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CSC’s Global Jam Rocks the Conference

Cheered on by a crowd of 700, a 40-person conga line — including CSC’s global chief learning officer, Office of Innovation vice president and vice president for culture change — shuffles and kicks its way through an Orlando, Fla., ballroom, while onstage 20 black-clad CSC musicians from nine different countries play Love Shack with full B-52’s attitude.

It’s 10 o’clock on the second night of CSC’s 2008 Technology & Business Solutions Conference. Two hours into an electrifying show that opened with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Travelin’ Band, both the audience and the performers are still going strong.

"Music is a global unifier, a universal language," says vocalist and CSC business process architect Jill McNeil, the driving force behind CSC’s Global Jam. "Even if your mannerisms or culture or idioms are misunderstood country to country, music like oldies rock and roll is something everyone can tune into and share at the very deepest level."

As the band seamlessly segues from Love Shack to the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams — with Gwennie Collins, a global security solutions learning manager from Annapolis, Md., at the microphone — it’s hard to believe that, just two days before, most of the members not only had never performed together but had never even met face-to-face.

"I didn’t know anyone," says U.K.-based saxophonist and CSC network engineer Julian Burton, who e-mailed McNeil after seeing a message about the Global Jam while browsing CSC’s internal portal. "I met two of the other guys at Gatwick. I recognized them from their photos, and we got on the plane together."

Let’s put on a show
Inspiration struck McNeil in 2004 at a Moroccan restaurant with Catalyst colleagues Fred Thorne and Charles Crick during CSC’s technology conference in Philadelphia. Somewhere between the exotic spices and fiery belly dancer, talk turned to music.

"At some point," remembers Boston-based McNeil, "we decided we should assemble a band and play at next year’s tech conference. Back then, the tagline was ’One CSC.’ And having a band represent all countries around the world was a way to underscore that theme."

While Catalyst chief architect and keyboardist Thorne already played in an oldies band with McNeil and her husband, Crick was a bit wary, his stage experience consisting of "playing in the corner of a cafe' on a solo guitar." Eager for a challenge, though, the delivery assurance consultant from New South Wales, Australia — who two years later would accept the Grand Prize for his CSC Paper and a Technical Excellence Finalist Award — signed on.

After receiving an enthusiastic thumbs-up from conference organizer Artie Kalemeris, McNeil searched the 2005 conference registration database by business unit to see who would be attending from what country. "I then wrote to those people, asking if they sang or played any instruments," she says. "Two guys from the Netherlands said, ’All I can do is hit a block with a stick.’ They ended up our two percussion players—one on wood block, one on tambourine."

Collaboration 2.0
South Africa-based Nick Tickner moves to center stage, belting out Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis.

"Without Jill, this would never have happened," says Tickner, a CSC actuary who knew

nothing about either the band or the conference before responding to an e-mail from McNeil looking for musicians in his part of the world. "She started the whole thing, got it going, rallied everybody around, organized the Sunday meetings and sought the funding from CSC management."

To prepare for the two-and-a-half-hour set in Orlando, band members spent two months collaborating remotely, discussing songs on both an internal Wiki and a weekly Sunday conference call, mindful of the numerous time zones.

"We’d agree on a set list, along with who sings lead vocal and backup vocals, and who plays what instrument," remembers El Segundo, Calif.,-based vocalist/harmonica player Brad Nixon. The employee communications director started his Sundays with the 5 a.m. call, while the four Australian members were ending theirs at 10 p.m. — with musicians from South Africa, Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway at all times in between. Due to the sound delay of multiple time zones, nobody actually picked up an instrument on the Sunday calls.

 

Staying true to the vision
For their first performance at the 2005 conference, Global Jam’s 14 members performed 22 popular and easy-to-dance-to oldies. The band played again in 2006, but sat out the 2007 conference, since only American musicians could make the trip to Miami. "I got very discouraged," remembers McNeil, "and decided I’d rather not have a band than violate the vision of having a global one."

Realizing that a global vision requires global travel, McNeil drafted a funding proposal that won the support of consulting group operations manager Didier Putzeys, who helped pitch it to upper management. "I thought it was just a great way of showing how CSC people work together collaboratively," says David Booth, president of global sales & marketing. "If people can sing on stage together, after collaborating remotely, we can surely get a proposal out the door."

"I think there is a connection between mathematics and music," says Lem Lasher, CSC’s

president, global business solutions & services, on the surfeit of talented musicians at CSC. A guitarist and vocalist with Global Jam since 2005, Lasher played in European cafe's and nightclubs in the ’60s and ’70s. "I actually was trained in piano and organ," he says, "but then switched to guitar when I was 15."

A polished performance
Two days before the Orlando show, McNeil waited excitedly in the hotel lobby, identifying band members solely from their head shots. First to arrive was saxophonist/guitarist David Campbell, a senior solutions architect from Melbourne, Australia, followed by vocalist Alicia Kai Sin Hing, an HR generalist from Singapore. The following day, after the inevitable lost luggage and delayed flights, rehearsals were in full swing.

"When I arrived Monday, we sounded a bit shaky and disjointed, but by Tuesday it was coming together," says Tickner, who alternates between guitar, violin, keyboards and lead vocals. "On Wednesday, everything just seemed to work so well. To perform in front of an audience takes a lot of practice and timing and coordination, even if you’re in the same room. But to put everything together individually, and then bring it together into one whole, is really something."

It’s 10:30 when CSC’s Global Jam launches into their final song, Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock, sung by Netherlands-based Niels Lagerweij, a senior systems engineer.

“Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.”

"Since we’re all employees, it gives people the feeling they could be up here," says McNeil. "We really are representing all parts of CSC."