I ran set of exercises that worked on their team building and problem solving skills. I was fortunate enough to be able to communicate in the bisaya dialect well enough to re-explain the exercises when they did not understood. However, for most of the time everyone was comfortable working in English.

I am relieved and thankful that all the participants found the session very useful and that they valued the process of learning from each other to bridge the communication gap between them. The workshop has given a safe platform to bring forward long overdue challenges and at the same day present very feasible solutions. They were even planning to take some of their strong solutions and push it to get it approved by the mayor.

They knew just as well as I did that all their challenges will not be resolved overnight but it looked like everyone went home understanding what their shared goal is and accepted what it takes to get there.

My heartfelt thanks again to all the participants, the support team and my cousin Jaime for taking the pictures.

Below you’ll find a video of the spaghetti challenge and a gallery of photos of the workshop:

I salute to the Daniels (http://www.danieldaniel.us/) and the crew for this commercial. I am putting it in my inspiration book.

Here’s the original clip:

Here’s the ‘Behind The Scenes’ video:

Dancing ads are awesome:

The minimal design and monochromatic style is what hooked me throughout the whole game as I tried to predict what challenges would come next. I also like the fact the gamer is given some extra freedom to imagine how the level would like in full colour. Embedding a feel for magic really puts a beautiful touch to the whole experience.

I remember that the game was getting a lot of attention during my masters program. Now that I am catching up with my to-play and to-watch list, I am glad that I took the time to play this game. I agree with all the critics that this short game deserves full ratings for its visual style and level design. As a casual gamer, I was glad that it only took less than two hours to finish.

It shows that games don’t have to be massive in production quality to deliver a good story. Limbo is a game worth remembering and one that I would bare in mind in my future projects.

Alongside with MDM alumni and idol, Brian Ford, we were asked to work with Glenn to support him in a workshop for the faculty and staff of the MDM program. The core theme was focused on "alignment".

It was very much a relief to find out that the techniques and style that I have been part of facilitating so far are very similar to Glenn and Brian. With Glenn’s working experience from Pacific Data Images and Electronic Arts, and Brian’s experience from Autodesk, a lot of credible stories were brought to the table that helped support the discussions between the participants and provide lucrative feedback from leading companies in the industry.

Facilitating a workshop is quite a difficult job – it requires good attention to detail and making sure that the energy levels are maintained throughout the session. Usually a workshop requires 2 days but we ambitiously managed to reach the core objective of the workshop – which was to have an aligned understanding of the MDM and what the core competencies that graduates of the program come out with. Thereby, also generating an action plan and ideas of how to generate more successes in creating leader in an ever so changing industry.

Below are some pictures of what we’ve done.

For our last workshop we worked together with students from the Communication University of China. With a mix of programmers, artists, designers and writers – we presented the different exercises that motivate collaborative work and design thinking.

The workshop was a great success. We have to give the students much credit for maintaining such great energy while overcoming severe jetlag. They especially enjoyed the setup of writing on walls and the spirit of collaboration by using the exercises as very effective tools for communication.

Andrew and I realized that the process is very valuable for many things, and we even talked about making a business out of it. Maybe after a couple more ears of experience we may just do that. Or maybe even do it as a side-line alongside of the many other things we dream of doing.

Couple things we know are for sure, we will remember the great work that we did together and A² will remain strong when both crazy energies meet again.

Our objective is to drive visual collaborative design thinking and help teams build alignment towards project motivation, creative concepts and project execution.

Here is a documented blog of our process: http://blogs.gnwc.ca/a-squared.

As you may notice this website contains all my work that is related to my professional career as a digital media specialist. This blog will keep you updated on my projects and experiments that I am working on.

I’m also using this space to share inspirational work, some views on tech stuff and some resources that help me with my work.

For more personal updates and pictures, visit whatsupalsinoy.com.

Stay tuned.

Al