Polycom Hosts Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America for STEM Career Day

[Andy Cuneo (Andy_Cuneo)]

For me, it’s fun to watch enthusiasm. I used to say the difference between a college professor who loved his job, and one who didn’t was an “A” and a “C”. Now I can’t prove that. What I can prove is we all play in the collaboration technology space. And we wouldn’t do it unless we loved it.

So when someone else shares your excitement for what you do, it does nothing but re-ignite your love for technology. That excitement was there last Friday, as we hosted members of the Boys and Girls Club in three locations, including my home EEC in Herndon. Kids of all ages, from elementary school to high school seniors, sat and listened intently to what our job is like.

From an inspirational introduction from Jeff Rodman, who provided an historical and entertaining look at how Polycom was formed, that connected all three locations together, to individual EEC tours and a chance to play with the technology, it was clear kids were very interested in what we do.

Here’s a snapshot from each experience center:

Herndon

After kicking off the morning we introduced the kids to a few local experts including myself (public relations), Ron Emerson (Polycom healthcare expert and RN), Sean Berg (VP Public Sector Sales) and Renee Niebylski (briefing manager for Polycom’s Executive Experience Centers). Following the career panel we gave the kids a tour of the Herndon Executive Experience Center where they got the opportunity to experience Polycom technology, like the RealPresence Immersive Studio, first hand.

Austin

After the introduction from Jeff Rodman, the Austin team broke into a session with the creators of Polycom’s latest innovation, Polycom RealPresence Centro. Alain Nimri, Stephen Schafer and Shu Gao shared how they researched the challenges of the traditional conference room which led them to the creation of RealPresence Centro.

New York

Our New York event was largely sales focused with presentations by Virtual Experience Manager Brian Amato, Global Account Manager Dina Becchina, Director of Systems Engineering Mike McLean and Briefing Manager Caitlin Thompson. After the Q&A session the participants in New York connected with those in the Herndon office to meet via Polycom RealPresence Immersive Studio.

At the end of the day all the kids were brought back into one video conference to discuss what they had learned throughout the day. Their biggest learning was that inventions come from having a problem and creating a solution for it. The final task was to come up with inventions that could solve a problem or make something easier to do, and they all came up with really great ideas!

Looking forward to the opportunity to share my work experiences with my kids. I have to wonder at that time, whether they will actually be teaching me.