Well begun is half done.

But certainly NOT in this case!

I remember starting off on this journey and how excited I was when I first found out I was going to Turkey. I also remember being quite anxious yet enthusiastic when I heard about the project itself. The scope seemed very vast and at the same time wasn't well defined. But of course, that was because our deliverable itself was to create those definitions and develop a road-map.

When I arrived in Istanbul a month ago, I met 14 others who reflected my feelings and were just as excited as I was. There must have been something driving us through this project, passion for the work perhaps, the fact that we had a closely knit team with diverse experience or maybe it was our clients and their commitment and belief in Izmir and developing this awesome city. So whatever it was, after a month spent working and deliberating, our last milestone had arrived and it was time to present our final deliverable.  I’m guessing most of us surprised ourselves with the outcome!

Thursday was the last time I would be driving to the Iztech Campus; we were to go to the main library building and present our findings and recommendations. I have to admit while part of me was thrilled to be sharing our project findings, most of me was just sad that it was almost over.

As expected, we had an excellent morning reviewing the projects and the outcome. The rector even mentioned they were going to publish two books based on some of our findings; I will look forward to seeing that. The Iztekgeb team had done so much for us and we’d grown so used to working with them and that just made the final goodbyes so hard.

 

Friday afternoon and it’s our last stop – IBM Istanbul and a debriefing meeting with County General Manager, Michel Charouk. Phew! All done.

So, yes it was well begun and well done.

And did I mention we even made it to the local newspapers? What a surprise that was!!