September 07, 2006
(This entry will explain why I wasn't able to blog yesterday.)
Today was my first ever "coffee talk" meeting as a member of HP's Applications Development and Solution Integration Team, or ADSI. The ADSI coffee talk is a monthly meeting (there is a quaterly coffee talk for all of HP Global Delivery Philippine Center, or GDPC) where announcements are made and issues are raised. Also, it's the time for new-hires to be formally introduced to the whole team.
Yesterday afternoon, the organizers informed us that all new-hires are required to show off their talents. Meaning, the coffee talk will be the venue of our first-ever presentation, with less than a day to prepare. They split us up into three groups. Paul, Andrew, and I (new-hires under Jason) were grouped together while the rest were divided into two groups of five each. We decided to make up for our shortage of manpower by exerting maximum effort. And we did. In fact, we probably overdid it.
One group decided to do a simple pun-ny guitar and song number ("HP-cially for You"), while the other did a comedic photo slideshow in Powerpoint with voice bubbles and background music. On the other hand, my group (the "Tres Amigos") would not settle for anything less than a full-fledged video complete with video transitions, full voice acting, sound effects, and music to match the mood. Since we didn't have time to shoot lots of footage, we just took still-photos and put them all together using Windows Movie Maker. (It was a good thing I chose to bring the IXUS i Zoom yesterday.)
Our 4-minute video was about a HP new-hire's first day of work. He falls asleep less than an hour into his new job while reading boring online learning material. He wakes up hours later finding himself all alone in an abandoned unfinished office (shot in the 7th floor yesterday, just before it opened today), with no Internet and phone connections. He explores around a bit and finds himself trapped... in the 13th floor (cue psycho-killer music from "Psycho"). After finding this out, he gets woken up, for real this time, and discovers that it was all a dream. He has learned his lesson: Never fall asleep on the job. Paul and Andrew were quick to "volunteer" me for the lead role, saying that they couldn't imagine anyone but me playing the part. Of course, I was quick to accept because I couldn't miss the chance to make myself known, even if I did have to do plenty of embarrassing scenes.
To make an already long story shorter, our presentation was a hit with the ADSI people. Only after all that embarrassment did I realize that we did an amazing job, especially with our limited time and resources. I was proud of the fact that we put in a tremendous amount of effort not because of a potential reward (there was none), but because we just wanted to do our best.
I'm really sorry but I can't share the film online; HP Confidential, you know. However, I can show you this shot (this is after I realize that the phone line is dead:
Today was my first ever "coffee talk" meeting as a member of HP's Applications Development and Solution Integration Team, or ADSI. The ADSI coffee talk is a monthly meeting (there is a quaterly coffee talk for all of HP Global Delivery Philippine Center, or GDPC) where announcements are made and issues are raised. Also, it's the time for new-hires to be formally introduced to the whole team.
Yesterday afternoon, the organizers informed us that all new-hires are required to show off their talents. Meaning, the coffee talk will be the venue of our first-ever presentation, with less than a day to prepare. They split us up into three groups. Paul, Andrew, and I (new-hires under Jason) were grouped together while the rest were divided into two groups of five each. We decided to make up for our shortage of manpower by exerting maximum effort. And we did. In fact, we probably overdid it.
One group decided to do a simple pun-ny guitar and song number ("HP-cially for You"), while the other did a comedic photo slideshow in Powerpoint with voice bubbles and background music. On the other hand, my group (the "Tres Amigos") would not settle for anything less than a full-fledged video complete with video transitions, full voice acting, sound effects, and music to match the mood. Since we didn't have time to shoot lots of footage, we just took still-photos and put them all together using Windows Movie Maker. (It was a good thing I chose to bring the IXUS i Zoom yesterday.)
Our 4-minute video was about a HP new-hire's first day of work. He falls asleep less than an hour into his new job while reading boring online learning material. He wakes up hours later finding himself all alone in an abandoned unfinished office (shot in the 7th floor yesterday, just before it opened today), with no Internet and phone connections. He explores around a bit and finds himself trapped... in the 13th floor (cue psycho-killer music from "Psycho"). After finding this out, he gets woken up, for real this time, and discovers that it was all a dream. He has learned his lesson: Never fall asleep on the job. Paul and Andrew were quick to "volunteer" me for the lead role, saying that they couldn't imagine anyone but me playing the part. Of course, I was quick to accept because I couldn't miss the chance to make myself known, even if I did have to do plenty of embarrassing scenes.
To make an already long story shorter, our presentation was a hit with the ADSI people. Only after all that embarrassment did I realize that we did an amazing job, especially with our limited time and resources. I was proud of the fact that we put in a tremendous amount of effort not because of a potential reward (there was none), but because we just wanted to do our best.
I'm really sorry but I can't share the film online; HP Confidential, you know. However, I can show you this shot (this is after I realize that the phone line is dead:
Labels: embarrassment, friends, HP, videos, work
Sounds hilarious! Who would have known that acting and directing were among your talents?!
bwahahaha the confidential clause strikes again