Wooahh ooaah 1/2 way there......

I can't believe we're halfway through the assignment.  Our IBM CEED team (aka. CSC Sub-team) were just talking today about how we looked at the 30-day assignment as such a LOONG time to be away from our family, friends and home country and now here we are speeding through the month.  MAKE IT STOP!  There is still so much to do, so much to see and so much to experience.  Don't get me wrong, I miss my family, friends and co-workers but, this continues to be more than I could have ever expected.

A little Design Thinking empathy map (it's not all fun here)..

This week was a busy week.  The honeymoon is really over and it's down to work.  On top of our work with the CEED organization which was busy planning their fall kick-off event with a speaker from Australia we were busy preparing and presenting our PM Basics class to 16 energetic High Schoolers at Gimnazija Poljane.  Slovenia is in good hands with these students.

Gimnazija Poljane

PM presentation team.

In addition, we were invited to attend the CEED Fall Kick-Off event to observe how they ran their events, how their members, mentors and general attendees interacted.  We took this opportunity to converse with a few and see how they felt about CEED, how CEED helped the community and how entrepreneurship was progressing in Slovenia.  We discovered that CEED in fact does provide a tremendous service to their members and the entrepreneur community in general.  Their passion is infectious and it bleeds into the support and services they provide. 

CEED team+1 (all were invited, but there was another NGO event at the same time)

CEED-Slovenia

Andrej (CEED Sales Leader)

 The rest of the week we continued to host workshops and have discussions with our client.  We're so pleased with their willingness to believe in the process and embrace some ideas they've never experienced.  Our team continues to work as a single unit.  Often when we're in the larger group or waiting on others from the larger group to meet up and go for dinner....there's the "CEED Team" ready for the next step, on-time and ready.  The magic that's worked on putting the teams together and assign us to our NGO's really is "magic."

CEED-Team @ work & advertising

IBM CEED team & CEED-Slovenia

Finally we wrapped the week up with what they do in Ljubljana....OPEN KITCHEN.  Similar to the Friday when we arrived, we had an opportunity to taste some local cuisine and it was delicious.  After dinner we finished with movie night in the hotel workroom.  Imagine, 13 adults watching an animated movie (COCO) with popcorn (bought at the grocery) and sitting around conference tables in stiff chairs.  I wouldn't have changed a second of it.

Previews....bring on the movie!!

I wish I was a better writer and nearly as good as some of my fellow CSCers so, I could better describe this rich experience and country in the depths it's being experienced.  For the IBMers reading this...sign-up for CSC ASAP and best of luck.  For friends and family, book your trip and bring me back to this city and country.

It really is WOW!

Tomorrow we're off for more adventures and another wonderful tour.  Sights to be seen

• Predjama Cave
• Postojna Cave
• Piran (Slovenian Coast)

Stay tuned for pics and my next Blog post.

Bonus Pic.....  Milk is delivered to this machine daily for local townspeople to fill their jugs.  How cool!!