It's been a while since last post. Since then I've been down to Sydney, Perth and the Gold Coast. Sydney was great, I caught up with old team mates, hung out with Gabi, went to Brett Hoffman's birthday and saw a lot of the trainees (hopefully not for the last time before they go!). Ironically, having gone to Sydney because Penny was in town, I was informed I would then be going to Perth for training the next week.
The training was really good, and the new budgeting module that is being released is really good. Now to get up a few models in time for the Qld Local Government amalgamations so that we can show them why ours is the product they need when councils merge and they need to throw out one system or another.

Next trip is planned to go to Ayr for a demo to a property development group, although it looks like I'm not going to Darwin as initially thought.

Two other things - I'm sick atm. Stupid cold that has been going around and claimed most of the people at work over the last month has finally caught up with me. I had thought I'd managed to dodge it, but no luck. And Uni starts again next week.

This will be my final semester as an undergrad student (I really hope I haven't missed something!!!). I'm anxious to get it over with, and want to do well again, but will be a little bit sad to see it end.

Labels: Brett Gibson, Holidays, QUT, Technology One, Update, Work

So the last month(ish) has seen no updates, but it's not because I haven't been doing anything, it's because I've been lazy and doing other things. Firstly, I chaired AIESEC's state Conference with Al Speirs, which was again a great experience. It's amazing to see how well AIESEC Qld has done in getting so many talented and eager new members. The conference had over 90 people, which is a far cry from the 40-50 that it normally gets! Of course along with the great sessions and big learning experiences from everyone who went (either as a delegate, facilitator, oc or chair), there was the annual skölling competition for the XXXX cup, and alumni won the coveted cup in a blazing effort. That means I've been part of the winning team of that cup 4 times in 5 years!

Also, after a mammoth period at work, we presented the largest demo I've been involved in to a potential client. We found out we didn't get the deal in the end which was a bit surprising, but was a fantastic challenge none the less. Otherwise at work things are going well, I'm enjoying getting the opportunity to present to clients more and more, and will at the end of the month present an hour session to QUT Accounting students. Ironic that they're getting an IT salesman with a background in HR to tell them about it :)

I've been down to sydney and had the most fantastic time, seeing everyone at Sveta, Susu and Jeremy's housewarming/red party, going to the Minus5 Ice-bar at Circular Quay, seeing movies, going to the Museum of Sydney, and the Wooloomooloo Community festival with Gabi. It was the best way to relax after the most stressful time in a long time!
Another reason it was stressful was because of the unit renovations, but I can say that the place looks freaking awesome (pictures still to come... yep, still no camera). So to celebrate the sweet looking pad, we had a toga party on Friday night. I think toga's are the way of the future... And I'm glad I got over the stomach bug/thing I had for the week, argh, I pride myself on never being sick, but this one had me feeling horrible. Surprising then that I had a lovely seafood lunch with Mum, Nana, David, Yvette and Brett (Jr) for mothers day on the Gold Coast. If it weren't for having to do the long train ride that I did most days of 3 years before moving to Sydney I'd definitely be down there more often. (Brett is soo cute. He has this knack for attracting good looking waitresses who adore him to the table which seems to be a skill that might get him into trouble in the future! ah to have curly blonde hair and great big blue eyes! :)

Now heading into some painfully busy weeks at uni with assignments and then into exam block. Starting to feel like I've got motivation to study again which is coming in at the right time and means I don't do the homework begrudgingly. Another semester of 6's and 7's? Hopefully! Fortunately the lack of any decent rain for however long it has been means that the last round of golf was terrible (to the point of having to tee up shots on the fairway!), so I'm not lamenting the lack of chasing the little white ball for the time being!

Labels: AIESEC, Brett Gibson, Family, Fun, Holidays, Home, QUT, Technology One, Update, Work

BRETT THE CHAIR

I've been to many, many, AIESEC conferences in my time, and now that I'm out of the organisation, the natural thing was to go back to another conference right? It's a bit like the mob, "You think you're out, but they pull you back in". I was asked by Ruthie on the Australian Member Committee to chair the Star Sellers Team Kickoff, which was basically a sales training conference in less ecoteric (non-AIESECronym) language. It was quite an experience. I'd like to say I was the best chair ever, but that's clearly not the case. Hopefully I added something to the experience and value that the delegates got out of the 3 days though. It really was a great concept which actually happened, so a huge congratulations to Ruthie for pulling it off. Leaving the conference there was really a sense of the delegates prepared to put in the hard yards to knock on doors and raise some internships.

After hours, I took the time to see off some great, great friends who are finishing their internships and heading home. Gerardo is hanging around working for GE, but was heading off to NZ for 6 months, Augusto was headed back to Italy - but not before a whirlwind tour of Europe to see the millions of people he seems to know after so long on the other side of the world. Most of all I'll miss Alenka. She really was great, and we spent some fantastic time together. It was interesting going to Prague for the AIESEC's European conference in March 05, because we got to speak a whole heap about Czech and the people over there, places we had to see, some of the insights from the short time over there. I was lucky enough to wear her Czech Hockey jersey - i'm told I was the only Aussie to have the honour. I've promised to return the favour by letting her wear an aussie cricket or rugby jumper when I finally get one. I suggested I'd get an aussie ice-hockey jersey when we made the world cup, but thought we should do it during our lifetime...

On Saturday night I went to the 2007 Chinese New Year Spectacular. Which had some phenominal dancers - if that is how good dancers are, I can't imagine how good Chinese ninjas must be. Rated as one of the Top 10 shows of 2006 by US Billboard magazine, it really was spectacular. Also making the night great was hanging out with Gabi, an intern at Real World Marketing in Sydney. We did some work together when we were both National VP ER's in Australia and Brasil, but never thought we'd meet, let alone get along as well as we do. She's even inspired me to start learning Portuguese! (more below).


MORE CONFERENCE. TechnologyOne style.

Getting back from a weekend with little to no sleep, I then backed-up with another conference. This time for TechnologyOne's Evolve User conference which was held on the Gold Coast. Not having been to a conference quite like this before I really wasn't sure what to expect, but it was great. I got to meet a bunch of clients I'd only ever heard the names of before, and the same for many of the TechOne staff (in Brisbane office or interstate). I won't go into the sessional detail too much, but they were really solid and gave a good picture of what the products made can do, but also where they're going. And I got to see a whole lot of TechOne'rs present so I can steal how they do things for my presentations!

Socially it was a blast. Coming from the AIESEC background, just about every conference I was either facilitating or organising, so being a delegate again was sooo much fun. I got to pick which sessions I went to, didn't have to run around stressing and got to party till the early hours. The last night involved Austin Powers, many, many drinks and Project Sunrise (picture right). So we stayed up to watch a fairly dismal sunrise behind clouds in Broadbeach before getting a 40 minute powernap and then setting up a support centre stand at 8am.


The planned "Week of golf" didn't pan out as the partying took over, but I did manage to get a round in with my brother on Saturday. Normally I play between 6-8am, this time was 10-12am - the resulting sunburn has my neck now peeling and my arms still a litle red. Slip, slap, slop! Good news was I hit a 41 at a par 30 course, so retained my first round score with the new clubs at St Lucia (47 of par 36)! Wasn't just a lucky round with them!

Labels: Brett Gibson, Fun, Golf, Home, Technology One, Update, Work

While I've never struggled too hard with academic life, it's fairly safe to say I am likely not to be a professional academic. I like the real world (QUT ad's were appealing :) and practical implications too much. Getting Pass's and Credit marks in Uni wasn't too concerning for me. And once I did better: My first Distinction (6) in Intro to Economics. It was also the last. I hadn't got a High Distinction (7). I wasn't too displeased because for the most part of my first 3 years of study my week went a bit like this:

• Working: 20-30 hours
  
• Travel to Uni: 10 hours
  
• AIESEC: 20-30 hours
  
• Socialise Wed/Fri/Sat (some Thurs in surfers) Avg 4hours: 12-15 hours
  
• Sitting in uni classes: 9hours
  
• Actual study: 0-1hour

And because AIESEC was both fun and I felt like it was achieving things I wouldn't otherwise, this was cool. Putting study aside for 18months meant I had a great time that I could focus on doing my work, but by the end I was chomping at the bit to get back into study. This semester I managed to actually do tutorials and assignments before they were due. And occasionally I even did the readings!

The result?
2 x Distinctions (6's). Very happy, remember I'd only got one before!
2 x High Distinctions (7's). crazy talk!

Glad to know that decent marks can happen when time and effort are applied!
Now to make sure my last two semesters keep up while I'm working at TechOne!

Question to those doing or done with uni studies - how long did you actually spend on each subject and do you now wish you spent more time on them or less time given 20/20 hindsight?

Labels: Brett Gibson, QUT, Technology One, Work

Career Dilema.
Technology One is going great guns. Although I'm a little stuck right now as one of my goals for a career was being a change management consultant to make sure that where largescale financial and enterprise systems were installed, I could play a positive karmic role by making sure the change was planned, managed and minimise the harsh affects on real people. Now 6 weeks into getting to know the product (well, products being Technology One Financials, Works, Business One, Budgeting, HR and Supply Chain) I've hit a wall. This system is able to function to the benefit of an organisation, and not have hugely adverse affects on end users...
So, if I still want to get into change management, I should stop selling this thing before news gets out. If I want to improve how business systems and people operate, I should sell this thing like there's no tomorrow.

So as far as I see there are some questions that I've started asking myself:
1. Was I planning for a position or an impact?
2. Would the path to the position change the impact I was looking to make?

Thing is I've always said that the outcome i was looking for was flexible, at least the path ahead is exciting whichever way!

Malaysia.
In little under a month I'll be in Malaysia for the Shell Gourami Competition. I was to have gone to Phuket, Thailand in September but the coup put a halt to that idea about 5 hours before I was due to get on the plane. The place we're staying (Shangri-la Resort) looks great - wonder if there'll be time to have a sneaky 9 or 18 holes while I'm there? A cool thing is that it's set among 400hectares of rainforest with Orangutans! Generally I'm not a huge fan of monkeys - an incident in grade 7 where the poo thrown in my direction hit a mate on a school zoo outing - but orangutans are one I don't mind.

The place is actually on the Island of Borneo. An interesting aside, and one I can't quite make up my mind about is that in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2003 we went aboard a boat with tons and tons of wood from Borneo, one of about 15 docked at the time. I understand that probably came from Indonesian states on the island of Borneo, but the Malaysian forests have also been decimated for plywood. Disallow people to make a living, albeit meagre, or safe the rainforest on the world's 4th largest Island (Australia IS an island. It is girt by sea and hence an island). I'm no environmentalist, but you have got to wonder.

Also, on Tuesday night I will be going to see The Cat Empire, which will be really good. I've enjoyed there music over the last little while, so looking forward to seeing them live. From all reports they put on a decent show. Will post to let you know how it is!

Oh yeah, finally, Brett Gibson is now number 7.

Labels: Brett Gibson, Technology One, Update

I'd like to introduce myself.
Just about everyone who reads this will probably know me, but may not have seen me or heard from me in a while (I email about as often as I blog...). And I hate randomly clicking links on pages to friends of friends blogs and not have a clue.

So, most would know me as an AIESECer. While I'm glad to be an alumnus, I am no longer in AIESEC, because I reckon 5 years is enough time to discover and develop my potential. I had a great time in AIESEC, from University Relations to Corporate Marketing, Project Manager and Company Director (MCVPER). Yes it takes up time, but what worthwhile thing doesn't? In that time I've managed to stay in Prague, Netherlands, Indonesia and London. Plus delivered week long conferences to nearly 200 people! What 22 year old could say that?!?!? Overall it's given me a lifetime of friends (I'll email some after this posting...), great memories, a broken nose, the greatest high's and many, many lovely ladies.

But in all honesty, AIESEC gave me a better idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. And it provided a great platform to help me get there through the experiences and people I met.

And while I was doing AIESEC, I was also at the university for the real world, QUT. B.Bus(HRM)/B.IT(InfoSys), it's taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but in just over a year I expect to be finished! It wasnt all in vain though, turns out with some minor adjustments to my initial enrolment, 5 years later I still want to work int he area that needs both degrees and Im more set than ever on getting there! I want to assist in change management where large scale Information Systems (or ERP Systems) impact on peoples' lives. So I get to make money and make the world a bit easier for many people at the same time.

And finally, after a few false starts with a couple of companies I'm finally working again! While the graduate offers came quite nicely, unfortunately the part-time roles weren't as forthcoming. I'm now working as a Junior Pre-Sales Consultant for Technology One in their head office in brisbane. They're a really exciting company who make some phenominal software. My role focuses mostly around the Finacials system, and today I looked at my first tender (just under 800 questions!) and put together a Pruchase Requisition Workflow diagram. Previously I wouldn't have thought about a smaller (non-global) company, or an accounting system (preferring the HR side), but it seems like there's lots of challenge, opportunity and growth ahead. Global expansion, upgrades, presentations and pre-sales. sweet.

Labels: AIESEC, Brett Gibson, Technology One, Work