Mission: Bringing Apple Vision Pro to Germany. It seemed like a straightforward plan: fly to San Francisco on Thursday, pick up seven Apple Vision Pros at the Apple Store Walnut Creek on Friday, and return by Saturday to land in Hamburg on Sunday evening. Four days of travel, nearly 24 hours of flight time, all in the service of importing new technologies to Germany. Yet what starts simply quickly becomes an epic odyssey, beginning with a strike on Thursday that threatened to complicate everything.
I had to take that specific Thursday flight; Friday was too late, and Wednesday I was still committed to a keynote in Düsseldorf. The ensuing stress and the need to rebook and plan flights in parallel took their toll, but a master plan emerged. Should the strike prevent me from reaching my gate on Thursday, I would need to enter the airport's transit area on Wednesday evening.
The quest for overnight accommodation led me to the MyCloud Hotel in the transit area, near my departure gate. But the hotel was fully booked. Nonetheless, I continued my journey, from a lecture at L'Oreal to a brief visit with my mother in Bad Vilbel, before heading to Frankfurt Airport. Upon arrival at the airport around 8:30pm, I finally got the last available room at the MyCloud Hotel at 11pm.
The flight to San Francisco was smooth. The visit to the Apple Store Walnut Creek on Friday to collect the Apple Vision Pros turned out to be a lengthy process, sweetened by the opportunity to try out the devices. This innovative device blew me away. I'm not typically an Apple enthusiast — I've always been more of an Android user and am familiar with the Meta Quest 3. However, what I experienced in those 20 minutes was nothing short of astonishing. The spatial photos and spatial videos are going to be game-changers.
The return journey was complicated by news of blockades at Frankfurt Airport and announced strikes. This significantly added to my stress level, as the first customers wanted to have their AVP in hand upon my arrival in Munich at 4PM and Hamburg at 10PM on Sunday. To make a long story short — everything worked out. Thanks to my team at FUTURE CANDY, who worked tirelessly on planning and importation, and the support of friends, it was possible to safely bring the Apple Vision Pros to Germany.
This journey was more than an adventure; it was a contribution to innovation capacity and perhaps a spark to ignite a passion for the future. None of this would have been possible without a strong team and good friends. Now the team in Hamburg is having a great time testing the devices and preparing use cases for our clients. It's the beginning of something new — a butterfly's flutter with far-reaching effects.
