My Dubai Experience

In General | 9 comments | permalink

Hi all,

I am back from Dubai now, and had an amazing time, met some amazing people and did some amazing things.

I will upload some vids and photos once I receive them.

Anyway, today I want to focus on one specific event… our presentation.

As many of you may know, public speaking is not something that thrills me, quite the opposite in fact, so check out this story of what happened.

dubai

Our Dubai Presentation

It is 5 minutes until Barry and I should go on stage, my hands and entire body are sweating, one minute I am hot, the next I am freezing cold, my legs feel weak, my head hurts, I feel sick, I am going to be sick…

My throat is completely dry, and breathing is becoming more and more of a struggle…

These are the sensations I am feeling as I am being pushed into a hospital in a wheelchair, meanwhile, at the exact same time, Barry is walking on stage, not aware that I had even left my room.

You see, I had sinitus, and during the descent into Dubai airport, it caused a sinus trauma that left me in agony for the entire landing process.

The doctor at the hospital said I was lucky I didn’t tear my ear drums.

This lead to a fever, and I was in bed for 3 days, at times, unable to get from bed to the bathroom for a drink of water, I also become heavily dehydrated.

Anyway, the good news is that despite the doctor’s pleas, I flew back and am now back in the UK. Still feeling ill, but a LOT better than I was.

As for the presentation… it went very well.

Barry is awesome at public speaking, and during weeks like this, I realise how damn lucky I am to have him as a business partner and a friend.

Anyway, put the tissues and violins away, I just wanted to update you guys, and let you know why there hasn’t been an update for a while.

I have so many stories from the past week, and hopefully over the coming weeks I will share some of those with you guys.

STORIES

For example:

WHY John Carlton was touching my cheekbone to find a hole in it.

SMOKING sheesha (local tradition).

SAND-dune surfing in the desert.

ALMOST puking on John Carlton.

MEETING a DeanHunt.com reader who traveled out there to hang with us.

BIZARRE moment when I realised that I was chatting to Mike Filsaime, and instead of getting marketing advice, I was getting advice on mucas and my sinus’

GETTING a Flip video camera from the most awesome guy in the world, Mike Koenigs. AKA the founder of Traffic Geyser, and perhaps the most influential video marketing guy on the planet. Getting his Flip camera was like getting a set of Tiger Woods’ old golf clubs.

Summary

Truth be told, despite missing most of the social stuff, and half of the event, plus feeling the most ill I have felt in years. I would happily go back and do it all again.

You only live once guys, and life is all about the experiences you have and the people you meet. It is NOT about the car you drive or the amount of LOST episodes you have seen on tv.

Oh, and just to rub salt in the wounds, it is freezing in the UK.

Dean

TODAY’S QUESTION: What iPhone apps do you recommend?

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9 COMMENTS

  • http://www.rajaietalks.com Rajaie AlKorani

    Dang, I thought that your entire trip was ruined till I completed reading the post!

    Dubai is a great place, I’ve been there tons of times but never went sand-dune surfing. It must have been pretty cool to meet a blog reader, that should definitely have been interesting.

    Take care and get well soon.

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.twitter.com/JonathanGunson Jonathan

    Dean

    I don’t think anything can get in the way of your ascent to even more online stardom & success, because I’m picking that your PERSONALITY will carry you through just anything.

    There is a fabulous book that must have been written about YOU. ‘Personality Not Included’ reveals how personality is a vital ingredient in 2008 / 2009, but it’s missing from most businesses.

    There’s set of free slides on Slideshare.com that show what the book is all about. I bought it myself. It’s written by Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava on Twitter)

    Here’s his BEAUTIFUL slide show OF the book:
    http://tinyurl.com/63zd9a

    All the best
    Jonathan

    Current score: 0
  • http://henryjorge.blogspot.com/ Henry

    Good to see you had a good time there, I too am planning to visit dubai one day

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Jonathan,

    I ordered the book and read it recently. Not bad at all.

    Dean

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2008/12/15/cartoons_20081208?slide=2#showHeader The Freelance Cartoonist

    I’m looking forward to those articles.

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.copywriterjournalist.com Farrukh

    Hi Dean,

    It was good to meet you as a fellow blogger from the UAE. And Barry’s presentation was fab.

    Looking forward to see you in Dubai again soon.

    A Flip cam from Mike Koenigs? Amazing!

    farrukh

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Farrukh,

    Great meeting you too.

    Have you uploaded those photos yet? I look forward to seeing them.

    Yes, the Flip cam from Mike was awesome, really made my day.

    Glad you enjoyed the presentation, Barry is superb at that aspect of things.

    Dean

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.barrecruit.com Dave

    Glad your feeling better, will catch you on xbox live over the next few weeks / xmas :)

    As for iPhone apps, I highly praise “Ambience”. I put it on every night with the timer / fade out and it helps me go to sleep relaxed and quickly. Gets the thoughts out of your head. “Porch Roof” is a fav of mine.

    Also the ebay app, facebook, twitterific, weatherbug, fring, aroundme, TV plus (especially if you have sky as you can use the sky+ remote record function), Digg app and of course “sleeps to christmas” at the moment. :)

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.GolfSwingSecretsRevealed.com Andy Brown

    “Getting his Flip camera was like getting a set of Tiger Woods’ old golf clubs.”

    LoL

    Cheers

    Andy

    Current score: 0