Tech Crew: Speed, service, strategy

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I love Tech Day. Technology employees from all disciplines come together on teams to sweep through ESPN’s office and production areas, providing technology assistance to employees.

We all have a singular focus on customer service. And we all wear the same shirt.

ESPN celebrated its third annual Technology Day on June 8. In the past, we’ve been geeks (how stereotypical) and doctors (“No, we cannot give you a flu shot.”).

This year’s theme? Technology Pit Crew: Speed. Service. Strategy.

Our 25 pit crews visited employees in Bristol, New York, Charlotte, N.C. and Burbank, Calif. offering technical assistance on just about anything — PCs, Macs, laptops, printers, software, PDAs and more.

Beyond providing outstanding service to our ESPN colleagues, the day creates a unique opportunity for teamwork and collaboration among our own technology employees.

On any given team, you will find a desktop support specialist, a Unix guru, a software developer, an engineer, and perhaps even a technology executive!

They all work together, recognizing each individual’s skills and contributions, and learning from one another along the way.

I liken the coordination of Tech Day to planning a wedding with 180 people in your wedding party, and 3-to-4,000 guests, give or take. Our “wedding planner” this year was Technology Information Specialist Janice Catala, backed up by a core group of 15 who spent about two months pulling all the details together.

Themes, invitations, favors, directions, rooms, food, gifts, thank you notes. It’s all there.

And we’re not even done yet.

We’ll be extending Tech Day to Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires in the coming weeks, and we have technology road shows planned for Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit later this summer.

Now, on to Tech Day 2012.

We’re thinking June 6 or 7. For some reason, “superheroes” keeps coming up as a theme suggestion.

Personally, I think we just want to wear capes.

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