Since December last year I’ve been the lead developer in a start-up making a product called Pianola. Pianola is a web based product to help bridge clubs manage their club and to bring their members a personal way to review their results and interact with the club. This week I’m in Toronto at the North American Bridge Championships demoing Pianola to club managers and members from across the pond.

This has been my first business trip abroad and Toronto is an amazing city. The first thing I’ve learnt is that when travelling for business and when carrying a lot of extra baggage with things like exhibition stands and flyers, be prepared to be grilled intensely about what you’re doing. You should also check to see if you need any permits. Even if you don’t, you should be able to say confidently to the immigration and customs people that you researched this. You should also know exactly where you are exhibiting and have a business card or flyer for the product you’re showing. Business card stickers do not go down too well in a serious border crossing situation.

We did get through though; it just made us a little bit nervous. Also if you can avoid changing at an airport than makes you recheck in your bags like New York JFK then that will save you going through two lots of customs. Actually, if you can, avoid JFK. It’s a very scary airport.

Our first day of demos was a pretty intense day. We’d done most of our setup the day before, but got in at 9:30am to finish things before the tournament competitors arrived at 10am. Things didn’t finish till 7:30pm so it was a very long day. I took a lunch break, but James, the CEO of Pianola stayed there the whole time.

I’m not a natural sales man and I think I’ve got a lot to learn about letting people know what the benefits of Pianola are for them. However I've been getting better at it. It helps that everyone here is really friendly and people like what we’ve done. We've got a really good spot on the corner where everyone can see us. Now that we've been here for a while more and more people are coming to us rather than us having to try and get their attention.

I was also very excited to find out that Bill Gates plays bridge and sometimes comes to this championship. I've not seen him yet, but I've met someone who's played with him. Seeing him would make my trip, but failing that I'm just pleased that so many people have liked what we've done.

You can see my photos of Toronto here, and follow what Pianola is up to on the Pianola blog.