Gallup provides a variety of management consulting, human resources and statistical research services. It has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Operational headquarters are here in Omaha. Its current Chairman and CEO is Jim Clifton.

Gale Muller (Vice Chairman of Worldwide Research and Development for Gallup) presented us the “World Poll”. He is a very competent person,who knew for every question an answer. The next speaker was Katie Barton – responsible for IT projects – talked about IT supporting their core processes.

Valmont (www.valmont) is a big manufacturing company which offers a big variety of products (tubing, irrigation, traffic light, etc.). We made a guided tour through their company and saw all the production processes, which are on a high technological level.

After the field trip we had dinner with Professor Matt Germonprez at the restaurant “Old Chicago”. Mr. Germonprez invited us to visit the university in Wisconsin. I want to organize a field trip to Wisconsin as part of our exchange program. I am confident that we can arrange it, but there is not too much time left.

Retrospectively, it was the best trip of our lives and we enjoyed every second of our vacation.

• Igor Partem
• Sean Mclenathan

We are now in the Forming phase (Forming, Storming,  Norming and Performing) and we are getting know each other. In the next step we will collect every idea with the brainstorming method and together we will figure out our best idea. Afterwards, we will make this idea more concrete and prepare it for the business. In a global online presentation we will present our Business Plan and argue our proposal in front of a global commission.

Further information to the Global IT Project Business Plan see here: GlobITProBuisnessPlan

• Managerial Communication
• Decision Support System
• Information- and Data Quality
• E-Commerce

A brief overview of my courses:

Managerial Communication is a highly interesting course about soft skills and also communication inside a company. You have to hand in a couple of letters and assignments. You have three multiple choice exams. The group works are very instructive because you learn how to handle groupware (Google Docs) or work togehter with a simple Word document and the function track changes.

For Descion Support System research is very important. You have two take home exams, but there it is very important that you write your own opinion and explain it. Furthermore, you have one big team project where you can choose your partner and some assignments which are similar to a take home exam; only the rating is not as important.

Information- Data Quality is with a professor from India. In the first classes it was very hard to understand him, but now we are used to it. Part of the course are three exams and they also include statistics, so if you dislike math and especially statistics do not take this class. But the workload in this class is not too high and there are “only” three exams and a group project with five people.

In my opinion E-Commerce is the most interesting course. You work together with micro-businesses, analyse their businnes model and create a draft for their new e-commerce businness model. I am in the group with Tobias Brunner, Littus from India and Umesh from Nepal and recommended an antique seller, a marketing concept and especially to setup new E-Commerce channels. Another part of this course are assignments and presentations, but there is no exam.

If you are more interested in the courses at UNO, send me a message. Before you choose a class read the syllabus and if available read ratings about the teacher.

On Sunday we made a trip to the Offutt Air Force Base. The entrance was free, but the show was incredible.

• DSS (Decision Support Systems)
• E-commerce
• DQ and IQ (Data- and Information Quality)
• Managerial Communication

I dropped the class “Human Computer Interaction”, because the subject was not as interesting as I expected and I sometimes had  troubles to understand the professor due to his accent and the professor had also problems understanding us.

In these classes the workload is as big as at the MCI, but most of the work has to be done at home and not at the university. The level of the classes is high because most people who attend are graduate students and the exams are completely the same, but it is getting easier to understand the content of the classes. I think we have chosen good courses and I like attending all my courses.

• make a telephone call to the US embassay (appointment)
• passport photo from a determined photographer
• pay SEVIS-fee and VISA fee
• filled in DS 160 online formular
• your passport
• and the certificate of eligibility for exchange visitiors (from the university)

The best way to arrive at to the us-embassy is by metro U2 station “stubentor”.

At the embassy you will not be greeted in a very friendly way. We’ve made there some experiences .

At the entrance there is a security check. You should not bring too many things to the embassy, because there is no place to park. Up next you show at the counter your documents. Then you must wait up to an hour. You get called when you must talk to the person behind the desk. Then the official behind the counter asks you some questions. These questions are very easy and you shouldn’t be nervous. After the conversation you can go home.

All in all it was a nice weekend in vienna. You should not be afraid to be in contact with the embassy, but you should prepare all your documents carefully not later then one week before the appointment.