Tinni in Japan!

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A lot of things have happened in the first 4+ months of this year. Including my trip to Japan!

Before going to Japan, I undertook a six-week course on Project Management for Professionals with RMIT. I have been doing project management for the last 10 years, but I felt that it was good to do a formal course to plug any gaps in my skills.

This is the second short course I took at RMIT. Two years ago, I completed a course on Business Analysis to consolidate my knowledge on that front. But unlike last time, we had to bring our own project to manage for this course.

Most of my current projects have an element of confidentiality and were not suited to the waterfall management methodology we were supposed to apply. So, instead, I did my final assessment on a planning project for my trip to Japan!

I had to submit the project a week early because of my planned trip since the last two weeks of the course overlapped with my trip. So literally the day before I was flying off, I was finalising the documents and recording the presentation.

I got the results back shortly after the Easter holidays, and I, unfortunately, had to redo the budget sections to demonstrate more clearly that I knew what I was doing. So that sucked, but I redid the project schedule and other documents and re-recorded the presentation. And I passed!

Tinni in Japan

In between my RMIT submissions, I, of course, went to Japan to try and catch some cherry blossoms! I succeeded to an extent, but the bulk of the blooms were delayed due to the weather still being wet and cold.

I had a lot of fun. I experienced a Tokyo earthquake and missed my flight on the last day because of how much fun I was having. I spent way too much money, but now I am back!

I am glad to get a bucket list item of seeing the Sakura bloom in Japan, checked off and now on to the next thing!

Putting some cred behind things I am already doing!

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Due to the nature of what I do with start-ups and small businesses, I am already using tools from the Business Analysts toolbox. So it made sense for me to do a short online course with RMIT University to put some official credentials behind my skill set!

It was a bit of a challenge as April ended up being a very busy month for Kyco related activities and in May, I became severely ill with a seasonal cold. As a result, I fell behind and had to play catch-up for most of the course. I even had to take the automatic 1-week extension and I was still audibly sick in the final project presentation video, which you can see below.

Medisafe 2FA: RMIT Assignment Presentation

I am happy to complete the credential and fill the holes in my knowledge when it comes to the business analysis process. It’s an ego boost given that I was working on this at the same time I also started a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment through TAFE QLD.

I have a new respect for my mom, who is a secondary teacher, and my trainer from the NEIS program. Because that certificate did my head in! I had to withdraw, which is something I have never had to do in all my years of learning. I fell hopelessly behind and didn’t think I could catch up but it is something I am interested in doing. So hopefully, I’ll be able to restart next term and actually manage to orient my brain around the adult learning and vocational education space!

Finally attended a Silicon Beach Australia Virtual Pitch Night!

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Silicon Beach is Australia’s largest network of startup communities and it is a community I have wanted to stay connected to for some time. Yesterday, I was finally able to attend one of their pitch nights!

There were some great pitches from people trying to solve some real, pressing problems. The one I related to the most was Wirl App. Just because I often use food to keep myself functioning. Not great for the waist line but beats not being able to get out of bed! Wirl was one of the winners from the night.

The other winners were Diana’s Closet, which is a curated online clothing store. I loved her personality and her style is great too! I can see myself buying from her.

The other big winner was GoMicro which allows you to assess food quality using your mobile. As someone who struggles to judge fresh food lifespan, this is something I would buy if it were to become a consumer item. Although right now GoMicro seems to be focused more on large scale businesses.

Of the other pitchers, I noted MyAxis as someone who appeared to be post-revenue, which is always a strong selling point for a startup. Also, Terran Industries is trying to tackle climate change and currently raising capital. While Coat’d startup is trying to market a long-term disinfectant.

Other pitches were delivered from:

I have definitely missed a few and my apologies to the ones I missed. My notes were not exhaustive. Anyway, a good time was had by all and I look forward to the next pitch!