, and things I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Some designs were very classic and traditional, while others were out there. Some of the models looked like they were straight off of a Chanel runway or something - they seemed so professional, but it turned out that some of them were actually designers. Susanna was cracking me up the entire time b/c she would give her commentary on the designs she didn't like. She likes creative designs that are still classy and sophisticated. The outrageous stuff consistently got her disapproval. All in all I had a great time! I took tons of pictures also. Afterwards, we went to dinner at Rossa Pomodoro, a restaurant (which apparently is a chain) that sells pizza, pasta...all the typical Italian fare. We ended up getting pizza b/c their kitchen was closing. Dinner was good - my pizza had mushrooms, prosciutto and two types of cheeses (mozzarella and something I couldn't pronounce but it tasted ok). After dinner we stood outside the restaurant talking to Susanna for a while and telling her about our horrific dinner experience last night at "Da Willy." She confirmed that Italians are very bad when it comes to restaurant service. Great. After saying our goodbyes, we walked home. The walk home revealed a section of Ticinese that we hadn't explored yet, as well as a Kiehls store much closer than the Duomo. We also passed a Biffi store, which, it turns out had more apparel and accessories than furniture. Nice. Well, it's been a full day and I'm exhausted. Tomorrow we are meeting at noon to start working on this project as a team, and we have Italian class at 2:30 (which I haven't studied a lick for!). Until then...ciao!
Here are the pics I took today: http://picasaweb.google.com/keeshaun/PalazzoMezanotteAndMarangoniFashionShow2008
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