Again a busy week. September and October usually are filled with events, and this often means many sessions and presentations. This year is no different. Also I have too many client projects on my plate, so I this week I discussed handing off some of my work to colleagues.

This week I

• Had a half day meeting with my business partners discussing and working on internal things.
• Did some invoicing
• Discussed the tasks colleagues can take on within the scope of my work for my main client, for which the work is to start next week
• Enjoyed being read to by Y. She’s getting better at reading fast, and likes to read to us before we read to her in the evening.
• Prepared multiple sessions to present at and facilitate
• Presented at and facilitated a half day session with the national statistics office on the incoming EU regulations
• Had dinner at the ‘Greenland’ restaurant in Driebergen with our team (or rather 7 of the 9), to celebrate our 11th company anniversary. We had planned to go there a year ago, but a lockdown prevented it. My company, The Green Land, is named after this restaurant, because it is the place where in 2011 my business partners and I decided to start working togehter.
• Created a presentation and presented to representatives of all Dutch regional water authorities about the impact of EU data regulations.
• Had the weekly client meetings
• Had a conversation with the World Bank colleagues I worked with in Central Asia and non-EU eastern Europe. Since the start of the pandemic my WB work stalled, but I’m still on their roster of consultants. The Russian war on Ukraine makes work in the region I used to be active in difficult, but there is still lots going on. I intend to contribute my work on EU data regulations and the EU data space as well as data and AI ethics to WB programmes. Not this year though, as I’m too busy with client work as it is.
• Discussed the next steps for the interprovincial ethics committee with the representatives of all provinces in their ethics working group, and with the steering committee. We’re now at the point we can approach members for the ethics committee. Official launch will be in January by a deputy minister, for which the data was confirmed this week.
• Took it slow on Friday morning, reading feeds, making some notes.
• Took Y to her swimming lesson. She’s making good progress, keeping herself afloat without aids now and learning to swim longer distances under water. She’s slowly getting to the point where we can be sure she can get herself out should she accidentally get into the water somewhere in our surface water rich neighbourhood.
• E’s eldest brother dropped by for coffee and lunch, it was nice to catch up.
• Created the ability to quickly post a check-in or Dopplr style posting, as part of bringing that type of functionality within the scope of my own site.