The Opportunity - Like all interesting opportunities, it starts from the very beginning...I received a phone call one day from Steve Powell (pictured below) who chatted with me about the Kodak Challenge. He wanted to highlight Kodak's technology and innovative spirit to create something unique and special that would complement the Kodak Challenge Trophy being created by Tiffany. I accepted the "Challenge" and the Telek Skunkworks project was off and running.
(Steve Powell. Photo by Steve Kelly)
The Plan - Now it was time to turn Steve's thoughts and wishes into a magical reality....The plan started with an outstanding team, which included:
- KEK Design - Jim Gresko, Pat Welborn and Paul Klock
- Kodak Tech guys - Neal Eckhaus, Joe Lentz, Greg Kulzer
- Kodak Photographers - Steve Kelly & Brian Wilder
- Octagon - Brianne Ehrenkranz
Many special thanks to other Kodak'rs who without their help would never have made dream into a reality, including Esther Betancourt, Julie Kaiser, Mike Keenan, and Michele Kelly and Tina Clark (who worked with Tiffany on the trophy design).
Concepts - Our design partner (KEK) sketched a range of concepts and ideas for Steve and I to review . We narrowed down the concepts to 3 for further refinement. KEK then created several mock-ups and we made the final design decision...
(Concept rendering and final design - KEK)
Once we settled on a final design, it was clear to me that additional engineering skills were required to achieve our vision and design goal...So Neal Eckhaus helped bring in the big guns...Electrical Engineering and Power/Battery gurus...Greg Kulzer and Joe Lentz, respectively. Their expertise and knowledge helped turn this vision into a reality. Greg and Joe did a phenomenal job making this OLED Trophy stand "work". Who-HA!
From left to right: Pat Welborn (KEK), Jim Gresko (KEK), Joe Lentz, Greg Kulzer and Neal Eckhaus (Kodak)
Content - Now we needed to fill the OLED screens with some great content. Steve and I kicked around various ideas, I storyboarded a couple concepts, we reviewed these with Brianne (from Octagon) and made the final decision. I prototyped the user experience using some existing OLED displays to visualize the slideshow timing...amazingly enough, we used pictures from Kevin Streelman...as seen below:
Ready to Go - One more check before we box it up and "ship it". Yup, it works...
The Event - I was fortunate to have the opportunity to accompany the Kodak OLED Trophy stand to Florida and provide technical support for all video, photo shoots, media events and final presentation. We wanted to do a dry run to verify everything traveled well, so we unboxed the Kodak Trophy and OLED Trophy stand (at an undisclosed location) and snapped some photos (Go Tina).
(The OLED frames reflected in the Tiffany silver)
(Trophy and OLED stand unboxed in Disney parking lot)
The BIG Day - We started early in the morning with a video shoot of the Kodak Challenge trophy and the Kodak OLED trophy stand (they captured some awesome footage). I was VERY glad that we added the feature to customize the individual OLED screens via a custom remote touch panel (Thanks Greg) as we definitely "tweaked" the OLED user experiences. Kevin Streelman's birdie on the 17th clinked his victory of the inaugural Kodak Challenge, but for me...it was go time. Kodak was going to award the Kodak Challenge trophy to Kevin on the 18th hole. We needed to deliver and setup the trophy and the OLED stand from an undisclosed location. That's me under the covers doing one last check before the official unveiling...Yup, we're good to go.
(Photo by Steve Kelly)
Improv - Kevin Streelman would be here in five minutes...I'm good...but wait...Our Kodak photographers (Steve Kelly and Brian Wilder) provided me some "new" photos to load onto the OLED frames...So, I cranked open the laptop and went to work (see picture below); however, Steve Powell leans over to me and says...Kevin is here, he is coming...RIGHT NOW! But I wasn't ready...So...
(Brian Wilder helping Mike Telek find a "hero" picture of Kevin - Photo by Steve Kelly)
I quickly copied a couple winning pictures (from the 17th) onto an SD card, slid up behind the OLED Trophy Stand, swapped the SD cards last second (which was part of our user experience design), slideshow playing...Done!!!
The Kodak Challenge Trophy was unveiled and Kevin received the $1M check.
(Phil Faraci and Kevin Streelman look at slideshow of pictures from Kodak Challenge, Photo by Steve Kelly)
(Phil Faraci and Keving Streelman holding the Kodak Challenge trophy with the OLED trophy stand)
I wonder if Kevin knew that the Kodak Challenge Trophy is NOT attached to the OLED tropy stand... I was ready to leap out at any time to make a Johnny Damon shoestring catch!
Read Tina Clark's post on the recap of the win - and more coverage at PGATOUR.com - Kevin Streelman wins the 2009 Kodak Challenge.
I arrived at Disney for the
Children's Miracle Network Classic today in preparation for the Kodak Challenge finale this week and the buzz about Kodak Challenge is everywhere! On the shuttle ride over, the other riders were talking about the Kodak Challenge finale, very excited that
Kevin Streelman is going in with a 2-stroke lead. On twitter, Kevin's caddy Michael Collins (
@funnycaddy) is tweeting about it - "
The money doesn't
mean anything. It's the chance to be the FIRST of something... That opportunity
is what it is really all about. Money is like Doritos, you can make
more. Family, friends, and history THAT'S forever." On Facebook, Kevin's friends are cheering him on and wishing him luck.
And then I headed to the finale hole - hole #17 on the Magnolia course - WOW! Everyone knows Disney knows how to make everything look great and feel magical - and they've done just that with the Kodak Challenge hole. Huge signs and flags everywhere...
I gotta get me one of these Kodak Challenge flags after the tournament!
Behind the fan bleachers on the Kodak Challenge hole
this guy guards the Kodak hospitality tent
and the giraffes watch fans get sourvenir photos taken at the Kodak Photo Zone
the large signs add to the excitement
On the way back to the press room, as we passed 18 tee, there was a bit of a commotion. As I had heard from Kevin Weickel, Tournament Director - players often bring their fishing poles to the practice rounds and fish in the ponds in between play... and sure enough, one of the golfers had caught a rather large fish (Bass?) and was showing the others. Nothing like a little sport fishing to add to the excitement of a PGA TOUR event!
nice to be at the pond fishing for fish instead of your golf ball!So very soon, the winner of the inaugural
Kodak Challenge, where beautiful holes meet memorable moments, will be determined at the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney! The winner will receive a giant check and a beautiful
Tiffany trophy, complete with a special Kodak touch. And most importantly, that winner will have a Kodak Moment to cherish for a lifetime.
Stay tuned to Golf Channel and PGATOUR.com to find out how it will all unfold as leader Kevin Streelman and other contenders (Bo Van Pelt is an eagle away) play on the Magnolia course on Friday. And check out GolfChannel.com for
great photos of memorable moments from this year on ALL the Kodak Challenge holes.
Also viisit the website, fan us on Facebook, and follow @KodakChallenge on Twitter to stay up on all the action.
This post is about recent activities within the OCTO (Office of the Chief Technology Officer) organization of Kodak to recognize and promote the Kodak Challenge. The organization is made up of several hundred employees that work at various locations within Rochester, NY as well other locations around the world. This post focuses on the Rochester employees.
The golf tournament planning team earlier this year decided to align with the Kodak Challenge and add more fun and excitement for employees. The showing of a golf film earlier in the year kicked off the season and announced the golf tournament. A recent Putting Challenge kicked off registration for the golf tournament - more information will be shared about the tournament after the event in August.
An event almost did not occur due to obstacles beyond the team's control. However, the team re-focused and with additional help was able to hold an extremely successful event. Over 95 people participated during a lunch time event in a large room adjacent to the cafeteria. Many of the participants never touched a golf club before. The event generated so much talk within the organization that an additional event is being planned for another location within Rochester.
A three-hole mini golf layout was available for each player participant's enjoyment. Prizes were given out for high and low scores as well as many raffle prizes.
Everything had a Kodak Challenge theme from score cards to a scoring leader board, to rules, posters, and more.
Each participant received a score card like the one shown here.
The following is an example of the scoring leader board used during the event. This leader board kept participant's interest about who was winning and who beat whom.
The following are some of the pictures from the recent Putting Challenge event...
Yes - there were water and sand hazards as well. These added to the challenge and fun. Two members of the organization enjoyed watching the players use the putting holes that they made based on a designs they found in an old issue of Popular Mechanics (June 1950).
Special thanks goes out to the event planning team including the golf hole architects and designers as well as all that is made it possible. Stay tuned for information on our golf tournament which will feature "challenge" holes.
