City Hall

Up very early in the morning to get ready to catch the shuttle to City Hall for the kickoff event. I get a few shirts ironed up and try to sneak the iron and board back to the front desk on my own. The doorman/bellhop hears my door open and tackles me before I can return it myself.  "Not on my watch" I think he was saying and proceeding to take them to save me the trip. Still being looked after tremendously. :-)

There is a large public ceremony down at City Hall and we have been invited to attend and observe before we meet our clients.  We take a few team photos before heading out

 

 
Unfortunately our shuttle missed the memo and we miss the ceremony piece but when we arrive there are still hundreds of people around the entrance. The place is teeming with activity and even though it is not like we are the guests of honor we get a very warm welcome as we go in to the building.
We are summoned to meet with the mayor for 15 minutes before the Kickoff.  She does not have time to attend; there are ribbons to cut and babies to kiss but we get a photo opp with her and some of her key staff before heading up to the conference room.  She is insistent on ordering us some Jolibees food (The Mcdonalds of the Philippines) which she will send up. Sensing a theme of weight gain possibly coming. This will not be the last time we will be eating there! 

The meeting is attended by all of our new clients, the local IBM team and extended staff

Client picture. Notice Jolibee's bucket.

We introduce ourselves to the client and thanks to Nick Lowman's  prodding  and prep, each of us for the first time since we started meeting, manages to set a time limit and keep it.  Would you want to listen to this guy for much more then 2 minutes?

Matt Foley - Motivational speaker

Off to lunch and will start the one on one sessions this afternoon. 

#ibmcsc philippines