I've been neglecting the blog over the last few weeks, and for several weeks before that I had some technical problems. Mostly being busy with business, plus a week's holiday have caused the hiatus, but I plan to be back posting regularly from this point on. 3 weeks ago I had a really successful trip to Bulgaria to meet the development and support team behind Blogtronix. We've just "officially" become their business partner here in the UK. I wanted to go and see where the software is developed, as well learning all about their latest version 2. Blogtronix is a web publishing platform that combines blogs, wikis, document management, RSS feed aggregation and social networking in to a coherent infrastructure that is ideal for corporate collaboration.

I'll write some more about the product soon, but I have to say I was very impressed with Bulgaria as a country. I was staying with George Athannassov, one of the Blogtronix founders, in Plovdiv which is the cultural centre of the country. The city is scarred by the communist era, with row after row of characterless apartment blocks, but you don't have to look too far to see the older parts of the city with some delightful architecture, and then the Roman past, with some fantastic monuments and amphitheatres. I discover that Plovdiv was the capital of Thrace, and is older than Rome.

George, and his wife Tanya's hospitality was fantastic, and I got a great impression of the local food, including fantastic salads, Feta cheese in over a dozen varieties, or a huge choice of different types of herb bread. They have a few weird drinks as a staple for breakfast, which are a bit of an acquired taste - for example boza is a thick, sweet drink made from fermented roasted flour. I left the country several inches larger around the waist than usual, as you can see from the photograph of me and George outside a local restaurant.

George's development team, support staff, and designers are all top notch. I'm not sure hat I was expecting their offices to be like - maybe grey, drab and worn out echoing the communist past , but I wasn't expecting anything as stylish and modern, with smart bathrooms and kitchen facilities in every office area to keep the staff happy. I've mentioned before that Velis, their systems administrator sorted out the technical issues on my blog. They have expertise in open source LAMP technologies, as well as Microsoft .NET and SQL Server as a development platform. The trip gave me a good insight in to the potential of an Eastern European development centre, and I'm looking forward to working with the team over the coming months.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Dimitar Vesselinov, probably the best known business blogger in Bulgaria.