Overwhelmed

Many of you will know that we had a  great time at the #w2p two weeks ago,  it was sort of an informal after party for my three year assignment in the Public Service. Well, tonite was the more  official transition party and between the two events I have to say I am a little overwhelmed.

It was a wonderful send-off with many words of encouragement and several presentations. I will be shopping for technology with my gift card soon, and enjoying the book, Keeper of the Flame, thanks to Sue Kemp for getting me a signed copy.  Special thanks also to Corinne Charette and Peter Bruce for taking the time out of their intense schedules to come by and share some very kind words.

Gary Doucet took a break from chasing his CCC in French to visit, you should know that his support was pivotal in the early days to providing the resources to move forward with GCPEDIA. Without his vision we would not be where we are today.

I was thanked for all the good work I have done and the accomplishments I achieved, but really I am the one that should be thankful. If it was not for the many, many wonderful, committed and passionate folks who supported the concept and wanted to do the right thing we could not have done what some said could not have been done. Some of you were at #w2p, some of you were there tonite, some of you are out there.

It is a remarkable accomplishment, bringing a horizontal social platform to a highly segmented federation but it is not mine, it is ours. It belongs to everyone that participates not just for themselves, but also for the greater good. You know who you are.

A few folks I need to mention include Jeff Braybrook, who along with Ken Cochrane and Chuck Henry are responsible for starting it all way back in 2007,  and Karl Ghiara who has been the backbone of the GCPEDIA team for the last 12 months and will be the go to guy for some time to come.  I should also say that I can’t think of a better candidate to take over the executive leadership than Marj Akerly from NRCan who will be moving to CIOB. Charles de Grasse could not make it, but those of you that use GCPEDIA or GCCONNEX should know that he is the guy that keeps the gremlins at bay.

I am proud to have been part of this effort and to see the Clerk of the Privy Council start using GCPEDIA this week.  I also think that the newly formed cluster of departments coming together to finance and take business ownership for GCPEDIA and other elements of the Open Collaborative Workplace is a prime example of the new attitude and spirit of collaboration we are seeing building across the system.

I could ramble on thanking people, but think I should probably call it a night. It has been a great ride, thank you all.

Now where did I leave that consulting shingle….

Thom

p.s. whoever took pictures, please post!