IF you are from the United States and you are given ample time to tour Europe, let’s start kicking off things with Salamanca. Salamanca is one place in Spain where Americans feel they are at home because it was the set of a major Hollywood production which will be released later this year, Vantage Point. According to the story in Vantage Point, there was an international conference in Salamanca and the United States president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. And because Vantage Point has assembled an ensemble cast, there were lots of American actors and actresses who came here last year such as Matthew Fox, Dennis Quaid, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker and Zoe Saldana.

This endeavor has made a permanent mark in Salamanca culture. Because of a lot of American visitors that trooped in this British tourist magnet at one time, a lot of the locals have differentiated American English from British English twang. That’s why existing English language schools in Salamanca are now offering American twang subjects similar to those spoken on CNN. They also offer different American regional twangs such as those spoken in the black ghettos as well as American cultural awareness. The United States embassy in Madrid has helped a lot in these efforts and the instructors in these language programs are Americans.

Without doubt, information technology runs the world today. Information technology therefore plays a very relevant role in shaping Europe as it is. It is in this regard that the continent hosts an annual conference on information technology aptly named as TOOLS. It’s actually a conference series, the first conference will be all about Software Engineering Approaches for Offshore and Outsourced Development while the second one will be the International Conference on Model Transformation. I would like you to visit the first one if you’re an American and you are an entrepreneurial one. You can now create your own business and if you need technical support in your business, you can outsource it to people from other continents beyond Europe such as the Philippines or India. It’s the name of the game these days.

But if you are a technology buff yourself, you can go to Integrated Systems Europe 2008, another convention with a techie twist. It will be held this January 21-31 in Amsterdam. This is definitely one exciting event not to be missed because aside from the overwhelming lectures, there will be a road show with over 400 exhibitors in attendance. Take note that Integrated Systems Europe 2008 is not just for technology buffs like you but is also for event organizers and advertising agency executives. So if you fall under any of these two, you can definitely quality to be in this event.

But if you are a chemistry buff, you better attend Photonics Europe come April 7 to 11 in Strasbourg. This is a very opportune event as you will get not only to know more about the latest challenges in photonics, fiber optics, so-called biophotonics, wavelength connectors and silicon lasers, you will also discover the beauty of Strasbourg.