On Friday evening, we attended the Sun IEC Annual Event at Speed Zone. Most of us took transportation by buses hired for this purpose. I took one of the first buses, and we are the first batch to reach there at the venue, by about 3.30pm.

I thought that spending time here till 10.00pm would be tough, but it turned out to be other way round.

The Fun Session
Once done with welcome beverages, I was the first one to head to a couple of counters: FacePainting and Caricature. My caricature came up really funny and is worth keeping it. One of these days, I am going to scan it and post it.
The face paining guy offered both face and hand options and I chose the face option. Got a scorpion painted on my forehead. Looked very funny, that too being the first ever face paint I have got.

The Mock Gambling Session
Then went to the mock casino talbes. Didn’t get any luck here. Happy that most of my team members won some coupons there and got some give aways. Would have been good if I won something for Spurthi and Surya, but its okay.

The Messaging Session
By the time I am done with the gambling part, they started the facilitations session. The teams and individuals who won the annual IEC awards are called on to the stage and are introduced by their respective managers. This is a very good session. Good to see lot of new talent at IEC winning the awards, signifying that the site has multiple generations of leadership incubating. This is good for IEC and good for Sun overall.
Three of our team members won the annual awards. From Systems Management, Harshit won the award. Congratulations to all the winners. They did a splendid job!
After the awards, Vijay Anand did a preso summarizing FY06 and explaining the key goals for FY07.

The Internal Talent Session
The first program by the internal talent is a skit by all the managers. It is very entertaining to see managers making fun of the stereo type management situations. I loved the program. With better timing, this could have been a fantastic slapstick comedy program.
Next is the dance by Arvind, Bhaskar, Naveen, Shiv and Abitav. They danced for a couple of popular dance numbers. With just one day’s practice, they did a very good job. The last few seconds of the dance are very energetic.
Then came a very well prepared dance number by Mayuresh and a couple of other women colleagues. I don’t know their names, will be happy to correct this entry at a later time. This is a very systematic dance session by these three.
Next is some sort of a fun program where a dozen volunteers are asked to go below an elevated bar while dancing. This is good to watch.

The Impromptu Session
Then the stage is being set for the professional band. During that time, the program coordinator has done a few impromptu items. I volunteered for a fun one.
This guy asked “Anyone volunteering to speak non-stop for 20 seconds, without a break?” I volunteered and asked for a clarification: “Can it be in any language?” The answer is yes, as long as it is not a song sort of thing. Well, promptly used my mother tongue, Telugu.
I thought only a politician can talk non-stop. So tried to mimic Chandrababu Naidu. Started with the offer that I will work sleepless and ensure that the entire administration goes sleepless. Then said that we will attract people to Hyderabad, including Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Then thanked all the Telugu people in the gathering, thanked all the Kannadiga siblings there and all the siblings from India.

Haven’t noticed the time, but spoke continuously for more than the stipulated time. Lot of people later appreciated this extempore speech, whether they understood the language or not. Thanks guys!

The Drinks Session
While the professional band started playing our team members branched off to the beverages counter. Didn’t find the only type I consume, wine. So had to live on colas. Folks in our team enjoyed the beer and danced to the band’s catchy numbers. Spent more than an hour in that session.

And then I danced
Had dinner and then went to the stage again. This time, I got in to the dancing crowd. For the first time, I danced at a work related gathering. Tired a lot after a few numbers, indicating that I should get rid of those tyres around my tummy soon. Happy to spend quality time dancing with members of Sun IEC.
We headed out of the place only at around 11pm. Since it is Spurthi’s brithday on Saturday, I am taking a 3.30am flight to hyderabad. Arvind dropped me at airport. On our way, Arvind and Harish had a short burst of racing sense, but both of them gave up given the hour. At the airport, I started killing time by compiling a few blog entries, including this one. These will be posted once I reach home and hook up my laptop. (There are a couple of wireless networks my Solaris laptop could detect at the airport, but none of them offer a free ride!)
In summary, the annual event is a great fun and also is a good time to reward our great coworkers. We got a summary of our accomplishments last year and a glimpse of our goals next year. Lets forge ahead with the renewed energy!