I contacted Ms Baksh, and met with her prior to our departure to review her presentation, offer advice on ways to improve same, but generally to give her the assurance that I was her disposal should she require any assistance from our LN. Prior to our departure, I also received information from the coordinator of the event in California - detailing local arrangements, the PATW schedule etc.
Our flight out of Port of Spain on July 24th was due to take us directly to Houston. From there Ms Baksh and I would travel to the conference location via Los Angeles (LAX) and Santa Ana (SNA) respectively. However our outbound flight was rerouted to Orlando to treat with an on board medical emergency. The unscheduled stop in Orlando had implications for our connecting flights later on.
On arrival in Houston, I was re-routed to Santa Ana via San Francisco...which I protested, and was eventually able to make my original connecting flight which was also an hour late. On arrival at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, I realized my bags did not arrive....they had be sent to San Francisco, and I had to wait approximately seven hours until I was reunited with them.
The travel issues aside, the welcoming event for the PATW begun with nine of the PATW attendees who had arrived at the hotel by the 2:00 p: m start time, touring the mechanical engineering labs at the California State University at Fullerton. This campus we were advised was one of twenty three within the CSU system.
Based on the small number of persons in the touring party, everyone was able to introduce themselves to each other, and learn about each other’s background. The tour concluded with a visit to the Fullerton Arboretum, located on the CSU campus - please see attached.
After the tour, there was a break of approximately two hours before the welcome dinner at our hotel. During this period, I was able to network further with some of the persons who had just completed the tour of the CSU campus. I discovered many of them were former competitors of the PATW event, and some were serving members of the IET's YPCC.
Most of the participants of the PATW had arrived by the time the welcome dinner commenced. Unfortunately, we were advised that two of the presenters would not be competing, one because of illness, and the other based on travel challenges. That notwithstanding, I presented to the main organizer of the event Mr Julian Harvey, a token on behalf of our Local Network. The atmosphere at the dinner was very relaxed, the opportunity to network was great. I met several interesting persons, and we were able to share some of our professional experiences.
Among the persons with whom I interacted was the Chairman of the Communities Committee of the Americas (CCA), Mr Andrew Noble. Drew, as he is commonly referred to shared some information with me which I will communicate at our next LN meeting.
The following morning our day begun at 7:00 a:m.....at least for the competitors. The competition venue was a five minute walk from our hotel on the CSU campus. After breakfast, the presentations begun. All of the presentations were of an extremely high standard. I had the opportunity to sit next to a former competitor Ms Macauley Kenney, and she was able to provide some insights as to what the level of competition was like, some of the topics presented etc.
Ms Baksh was the third of the five presenters, and I was quietly confident that she would do well. I was able to gauge from the number of questions she fielded during the Q & A period that she had done well. However, the atmosphere in the room remained very professional - no one giving away too much....including the judges.
After the presentations, there was a coffee break. During this period, I was able to engage with some of the attendees whom I had not met the previous evening. One of those persons was Ms Naomi Climer, Deputy President of the IET. Ms Climer indicated that she had been hearing a lot of positive things about our LN, and was impressed with what we had been able to accomplish thus far.
The presenters during this break seemed a bit nervous, as they awaited the decisions of the judges. The atmosphere was now much more relaxed as the main activity for this period was completed. After the break, the judges announced the two finalist, the coordinator of the event provided a short presentation on the work his LN put into hosting the event, after which there was a break for lunch.
After lunch all present participate in an outreach workshop. Prior to leaving for the PATW, and e-mail was sent to all attendees by the workshop chairman Gregory Duggan, to prepare participants for the topics for discussion at the workshop....(see attached). The workshop generated some very lively and at times passionate debate. The key topic of the debate was how to address the apparent identity crisis the IET faces in the United States...and what can be done to address it.
The workshop ended with the chairman advising that the notes of the session will be distributed for comment within the next ten days. The next event of the day was the formal dinner, at which the two finalist would present, and the feature speaker would deliver a speech. Ms Baksh was the first of the two finalist to present, and she delivered an almost flawless performance. No questions were entertained at this stage of the competition.
There was some light-heartedness at the dinner, where prior to the its commencement, some technical difficulties were experienced with the equipment to be used. Some quipped that a room full of engineers could not solve the problem. The chairman of proceedings also engaged in some engineering trivia in order to determine which table went to the buffet - the table answering correctly first proceeded.
The evening culminated with the feature address by Mr David McQuiggan, after which the Deputy President of the IET, Ms Climer announced Ms Baksh the winner of the PATW event. This brought an end to the formalities. After, many of the participants begun to exchange their goodbyes, myself included as some of us had early morning flights out of California.
The overall experience was very good. The number of participants was approximately forty, small enough to give everyone an opportunity to network with each other. For the actual contestants, I believe that this opportunity was priceless. Before they knew nothing about each other, but after they did much more.
For me personally, this was an opportunity to learn, and to grow professionally. It was an opportunity not only to view the presentations of the competitors, but to interact and possibly impart some of my experience to the younger professionals within the IET family.
(Thank you David for providing this insight into your experience at the PATW Regional Finals in Fullerton, California)