The value of diversity put to work

More news about the makeup of my team. There will be 10 of us in total, 5 men, 5 women. Countries represented on the team include Brazil, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, Russia, India, China and USA - I'm the only one from North America on the team. The team is a little tech heavy skills-wise but that's to be expected and the range of experience is 2-25 years with IBM. Now that's diversity!!!!

We'll be working with a facilitator based in Australia as well as an NGO partner based in Australia that is going to identify projects and handle logistics.

Set Course Heading!

I'm going to The Philippines! Just got back from vacation this week to the news that I will be doing my services project in Bacolod in October. It is on the island of Negros and supposedly one of the the most modern, friendly, and green city in the country. The city is also a tech hub which makes sense for us and there is a lot of BPO (business process outsourcing) happening there - mainly call centers. There have been a few teams that have gone to the Philippines already with positive experiences, although we will be the first team in Bacolod.

Of course I'm excited, particularly since this is definitely a place I would not have made it to on my own. While business is conducted in English, I'm sure learning a few phrases in the filipino language Tagalog will go a long way. We'll see how much I can actually pick up in the next 3 months before I leave.