Own The Podium!

Thursday Aug 14th

This is the big day we have been working towards! Final presentations to our clients and then in the afternoon the LinKIT team has arranged for an educational community service session with students of the STI College of Santa Rosa and small business people who may some day use the small business incubator that LinKIT has been working on.  

Can't start without a picture!

As mentioned earlier each team will have 15 minutes to present and the customer is requested to respond formally to the presentations followed by a QA.  In all through the 4 presentations over 50 recommendations will be referred to with as much description as can be provided. We start the day out with a welcome and a few speeches from Reps from IBM as well as from the city.

Agnes Africa from IBM Philippines

Next we show an audiovisual presentation of our time in The Philippines.  The customer was interested in seeing some of our experiences so someone was needed to assemble.  I volunteered to put the slides together and as someone who has not done one before it turned out pretty good. PhotoStory 3 was a great tool and very easy to use; the biggest problem is curating through over 1000 pictures to grab some highlights and then picking the music to match the mood and the time it takes to show the slides. It seemed to be well received once we got the sound working; finicky speakers meant holding the plug to the laptop and praying! 

Next were the presentations and I have to say all the presenters did a great job covering the material and kept things brisk. Everyone sticks to the 15 minutes!

Anne Taylor covers the Traffic

Vivek Describes the Objectives

James kicking it off for LinKIT

Ioana talks Police work

Brian Kulak presents and kicks of 2020 Presidential campaign

The clients provide a lot of positive feedback which was great to hear about the work that was done.  The Police Chief, Bong expressed his thanks on behalf of the City and The Police Force and presented his own slide show which was a highlight of the morning.  After that it was handing out the certificates

Sridhar "graduates"! Surrounded by the clients.

Carina and our client Ms. Judith Hasil

The program ends shortly after noon and then we are treated to a quick buffet lunch before setting the room up for the afternoon session. The crowds start to arrive at around 1:30 and they are mostly students from the College. Dr Antonio Del Carmen kicks off the seminar with an impassioned speech about what small business can do to for a community and the "teach a man to fish" theme.  Dr Del Carmen is a very successful businessman and his dream is to see this business incubator become a major part of a thriving community. It is

That's Tony to the right of me. 

James, Becky and Sridhar talk about the work they have done and the Incubator.  The goal was to get the information out to small businesses first but hey these students will be the next business people in the community so the timing was right.  The session is interactive with questions and prizes, and the next topics are on some of the biggest technology trends. Cloud, Mobile, Social. We are very fortunate to have a guest speaker from the IBM Philippines, Dr Alexis Pantola PhD to cover 5 in 5 (Innovations that will change our lives in the next five years). 

Vivek covers Cloud, Luciana covers Mobile and Carina does Social. They are excellent in the 15 minutes they have. Then the  highlight is hearing Dr Pantola talk.  He is a former University Professor, now working for IBM and his talk covers a lot of ground in 30 minutes while being totally engaging. The students are paying close attention and are very complimentary of all the speakers in the feedback we get. 

Becky promoting LinKIT

Carina talks social Media

Luciana finishes Mobile chat with a Selfie.

Dr Alexis Pantola  does an excellent job of IBM's 5 in 5

Students like pics too!

Dr Pantola and students

The Big Team Pic after graduating !

The afternoon session is a great success and Dr Del Carmen is pleased. Great job by Anne Taylor who started the planning for this Community Session and then the LinKIT team that ultimately made it happen!

We head home late and as per usual keep our van and drivers waiting.  Now is a good time to tip them and get a picture! Trying to gather a bunch of IBMer's into a van every day is like herding cats and they are always patient and great to deal with. 

Us with the Driving Team!

Tonight it is one last meal at the Hotel's Japanese restaurant (most of us have eaten dinner there at least 8-10 times and it has always been excellent). There is no time to go out and the LinKIT team are out for an appreciation dinner with Dr Del Carmen. Most of us still have some documents to complete and the Police Team has done so well that they have been asked to present at a Police conference on Friday morning in Manila. It is quite an honor! 

All in all a very successful day.

 #ibmcsc philippines