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I am currently spending a couple of days in California (Anaheim), attending IBM’s Technical Leadership Exchange. This event is organized once a year to train technical talent and also to serve as a forum where participants can share ideas about the future of technology. It is an interesting event because unlike other events organized by different brands within IBM, here it is possible to meet people from all the organizations that form the company.

So far I have been enjoying myself. Besides being able to spend some time with my colleagues at Disneyland, I have been able to attend some very interesting sessions. Topics range from software to hardware to Web 2.0. Product certification is free and many are lining up to get certified. This may not seem very fun, but the truth is that I see it today mostly as a game. It is a challenge after all, just like playing Sudoku or Crosswords. Now that I am a manager I do not expect people to judge me on my technical certifications, but I still find it amusing to pass an exam once in a while.

The truth is that I feel very fortunate to participate in this kind of events. A couple of days ago I was interviewing a candidate for a job. He told me that his current manager did not give him any learning opportunities in the last three years. This may sound ridiculous to many, but engineers really enjoy learning new technologies and get quickly depressed when they feel that they are falling behind. IBM offers many learning opportunities to its employees. This year, most of my direct reports will spend four weeks on training. That is good for the business because customers want to deal with knowledgeable vendors but it is also excellent for the technical team’s morale.