IBM Hundred Percent Club - Palm Desert, CA

Every year IBM awards it's top people for making their contribution to IBM's success. They call the event the 100% club and have hosted it since 1925. Every year the winners are invited for 3 days to a beautiful city somewhere in the world. As my luck has had it I won for 2007 and was invited to Palm Desert, my home town. When I won in 2005, I was invited to San Diego, CA you can see where I am going with this. However..2006 winners were sent to Puerto Rico..humm.

I wanted to blog on my trip for a few reasons. One is that it is always nice to be recognized for hard work and the second has to do with the amazing people and speakers we were introduced to as a part of this trip. A day at Club starts with a business meeting. In those meeting we are entertained by executives and inspirational speakers. After the session we are off to play. You can choose your events and this year do to my limits I choose the spa both days. In the evening they host a dinner and entertainment.

I wanted to share with you one speaker that I think I will always be grateful to have heard speak. I can't do his message justice on my Blog or by even giving you the link to his site. His name is Nando Parrado and you may know of him from the book/movie ALIVE. He was one of 16 survivors of a plane crash in the Andes Mountains. They spend 72 nights on a mountain until they were rescued. Nando and one other man climbed through the Andes Mountains over 10 days to find help. He describes himself as an ordinary person who experienced an extraordinary event. If you have not heard of him or his experience, I just wanted to share. If you want to link to his site here it is. Read the tab titled Resume, click on Letter.
http://www.parrado.com/eng/main.html

We were lucky to also be introduced to a band called the Funk Brothers, they are the subject of a book/movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown. They are the studio artist who played the instruments that made Motown music so original. On our last evening they host a Formal Gala Night where we have dinner and surprise entertainment. Here are a few pictures.

Gala Night at HPC...

My teammate Sara Van Slyke and I at the event

The Funk Brothers!

Yes, Jay Leno. We were shocked when he was introduced. He came out on stage and did a little over an hour of comedy. He was really funny and a great surprise.

Jay Leno