CSC China 30 - Team Video

#ibmcsc China 30

Here is a video made by our team for our stay in Xi'an, China as part of the CSC China 30 Team. Enjoy and please leave your feedback here or on the YouTube page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FECBSxYzbB8

Day 29 - 12th September: The journey...

#ibmcsc China 30

The journey back to home was a bit tiring with 3 flights for a total flying time of just 8 hours. Since my previous flights got cancelled, the new itinerary made me travel from Xi'an to Guangzhao then to Bangkok and Bangalore. I even had to take a Visa on Arrival at Bangkok as I had two different tickets and needed to clear immigration before checking-in for the next flight to Bangalore. But, it also meant I did not have to spend too much time waiting for the flights. Most of the layover time was spent completing these formalities.

Now it all feels surreal and unreal. I was in China yesterday with a group of amazing people and then I am at home with the normal day to day work. Though it feels nice to come back home and be with the family, there are so many memories of the last month that keep taking me back to Xi'an. I guess it will take a few more days for me to get used to my regular life.

I have tried to keep this blog updated throughout the assignment and I don't remember having missed any day without a post. However, I will not be so regular now since this blog was all about my CSC experience. We will definitely have more interactions as part of our post-assignment work and I will write about those as and when I have an update.

Back to the daily grind now...

Day 28 - 11th September: Goodbye...

#ibmcsc China 30

The last day of our stay in Xi'an. We had our closing ceremony today and the rest of the day was spent in packing,

The closing ceremony was an informal event where all of us, the CSC participants, our clients and our NGO implementation partner, VSO shared our experiences over the last 4 weeks and said thanks to each other. All of our clients spoke about how the IBMers showed passion towards the projects and the professionalism with which we worked. They also mentioned how the recommendations provided by all the teams will help them grow and it felt really wonderful that maybe, we were able to make a difference. Our clients invited us to spend the evening them to explore another part of the city followed by dinner. So, we went exploring the city even on the last day :)

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. We could have never imagined that we will all become so close to each other in such a short period of time. But, we spent last 30 days together. We worked together and had fun together. It was really an emotional moment when we all met in the hotel lobby and hugged each other. Some of us had tears in the eyes. I hope we get to meet our team members in the future somewhere in the world.

Goodbye and Good Luck to Everyone...

The ZHHZ Incubation Center Team

The last selfie

The final group picture

Never too late to explore more

The Team

Day 27 - 10th September: Sharing our experiences...

#ibmcsc China 30

Yesterday was a very busy day with a lot of things to close before we leave for home. We had our internal wrap-up meeting with Jasmine (IBM China Citizenship Manager) where we all shared our experiences of the last 30 days. It was interesting to listen to each other and to know how we felt about this program, our project and China, in general.

As I wrote a few times earlier, the most amazing thing for me was how a bunch of people from different countries, with different culture, having different skills met each other for the first time in another country with a completely unknown language and then worked together on a project in an

Internal wrap-up meeting...Sharing our experiences...

entirely new industry with such a short timeline (16 working days) and were able to deliver a very meaningful output. I liked how James (from UK) put it; if it was a traditional project and the Project Manager would perform a risk analysis, it will be quite difficult to justify taking up this project :)

But, we did it!

I also worked on a team video for our closing ceremony and everyone liked it. I hope all our clients, their stakeholders and the media also like it when it is played today. It was fun making this video and I will upload it on YouTube soon.

I had some thrill in the last couple of days as my flight from Xi'an to Bangkok got cancelled. The airline offered me flights for the 13th but my Visa expires on the 12th and I need to leave China before that :) So, I am supposed to leave tomorrow and I still don't know when and how! But, I am sure it will get sorted out today.

Day 26 - 9th September: We did it...

#ibmcsc China 30

Yay! We did it!

We delivered our final presentation today and it went very well. The feedback from our clients was very positive and they believe our recommendations will help them improve their operations and provide better services to entrepreneurs. Some of the kind words they had for us:

"You taught us a new way of thinking"
"We are impressed by your professionalism and your passion"
"90% of the content in your presentation was something that we learnt for the first time"
"You showed us a happy way of working"

It feels wonderful and satisfying that we were able to make a difference to an organization and a community. We sincerely hope the clients implement our recommendations and it helps them achieve their goals.

It also seems unbelievable that all of us, from different parts of the world, who met each other for the first time here, were able to work together on a subject we had no idea about and were able to provide a meaningful output in such a short period of time. All of that while having fun and experiencing a completely new culture!

So, with all the deliverables provided to the client, we now have time to enjoy the last couple of days together and we plan to make the most out of it.

The Final Picture

I can read Chinese :)

Lunch after the final presentation

Day 25 - 8th September: The Longest Day...

#ibmcsc China 30

It was the longest working day for our team on this assignment. Even though most of the content for our presentation was ready a couple of days back, finalizing it, formatting it and then getting the last few things translated took too much time. We also did two dry runs of the presentation to time ourselves and get feedback from the other team members on what to say and when. This also helped our interpreter, Lisa, to know what we are going to say in the final presentation which will help her interpret effectively.

We started at 8.30 in the morning and it was about 11 PM by the time we finished everything. But, we are happy with our final deliverables and hopefully, the clients will also see value in our approach and recommendations.

The CSC program is as much about the entire process experience as about the final deliverables and the community impact. We have enjoyed this experience and we believe we have made some, even though small, impact on the community here.

Preperation in full swing...

Day 24 - 7th September: Just one more thing to do...

#ibmcsc China 30

We have our daily team meetings with all the CSC China 30 team members to discuss everyone's project progress and any concerns or issues. For the last couple of days, our NGO partner contact, Shen Shuo, is attending this meeting to talk about the schedule for the last few days of the program. In every meeting, it is like "Oh, by the way, you need to prepare this also for the wrap-up meeting" :D

The tasks seem to keep adding up one after the other. We anticipated this and kept our final presentation to the clients a day before everyone else. So, now we have time to take care of all the other requirements like preparing an Executive Summary for the closing ceremony, preparing documents for the IBM China Citizenship Team etc.

Our final presentation is on the 9th and now we have just one more day to get everything ready. Our presentation is almost done with just a final review and formatting, followed by a dry run.

This is our project schedule...we were able to meet all the milestones