It's Still Going

The group sessions have been wonderful. Each of the track leaders (or, more often than not, their delegates) are getting up and talking about what they discussed and their ideas and innovations. Of course I am biased, but there seems to be a real buzz, with people searching each other out at the breaks and getting into passionate conversations instead of sneaking a look at the Blackberry.

Most of the participants went on a tour of EA and ended up in our company store. I don't think it has ever had 60 people flood it at once. Everyone came out with bags packed with different stuff. I thought maybe 5 people tops would want to shop instead of eat (it was a quick trip during a quick lunch).

Gerry posted a comment on the blog while he was sitting in the big session. That is really cool, especially since getting the wireless arrangements set up was such a pain. I hope more people take advantage of that.

And I love Julian's post over at EXCELER8ion about Open Source. We miss you Julian, and hope that you and Shannon can make it to the next one (whenever that may happen). And I have to tell you... I don't think anybody is holding back. Competitors seem to be sharing their deepest insights. Everyone seems to  more focused on how to bring value to the group than on how to get advantage for their employer. Of course I'm not exactly an unbiased source. Thanks for your virtual support!

Comments

[Scotty Morrison]

Jeff

Great minds at work. I had to slip out but kudos for inspiring us to engage in meaningful conversations. And as practitioners, we all held one another accountable for how our ideas could truly be executed. Extremely smart people and very little pimping of products and services. My favorite takes of the day were the "recruiting 102", big pipe and sumser's many. Rack em.

I felt like during our sourcing discussion (shally and kristi did an excellent job) we were an incubator of beautiful minds formulating a well-thought out business plan and left there ready to go ask for money on Sand Hill Road. The networking and idea exchanging in this format were also invaluable. And 10 shekels for 5 games (including Madden NFL!) was too good to pass up even for a non-gamer!

Today made me feel like we do meaningful work. Keep on keepin on. Mahalo for everything.

-Scotty

[Hans Gieskes]

Wow - what a hell of a ride yesterday was. "un" = "in" as far as I'm concerned. I was impressed how swiftly people adapted to the un-format. My goal was to learn by having people disagree with me violently or graciously - Mission accomplished.

Two suggestions for improvement / alternative:
1. Rather than have group frame an issue and solve it, how about take 4 real EA recruiting issues or wishes and ask for solutions. And how about 4 over-the-top "So What" statements to exercise through. example: "Monster.com got abducted and is now on Mars - world without Monster", or "CEO just fired all the recruiters and gave hiring managers $25k budget for each open req") you are the hiring managers.

2. rather than run each track twice, how about having the afternoon team critique the mornings team proposals. (we would need a jury of wise old men: Sumser + Hunter...)

Thanks again for having me!

hans