Images by John 'K'

Once a quarter our company holds a world-wide ‘virtual’ all-hands meeting. People at the HQ can attend one of 2 sessions, and remote offices can all watch a webcast or listen in on a conf call. The one for that last quarter (and the end of the financial year) was held yesterday.

The day before, I had a cryptic e-mail from our division’s VP’s PA asking if I could possibly attend both meetings, and when pressed for why really didn’t say anything, so I thought what the heck – it’ll get me out of a morning of work.

So 2/3 of the way through the meeting they start talking about groups of people within the company that help make a difference for our customers, and they start talking about a group that I used to be a member of until about 7 months ago (when I moved to the US to do my new role). 3 slides into this, my name appears in big letters on the screen and I’m asked up onto the stage to accept an award, on behalf of the current team members, but also acknowledging that it was me who set the team up in the first place.

I got to shake hands with the CEO (twice), and had my efforts acknowledged and rewarded in front of nearly 4000 people world-wide. It was a gratifying and humbling feeling, and the constant stream of ‘congratulations’ greetings in the hallway and e-mails that followed got somewhat embarrassing!

The other good thing about yesterday was that as a company we were also celebrating our 13th birthday (yes, it’s official, NetApp is now a ‘stroppy teenager’), and so we had a big celebration BBQ with free food and drink, and a band. Needless to say, not a lot got done yesterday!

As a bit of a private celebration, my roommate/landlord and I went to see StarWars Ep3, and had a very nice meal at a Hawaiian themed restaurant!