Whilst driving to work on the 1st of September yesterday I noticed that the traffic had picked up quite a bit and the school busses were on the roads. My commute took an extra 15-20 minutes; the busy season has pretty much started.
Couple this with the fact that it was my first day back after a great summer-ending trip to Utah with my son for a little rafting and fly-fishing, and it was no wonder that I was unprepared for the increased pace of busy New England.
Work-wise the task that is picking up the most is my participation in the global planning of the yearly EMC Innovation Showcase on October 20. There is a lot of activity happening:
- We're sending out film crews to some of our global facilities (e.g. Cork, St. Petersburg) to document the innovative work of their respective employees. As can be seen out at #vmworld this year, EMC is moving towards a lot of "TV-style" interviews and segments.
- Most of us on the planning committee have paired up with another global employee to help plan their local agendas for the event. I'm working with St. Petersburg and Cairo. In all cases the teams are planning guest speakers, customer visits, and/or technical panels.
- The finalists for the global idea contest have been whittled down from 1500+ to about 50. Posters are being prepared and a team of marketing leaders are helping the inventors to pitch their ideas effectively.
- The process of sending invitiations to the local event in Franklin, MA is being ironed out. I'm trying to reserve ten seats for the minions.
- A whole lot more....
Coming back from vacation to try and plan the big event (not to mention working on my day job) is a bit overwhelming but clearly it's a key event in EMC's Calendar that's well worth the effort.
As a last note I'll post a slide which summarizes where in the world the 1,500 ideas came from, as well as which geographies will be hosting their own local events.
Steve
http://stevetodd.typepad.com
Twitter: @SteveTodd
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