Wine Not?

I am very fortunate to work in a company that allows me to grow and gives a lot of breathing space to explore my professional interests. Last year saw me transition to a new job so many millenials could relate to-- digital.

Being new to the digital platform, we are still establishing our digital presence and voice in social media and the rest of the digital eco-system. I'm so glad to be part of the birthing process of drawing our digital blueprint. It is such an incredible opportunity. 

Years back, I've had a vision of being at the forefront of this platform. I didn't know then how I would get to it. I only had a profound fascination and fixation with the digital world. I was so entrenched to it that I follow the tech trends, new platforms. More often than not, I catch myself to be an early adapter be it in Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or Vine. 

My digital journey traces its beginnings to my aching desire to find a platform that would host my ramblings and musings. I found myself in multiply, livejournal, wordpress and blogger. Since then, it has been an exciting discovery of the multi-faceted world of the world wide web. 

Yesterday, we worked on our collaborative skills. We did a creative session, off-site. Our assignment was to do the Instagram shoot for our summer campaigns. It challenged our creativity and aesthetic tastes while still mindful of our audience and the stories we want to tell. 

It was fun. It was therapeutic. It was tiring. But all's well that ends well. So, I thought of chronicling how our day went. 

Beautifully laid out table.

Obligatory photo opp... too pretty a setup not to be documented. 

And then, we actually worked. If I may say, it can be back breaking. We carried props, table tops, crouched low to level with a bonsai plant, follow the sun's movement for natural lighting, all in a day's work. 

Outtake.

Jaypee, our "official" photographer took these Caught Gramming moments. 

Four hours of work later that felt like play, we winded down with some wine and cheese. 

We did a taste test of the just-introduced-to-the-market #bestopotato. Yum!

Wine and cheese progressed to early dinner. No one remembered to take photos. But I will attest to the dinner fare's yumminess factor -- 10/10. 

Dinner turned into a hearty conversation of our digital life with a lot of laughs thrown in. Our gracious boss did not just host the venue.. we were stuffed to the brim, as well. 

All in all, it was a wonderful way of disregarding #ShoesdayTuesday replacing it with #CaughtGramming day with the Channel Enablement team. 

Until the next creative session!

Xx

Sheng

Amazing Race: Avon Philippines Edition

This age-old adage is never truer than in the world of Avon. Change in our organization happens as often as the changes of the season. Recently, we bid adieu to a beloved GM and welcomed a lovely lady as the new General Manager.
 

To officially welcome our new GM the Sales and Operations (S&O) way, she has to be esenonized -- a hilarious ritual of introducing the Philippines and the Avon Field Divisions, political satire style.

And to ease everyone into the new change, the executive team had an epiphany to launch an amazing race type of team building for the field executives. Hence, the Amazing Race, Avon Philippines edition. Not even the very short timeline could hinder us from achieving our objectives: build camaraderie and bring out Leadership-In-Action amongst our field team colleagues. 

Butchay and I were the designated Phil Keoghan of our own race version. We formulated our rules, fleshed out the tasks in coordination with our Race Team Coordinators, and rallied everyone to use, Instagram as a platform for showing proof that a task has been completed. 

Good thing everyone has a company-issued iPhone 5 with unlimited data plan so, connectivity should not have been an issue. And the race route is contained within the Makati Central Business District which is an LTE-enabled area (Long Term Evolution). It means a wireless communication with high-speed data for mobile phones.

But Instagram got 'overwhelmed' by the surge of posts that we had a really difficult time commenting on the entries of the race participants. Ha ha ha. The calls we received ranged from frantic to utter dismay. The competitive streak in them cannot comprehend why it's taking so long for the Race Team Coordinators to comment: Good Job or Try Again! 

So, we had to improvise. We used our personal Instagram accounts to post our comments. And the race continued.

Just like its TV version, the first team to arrive was declared the winner.

The Visayan Fighters (Division G)

Days after the race, it's still the trending topic amongst our field associates. They still had the race hang over. 

At the end of the day, we hoped that the camaraderie built renewed our spirit and re-energized our passion to win. 

They say that the 'Filipino spirit is water-proof, unshakeable and indomitable.' I would like to expand it further by saying that the 'Avon spirit is water-proof, unshakeable and indomitable.' We've proven time and again that not even the strongest typhoon, deepest flood, scariest quake can quell our desire to make a difference in the lives of men and women in this country. 

We believe that difficult and tragic things do not stay forever and so we declare that today is the start of our 

Onward team!

Xx

Sheng