Yesterday, I had the chance to represent IBM on a Filipino national news network. Live. On the Early Edition program of a news channel that someone told me is like the equivalent of CNN in the Philippines. It would be a huge understatement to say that I was nervous. I was picked up at my hotel at 5AM to drive to Makati to the satellite studio of ACN News. Director Richard (of Department of Science & Technology, Science & Technology Information Institute) met me there, along with the IBM Communications Leader and the Corporate Citizenship Leader.
The interview was about 15 minutes and it was about STARBOOKS and the work that IBM is doing to partner with the STARBOOKS team. The interviewer asked me about the recommendations we made to the team and asked about the work IBM is doing with Department of Science & Technology in the Philippines. My sub-team has just provide our detailed recommendations to Director Richard and the team on Monday so I was able to talk a bit about the recommendations (at a high level). It was a strange feeling to have the make-up artists and the cameramen…and very unnatural to sit still and stare at the camera. But I got through it and I’m so happy that I had that experience. It was something I have never done before. But I also feel like the only way to truly grow and develop as a person is to try new things and be pushed beyond your comfort zone. And this was definitely one of those moments I will never forget! Since it was live TV, we didn’t see the segment right away. But instead had to wait until it was posted on the Facebook sites later in the day. However, my husband somehow managed to live stream it and he watched it live with the kids. So he sent me these pictures that I saw as soon as I stepped out of the interview and I teared up seeing them! I was so touched that they were able to watch it and am just so happy to have the support of my amazing husband through all of this. And I hope that someday my kids will realize that the world is a pretty crazy place with so many things to experience and that they can do anything they set their mind to 😀
If you would like to check out the segment, you can find it by scrolling down on either of these pages.
https://www.facebook.com/ANCearlyedition/
https://www.facebook.com/IBMPhils/
Here are some behind-the-scenes photos from the interview (and my fan club in Connecticut)!
Oh and I almost forgot, we had our meeting to walk through our detailed final recommendations with the STARBOOKS team on Monday and everything went great! They were happy with our recommendations and the roadmap. We had our final presentations today with the bigger group…will write a separate post about that. But in the meantime, here are some shots from the meeting on Monday in the DOST STII office. Final recommendations + Polish chocolates + homemade Dinuguan (pork blood soup) and some other goodies too!
The Opposite Side of the World 