Post-Olympic Updates

So you may have noticed that the many posts I had during the Olympics regarding progress, technology, and other assorted items all disappeared. The organisation I was working for asked me not to blog in such a level of detail about products used for VANOC operations, and out of respect for my current employer at the time, I removed all the blog entries.

That all said, I won't mention the specific product or manufacturer, but will resume posting about my experiences as Venue Technology Manager for the ever-challenging Freestyle Ski & Snowboard venue of Cypress Mountain.

While the Olympic Games are concluded (and Cypress got a special mention from John Furlong as the most challenging venue of the 2010 Winter Games) the Paralympic Winter Games are currently underway, but this go-round there is no adaptive Snowboard events, so we've shutdown the Olympic venue services at Cypress and the Logistics & Overlay teams are cleaning up after everyone else. The Telecom team (Bell contractors & subcontractors) who reported to me pre/during/post Games are also on-site removing cabling & telecom services from temporary & permanent spaces on request of the Cypress ownership & management.

And this puts me back to the job-hunt, reflecting on the incredible experiences I shared with the VANOC teams I worked with & led to make this project so successful, and looking forward to my next interesting challenges. After thoughtfully declining an offer to go to London to participate as a Technology Manager in the 2012 Summer games there, I'm looking at my options locally in Vancouver and environs and figuring out where to press my skills & personality into service next.

But in the meantime, how did everything pull together at Cypress to end up being one of the most successful medalling venues for Canadians in history?

Top of the list would be teamwork; teamwork between myself, my fellow A/VTMs at Cypress, my fantastic Telecom manager & his relentless team, and my dedicated and energetic results teams. Second would be the sense of enthusiasm from everyone which helped us get through some very long days (read: days/nights), and lastly would be a sense of humour... those three things were essential to get through days when you start to question "what are we doing here" as the rain poured down in rivers and the snow disappeared around us.