Security Team: Work hard & play hard

While the Rooster of our team (Barbara) wrote a blog on the community service we've done yesterday, I feel like I need to write something about our team.  The community service (educating Internet Security to parents in a local school) was really great.  Our client has asked us to do one more time again today.  However we have to go to the Governor presentation today and we won't be able to go to the school.  If there is a chance, I'm sure the 2 alike ladies in our team would definitely say "yes".

Speaking of the Security team, I would say I'm really glad that I'm part of this team.  For sure every CSC participant works hard and is very smart, I feel that my team is extremely good.  I'm proud of us.  We're brought together by the CSC program (for whatever reason), we come from different background - consulting, technical specialist, marketing, human resources, we speak different languages, we have different priorities and wishes... But as a team we've gone through such a good experience, we worked hard, and  played hard.

Biometrics-san, Rooster, Dancing machine, Wikipedia -- my salute to you all!  If I was given a chance to pick my teammates, you're definitely my picks! :-)

Also, I have to mention, I like my clients (SSC & PGJ, i.e. Department of Citizen Security & Investigation Department) too!  They are so nice and so helpful -- Arranging peoples for us to interview, orrganizing food and drinks for us on a daily basis, spending 3 hours to listen to our presentation, appreciating the work we've done, waiting for us to finish our meeting and take us our to cantina...!  This is the thing that I like about consulting.  It's where you can build the personal relationship with peoples - clients or teammates.

Our client has started a game with us last night over the drink.  They wrote our names on individual pieces of paper and then pass them around for every one to pick one.  The last one got picked is the winner.  They joked with us that the prize is -- to pay the bill.  Finally it turned out to be a tequila (special prize) for the winner i.e. Kenji!  We all got a nice pack of gifts from the client.  So sweet...

Tonight we'll have the final presentation to the Governor.  Chandru (Wikipedia) is our representative.  I have high trust in him and I'm sure he can do a great job!  Time flies and we will have to say goodbye to the CSC Mexico Uno team tomorrow.  That is going to be a tough moment (at least for me) because we've been teaming so well and have had so much laughs together in the past month.

Mexico Uno and Security Team - I will never forget you and the happy moments that we've had spent together!  Cheers!

#ibmcsc Mexico 1

This is our last week on the CSC assignment. At the beginning of the week we were finalizing our report and then presented it to the customer. The final version of our presentation ended up being 73 slides giving recommendations for our customer agencies. The stakeholders agreed with all of our conclusions and seemed to be impressed with the final results.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to participate in a local community service. We led an awareness session on Internet safety for parents which was organized by our customer (Secretaria de Seguridad Ciudadana). Our team talked to 70 parents of a local high school. They all showed great interest in the topic and were eager to learn new things about social media, the risks and how they can protect their children from possible dangers on the web. It was interesting to see how concerned parents were about the Internet activities of their kids and how they felt about their kids knowing more about computers than themselves.

Today we will present the final results to the Governor of Querétaro. Chandru will present the findings and recommendations on behalf of the Security team. So we are all excited and honoured to meet the governor tonight.

The CSC assignment has come to an end and tomorrow we will head out in all different directions. Some of us will start their holidays, some are going back home to see their families and friends. It will definitely be a sad moment to say good bye to such a great team!

The Tree of Crosses

The Security team has had the pleasure and honor of rubbing shoulders and shaking hands and working with the top minds from the Police department and the Investigative agency in Queretaro, the second safest state in Mexico.

On one such occasion we had the honor of meeting with the top boss of the department. A distinctly charming man he was and seemed even smarter in his thoughts. As a token of appreciation he handed to each of us a cross and told us the story behind this. Here goes ……..

Year 1697 - Fr. Antonio Margil is believed to have traveled from Guatemala to Queretaro, the distance of 700 miles barefoot in only 14 days, to take up the responsibility of Father Guardian of Holy Cross Monastery of Queretaro.

It is believed that on his return one day from preaching a mission in a nearby village, Fr. Margil stuck his walking cane on the ground in the garden of the courtyard adjoining the Monastery. Some days passed, and it was noticed that the cane had begun to sprout and grown into a tree. The miraculous tree produces no flower or fruit, but has a series of small thorns, each in the form of a cross. Each cross, in its turn, presents three smaller thorns that simulate the spikes of the crucifixion.

It is believed that people have tried to plant cuttings from this tree in other places, but they will not grow anywhere else. The tree can still be seen in the monastery courtyard even today.

Bye! from the team for now.

 

‘THE’ Security Team: Biometrics-San - Dancing Machine - IBM Wikipedia - PowerPoint Ninja - The Rooster

5.30 am and the alarm goes off. I jump out of bed to start my day’s routine with my morning jog/ walk and end past midnight post personal catch up with the family (courtesy the time difference).  Between that time I have had plenty of food, work and fun – not necessarily in the same order of priority.

I would say we have clients who are very pleasant, supportive and more than anything passionate. This makes it more determining for us to show substantial results.

A view of my walk this morning - Amy June, Kenji, Laura and I step out of the hotel with a “Buenos dias’ to the person at the door and feel the cool breeze sweeping past us. I start my brisk walk and see that Laura is keeping pace. I see the roads to be wet and ask Laura if rain water harvesting is adopted in Queretaro. In no time she gets me thinking of my folks back home by asking “do you have a water tank back home”. This follows with a flurry of questions about the water distribution system, water supply mechanism, water filters, water harvesting, etc in India. At the end of this long conversation, on this topic, Laura stops by saying she will have to mention my name as a source in her report. I have a smile on my face.

I guess this is an indication of the passion towards the projects we are all engaged in. We want to make a difference and I am sure we will.

Dedication to my walking/ jogging partners

I do not want to speak about my own project though as we are working on a top secret project to make Queretaro a ‘safe city’. Want to mention though that I am working with a Fantastic and Funtastic team - great at work and at having fun. Each one has a nick name in the team,

Amy June Chan from Hong Kong - "Powerpoint Ninja".

Barbara Danzl from Austria/Switzerland/The Alps - "The Rooster"

Chandru Kavichandran - "IBM Wikipedia"

Gary Halpin (me) from Ireland - "Biometrics-San".

Kenji Matsuzawa - "Dancing Machine"

Dedication to my team - “THE” Security Team (A picture i sent to my daughter as she wanted to know about my team members)

Hasta luego!!

Hola from the Security Team

Hola.

This is the security team. We were looking for a nice photo of us but this is the best we could come up with:

We are Amy June (Hong Kong), Gary Halpin (Ireland), Barbara Danzl (the Alps), Kenji Matsuzawa (Japan), and Chandru Kavichandran (India) - brought together by the IBM CSC program to try to make Mexico a more secure place. Of course, we did not realise that we would be doing that for Queretaro, one of the safest regions in Mexico. We feel more safe here than we do in our own countries. Particularly from the Control Room of the Department of Public Safety (called C4, like the explosive) where we can watch operators examine all of the city through cameras.

Mexico is a slightly different place to work than our own countries. Everybody is very nice. Much more polite than they are in our own countries. We're going to have major readjustment issues when we get back to our own cultures and start barking at people again instead of wondering how they are feeling at all times. Almost every conversation ends in a reassuring hug.

And as for the food... We may need bigger baggage allowances because everything is fried and delicious. We no longer remember what fruit looks like. We are living off Vitamin T (tacos, tortillas and the occasional tequila (especially tea-total Amy Junio)).

We're also doing work too... but we'll save that for another blog.

As soon as I reached the hotel in Mexico City, I refreshed myself and headed enthusiastically towards the restaurant to meet the team and take part in the dinner hosted by the IBM local team in Mexico. We had a nice informal intro to each other, and we talked a lot about our country, hobbies, food, and our cultural specialties. We got an overview of IBM’s presence in the country and other growth plans. Each of us had a short interview with the IBM Communications team. Overall, it was a casual, yet fruitful get-together.

Right after the dinner, just hit the bed and almost crashed! Couldn’t hardly open my eyes. It was tiring, but I could not sleep well because of the jet lag. Called home and spoke to my family for some time and then forced myself to sleep for a while so I can be a little fresh the next day morning.

Buenas Noches!!  (Good night)

#ibmcsc Mexico

After miles and miles of journey up in the air, and hours and hours of wait at the connecting airports, I finally landed to Mexico last night! I think it’s quite an adventure for me – 40+ hours journey has always been unimaginable to me, but I went thro it! However, I must say it’s really worth the waitJ. 

14 CSC leaders from different geographical locations, diverse job backgrounds and cultures, but with a unified focus on contribution towards emerging communities and their development and global citizenship...I think working with this kind of a team is a UNIQUE opportunity!

#ibmcsc