The Patagonia Mountains, Atacama Desert, Sài Gòn, Cambodia, and the great state of Texas. That is what I’ve been up to over the last two months. After marrying my beautiful wife right after the finish of the fall semester, we set off to South America, and soon after we touched ground back in Texas, I was off to South East Asia with three of my classmates. And my camera was running full bore the whole time.
Click the photo to see South America album
Our trip to South East Asia was part of an MIT Sloan course called Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab), and I can not recommend it enough. It is easily my favorite and by far my most memorable MBA course. Student teams spend the fall semester working remotely with an international entrepreneur, then travel to work on site with them for the month of January. Key to our teams success was forming a team that we knew would work well together, and picking a company that we were all interested in. There are far more applicant companies than student teams, so students are able to choose carefully.
Our team was based out of Sài Gòn (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, and we worked with a wood blind manufacturer, Vinawood. We were tasked with finding a lucrative way for the company to utilize its substantial wood waste. After performing financial and feasibility analysis we narrowed the solution to a biomass fueled power and steam co-generation plant. We analyzed case studies of similar operations and spoke to experts, which enabled us to recommend ideal technologies and connect the company with potential suppliers, contractors, and full service energy companies.
Click image to see poster presented to MIT community
Of course we made every effort to see as much of Sài Gòn as possible, and to travel on the weekends. (We didn’t sleep much.) And my teammates were encouraging of my non-stop filming. I took a huge amount of photos and even more video. I’ve sorted through all the photos, and I'm about to undertake the video editing process. So this semester, in addition to a full course load (including an Imaging Ventures class that I am very excited about), I will be hard at work learning film production. Hopefully I’ll have something worth sharing soon.
Click the photo to see South East Asia album
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