On a sunny and warm Tuesday afternoon, IT professionals from across campus made their way to the Alumni House where they shared a moment of celebration and comradery. To kick off the event, Dave Browne, Director of IST-Infrastructure Services and Telecommunications led the group in an intriguing ice breaker. As this year’s chair of the One IT committee, he asked everyone in the room to find someone near them they did not already know, introduce themselves, then delve into working together to develop a secret One IT handshake - all within a 5-minute timeframe.
As the volume and commotion in the room increased, teams iterated on their best ideas to arrive at a final handshake to potentially be shared out to the larger group gathered. The first five duos willing to share their handshake won a prize: Caroline Boyden (IST-API Web Access) and Thom Stokes (ITCS); Sornette Thomas (IST-Telecom) and Kimberly Carl (VC Research Office); Jane Valentine (IST Enterprise Applications-SIS) and Lucy Greco (IST-API Web Access with Dwight, who played an integral part in their presentation); Gladys Oddoye (IST-Telecom) and Liza Schlosser (RTL-AIS); plus Katie Dustin (SAIT) and Usha Manandhar (Haas IT) all walked away with an Amazon gift card, a cool new handshake, and a new friend. See photos and videos
Next, CIO Larry Conrad took to the podium for a brief program that featured the welcoming of new staff including IT leadership that have joined us in recent months. He then announced some of the individuals and teams who have received awards over the past year pointing to their accomplishments and collaborative efforts that led to their success. Read a transcript of his presentation here | Meet new employees and award winners
Lots of good food, beverages, and conversation spilled into the evening. A nice closing to the event was having an ASUC team bring the remaining food items back to their office for student employees to enjoy, arranged by Margarita Zeglin.