We have come to the USA with a single mission! To build bridges of friendship. We were told that we were the cultural and vocational ambassadors of our country in the USA and in the state of Arizona. It was told to us in our orientations that we were to "Expect the Unexpected". We were given critical feedback of our presentations and were made to redo it to suit the goals of the GSE program. A large part of our discussion during our weekly meetings went on into the presentation and what should be done with it. After all this, we were at last ready to GO LIVE.
The 13th of April 2010 was the day chosen for our first presentation. The venue was Estrella Mountain Rotary Club and we were to make the presentation after lunch at the venue. The morning program on that day was a vocational visit to Macy's Operations and Logistics Center. We completed the visit and were there at Lucy's office early and we tried to rehearse the presentation within the time available to us. Everyone of us was nervous. Me and Dr. Upendra were able to rehearse our portions and while Namratha was half way through the rehearsal, we were asked to wind up as time was ticking.
We took our laptops, packed our bags and got into the van that was designated to us. Lucy and Deb were accompanying us and they were constantly pepping us up and telling us that we would do well. "Dont Worry! It will all be fine!" was what they were saying till we reached the venue. As we reached Estrella Mountain Community College, where the club was located, Namratha, Sushma and Umesh had completed looking into their parts and had rehearsed their portions in the van itself.
In no time we were in the venue. As we entered the hall where we were supposed to give the presentation, the first thing that struck me was the gigantic screen which was set up for us to give the presentation. We were introduced to Dave who was the tech guy who did the setup and he asked us to get the presentation ready on our thumb drive so that he could copy it onto the computer and we could get started. Dave also helped us setup the start and the end slides in accordance with the clubs requirements.
People began coming in and we were meeting them. The President of the club informed us that Lucy was introducing us that day and then we had the floor to ourselves. He said we could take our time to finish, but indicated that fifteen to twenty minutes would be ideal. There we were! Sitting at our tables and showing off calmness and composure, but within we were as nervous as a lost toddler. No one ate lunch even when it was offered. And then the hour came.
Lucy introduced us to the group. Then Dr. Upendra opened the presentation, followe by me, Namratha, Umesh and Sushma. Finally our Team Leader Dr. Upendra concluded the presentation.
Folks let me tell you! It was an amazing job. We executed our plans correctly and recieved a lot of appreciation. I could tell that the praise we were getting was not for the sake of courtesy. Some people walked up to us and appreciated us. They told us that we not only did our parts well, but we were amazing as a team. Lucy really liked the way we divided the portions that we wanted to talk. Many of them liked the way we handed the stage over to the next team member. They were all enquiring about how we prepared, who suggested us to do this way. When we told them that we figured that out on our own, they were surprised.
Some of the Rotarians told us that some other members who missed the presentation would join on the 15th April 2010. Our hosts were appreciative too. We created our first impression and had set the expectations of people. If there were some who thought we had just come there to spend time, they now had second thoughts. They were aware of the effort that went into the preparatory part. Many of them had told us, "It never looked like you were presenting for the first time!"
In the evening, we all met at Augie's at our reception dinner. There too people came up to us and told us that they have heard about our presentation. They said, they were planning to bring themselves and some family members to take a look at our presentation and learn from it. We were honored. All that we had done for the past three to four months time - Planning, Designing, Redesigning, Researching, Getting strong feedback from Rotarians, etc., all was fruitful that day. We all forgot completely all that pain we had undergone and basked in the glory of our effort.
There were two lessons that I had personally learnt from this. I am stating them below for you to ponder and comment upon.
1. Hard work pays. One has to have the patience till then.
2. Its the team that matters.
But then, the task ahead of us now is more difficult. We have shown people what we are capable of. And we have the responsibility to keep that image. As SpiderMan says "With great power comes great responsibility". We have shown our power, we have to now own up responsibility and deliver. We promise that we will do our best to make this trip a successful one.
And if you are thinking we are not having fun, wait till my next post!!
No comments:
Post a Comment