Day 10 - Down go "the Mensas"

Our first meeting was with Google and their CFO (the first employee in Argentina) of the Argentina office. Google notes below: 

• Building was in an old warehouse overlooking the water (close to our hotel). See pics of Day 10. Very much like NYC
• He spoke about his experience and the 13 interviews he had prior to starting with Google
• Evolution of the Internet - 1) Information 2) Distribution & Communication 3) Networking
• 77M users in 1998, 1.3B users in 2009 expected
• Cheaper storage space, Cloud computing 
• The "Long Tail"
• Talked about a site www.blurb.com - I will be using this site for this blog and pictures, will keep you posted on how it turns out
• 42% penetration rate in Argentina, 50% in Chile
• Mostly sales people in Argentina office, no real innovation located here
• Corporate culture - very relaxed atmosphere just like what people say about Google
• Google reaches 84% of all users
• Connects users, advertisers & publishers
• 3 Latin America Google offices - Mexico City, Sao Paulo, BA

Lunch was @ Quirandi Restaurant in the heart of Buenos Aires. As we approached the end of lunch, "Mensa" One, Sara, got something in her eye that caused her eye to water and swell. She removed her contact and nothing changed. Instead of going to the next visit with Esso she went back to the hotel for a nap, how convenient, jk. This was the first of 2 "Mensas" to go down. Between lunch and our next visit we had sometime to go by the Plaza de Mayo area where we took more pictures. While getting back on the bus Chico, "Mensa" Two ran into a sign on the street. I don't have the picture, but I have staffers out working their magic to get a copy and I will then post a picture of his dome showing his battle wound. He didn't have to go home, but you could tell he was quite woozy, ha, jk. 

Our second meeting was with Esso. The presenter was a Public Relations gentleman. This meeting was a little awkward as all he did was explain the oil process business. My notes are as followed:

• 2 Pars in the oil business - 1) Upstream (Exploration, Production, & Refining) 2) Downstream (Distribution & Marketing) - Argentina focuses on Downstream
• Western Argentina is where most of the oil is produced
• 643 barrels a day
• The quality is half good/light and the other half is just ok
• Demand is less than the production
• Domestic crude is declining 3% a yr.
• In 5 yrs., they might need to import light crude

Dinner was @ a restaurant kinda like a buffet for meat. Yes, all you can eat beef, pasta, pizza, you name it. It was an interesting setup, but ok. I will call myself out on the blog. In mid sentence with Chico, I dribble red wine out the side of my mouth. Not sure how this happened, but it was definitely blog material so here it is, ha. Luckily for me I was wearing my money black shirt so no visual site of a stain. Again, drinks at the hotel bar to very late in the evening. It went so late, we had to have some folks go back to their room to get more bottles of wine they bought! This was after a large bar tab and Jay/Drew's bottle of Pisco!