Brett Coryell was a juggling pro with bean bags, but what about knives?

Who knew Brett could juggle?

Delivering a message of “paying the technology debt,” Brett Coryell (UTS) and his Director Team presented and discussed a wide variety of topics at the UTS Annual Kickoff, held this week in the WHSCAB Auditorium. Employing a town hall-style format, all eight of UTS’ leaders gave small presentations and answered questions from the audience, Twitter, and a survey presented to the division earlier this month.

With over 140 employees in attendance and another 60 viewing the event via a live camera stream, Brett and his team laid out their plans for FY14 and identified the major projects for the upcoming year. Joining Brett on stage were Marisa Benson (PMO and Academic Technologies), John Ellinger (Library Technology Services), John Ellis (Integration), Dana Haggas (Enterprise Applications), Michael Keown (Enterprise Services), Paul Petersen (Infrastructure), and Tamika Pichardo (Call Center – on behalf of Bonita Russell).

The event was emceed by Mark Kawasaki (Integration), who adroitly managed the live questions, both from the audience and from Twitter.

The UTS Leadership Team (From L to R): John Ellis, John Ellinger. Michael Keown, Tamika Pichardo, Dana Haggas, Paul Petersen, Marisa Benson, and Brett Coryell.

As always, the Q&A portion of the event offered a wide range of topics, including compensation, the OneIT Experience, the divisional financial outlook, the operational relationship between LITS and UTS, management development, cloud security, the BI project, and innovation.

As a change of pace, the refreshments included popsicles from the King of Pops. The Chocolate Sea Salt and Banana Pudding pops were the most popular flavors, while the Arnold Palmer was the least popular (the Arnold Palmer, a concoction of orange juice and sweet tea, is the famous golfer’s favorite drink…it was refreshing, if misunderstood, as a dessert).

The event showcased the efforts and expertise of Classroom Technologies, who provided the lighting, sound control, and video streaming. Special thanks go to Jason Brewer, Michael Fowler, Greg Hall, Jim Kruse, Ryan Roberts, Brenda Rockswold, and Steve Witte (all of ClassTech). The camera equipment and filming were provided by Steve Bransford and Shannon O’Daniel (Academic Technologies) and a video recap of the event is underway and should be available soon. Special thanks goes to Ryan, who coordinated the sound and lighting, donating considerable additional effort to the event, and Norman Hulme (Integration) who designed the logos.

Quincy Thomas, Vince Vaughn, and Derrick Merritt enjoying the King of Pops.

Four key logistical contributions came from Ann Berry (Enterprise Services), our tireless driver, Kim Comstock (IT F&A), who acquired the director chairs and organized transportation, Sebreanna Echols (IT F&A), who coordinated the refreshments and reserved the auditorium, and Kelly Bray (Integration), who carried stuff.

Additional thanks to Marisa and Dawn Francis-Chewning (Academic Technology Services), who provided the LITS lanyards that were given away at the door. There are some left, so if you want one, contact wade [dot] moricle [at] emory [dot] edu.