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I was thinking about how I am doing my part to save the environment by working from home.

I am leading 12 2-hour meetings this week on the FY09 Top Account MRP process. The content is the same for all of them. We set up that many so that no one could say the time or date didn’t work for them. We are using Webex and conference calling and this is what I learned so far:

Day 3 was as productive as Days 1 and 2. We heard more about the practices and industries and how they enable/supprt Global Business. All in all, I must say that this trip has been very enlightening and worthwhile.

Most people left today, for those of us who stayed, we went to a local theme restaurant, The Magic Time Machine.

Wonder Woman was our waitress. Here with Ted and Josh.

These are my new friends, Saundra and Julia. Julia organized everything for the 3 day event.

Anthony is a big fan of Super Girl.

We are on day 2 of a 3 day meeting in Dallas. The purpose is to bring together representatives from the GEMs, practices and industries to brainstorm new ideas for the Global Enablement programs we own.

This afternoon, we are holding breakout sessions to focus on the different areas. We asked the participants to write on sticky notes issues/questions they see in these areas and we would use them in our discussions in the break outs.

There are 3 breakout sessions. These are the stickies for the other two.

These are for my process. This will be fun.

At night, we went to this revolving bar/restaurant in the Hyatt Ball. Our waiter was the most depressing guy. He kept telling us how it was the second to last night the bar and restaurant would be open because the Hyatt sold the space to Wolfgang Puck for a new restaurant and meeting space and how 70 people were out of a job in two days. I guess we were there just in time to experience the landmark before the change.

At the restaurant

On the observation deck. It was really windy.

Obligatory team picture that our waiter helped us take. He lightened up enough to be bearable toward the end.

I have been in week-long meetings for the last 3 weeks. The first week was IBIS STO D4 bootcamp. The second week was the Business Impact Analysis for IBIS STO D4. This week was the Passport Process Sun Shot. I am exhausted and all meeting’ed out.

I am currently taking a break from wading through my email and action items, resisting the urge to ditch it all and start my weekend early. Compelling factors are a) that all this will still be here on Monday and b) my boss is in town and knows I am working today.

I am watching way too much “What Not to Wear”. I am in a week long meeting and all I can paying attention to is what people are wearing and how their clothes fit.

I am in Dallas for a 3 day meeting for our Global Enablement programs. The intent is for people to walk away with a cursory understanding of what programs are available that help grow business internationally. The participants are from all over the globe. We have 12 of the 15 GEMs represented, 2 of the 3 industries, and all 4 practices. It’s really cool meeting in person the folks I have worked with for so long.

The piece I own is the Top Account MRP process – used to determine the goals and coverage for our larger accounts. The other programs my group owns are Global Business – used to incent reps and GEMs to drive global business and Exec Sponsor – program to assign Exec Sponsors to our larger accounts and ensure good relationship.

It’s events like these and the people I meet here that make Sun a great place to work. Everyone here participates. We argue and no one takes it personal. It’s great.

Day 1 was all about introducing/refreshing the audience to the programs we own in preparation for break out sessions tomorrow.

We will be heading to Salt Grass fro steak tonight. Apparently, we are in Texas so we have to have steak.

I have a friend’s whose company is considering flexible work envrionments. They are having Sun’s OpenWork team do some consulting on best practices. It’s awesome that we can work from home or the beach, at 6am or midnight. We are productive, probably more so than being in the office 8-5. Especially since we are a global company and flexibility is a necessity for the way we do business.

It is the 3rd day of this year’s Elite Sales Academy. I am exhausted.

I am currently sitting in the SCA cafeteria, working on the script for tomorrow’s general session. No one told me that as part of the organizer team, you don’t get to actual participate in the event.

The thing I really regret was not being able to listen to Scott McNealy’s whole talk at the awards dinner last night. The Elite account teams loved everything Scott had to say. But since I was overseeing the A/V, advancing the slides, etc, I only caught bits and pieces of his speech.

I am relieved to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow is the last day of the event. It should be a good one as well.

I was driving around looking for the local goat dairy when lo and behold, I hear Greg Papadopolous on Tech Nation. That is the second time this week I have seen/heard Sun execs being interviewed, the other being Jonathan Schwartz on CNBC.

The interview was cool. It really highlighted that Sun is dedicated to innovation by not reducing R&D funding just because everyone else was. Since R&D for tech can last months to years, reducing funding today may not mean less innovation for tomorrow or next week, but for years down the line.