The Soft Pitch

My favorite 3 subjects,

1st the Cubbies are in town so guess where I will be this week…so far we do not look too good.

Kingston sponsored our TS Colorado Sun team to fly to PHX and really enjoyed the softball tourney…they came in second after a last inning walk off hit aganist their TS peers got them in the men’s finals. They went to the local watering hole and enjoyed their time…great for networking. I suspect Kingston sales will be up with those players. The Kingston rep said it was the best investment he has made. This was great for morale and networking. I suspect we will get more out of town teams to come here in future. Our warehouse co-ed team Crunch Time which has not lost in 4 years lost to SBS our support services team…they on the other hand rarely win.  The CT team went out like pros and never complained after they were upset. WOW this is Again another reason why we have a different culture, we competed, had fun, and we are all one team.

Avnet OnDemand kicks off tomorrow offically even though it’s been noted in “softpitch”.  All comments welcomed !

By now you’ve either seen the Hulu commercials, heard the buzz about online video or – more likely – you’ve watched online video (more than 75% of Internet users have) probably to the tune of about 5 hours during February alone – at least that’s according to comScore Video Metrix March 2009. The research company estimates 145.2 million people watched online video in February, up 8 percent from a year ago.  Think it’s all dancing babies and sports blunders?  Think again:  Microsoft was #5 in the top 10 sites for video viewers with more than 28 million visitors who watched an average of 9.1 videos.  Those aren’t funny videos from someone’s 40^th birthday party – those are technical and training videos produced by software engineers and marketing teams to help customers use or sell a Microsoft solution.

And that’s just one vendor. So next week Avnet is launching “Avnet OnDemand” – a video portal for the technology distribution industry and it will have videos from many, many vendors.  It’s the first of its kind as a matter of fact.  No dancing babies here – technical and training videos from the top manufacturers like  HP and Molex.  Videos from Avnet on design kits, industry opportunities and general informational videos.

Take a sneak peak here, and let us know what you think.  Online video is taking off, and Avnet is helping our partners take advantage of it. Al calls this “catch the wave” – I think it’s more like catching a tsunami.

There are so many different ways to detrmine morale in a company…complaints, studys, smiles, frowns, lack or drive of enthusiam by people. One of my favorite gauges is the number of people who play in our softball event each year. Even with business being tough out there hundreds of our folks will enjoy this Sunday afternoon playing or watching softball.

We have more teams this year (our 8th) and one is a men’s team from Westminster from our Technology Suns group in Colorado.  That rings loud and clear to me that these guys would invest their day, they got a sponsor, to come and compete with their peers.  I think it’s awesome they did this…what a way to meet their peers and have some fun. This will be a big plus to all our future efforts and teamwork.  

If you live in AZ…come to the Tempe Sports Complex on Hardy between Elliott and Warner from 9-3.

Is this the year the Cubs will finally win it all? The major topic of all my friends, business associates and family. Usually Cub fans enjoy the season and get excited about any playoffs opportunities. This year only one thing matters; will they score a few runs and win some games in the playoffs.  My wish is they get it in the World Series before I die, hopefully this is the year.

Other things are happening too…here are 10 comments.

10) 4,000 different people have read this blog…get a life people !

9) Avnet will be launch a very unique educational program for customers this week, what is it? Stay tuned, this blog will drop the news.

I had to laugh, in PHX the DBacks closed the roof on opening day because it was too hot/sunny. It was in the 80’s. In Chicago we would have held a parade.

7) PHX is getting the All-star MLB game in 2011. If you have not noticed the Valley is easily becoming the Mecca for sports in the Americas. Past months… Fiesta Bowl, FBR Open, the NCAA regionals, LPGA, spring training, and NBA All-star game etc.

6) I miss Mark DeRosa on Cubbies and I have not met any Cub fan that disagrees and wonders what was Hendry thinking. Oh by the way he hit 3 homers versus Cubs a week ago.

5) Yankee Stadium and Mets new park open soon…cool. The old Shea was a dump. YS was so special to go to…the centerfield momument area was priceless. So who/what was buried in the new Yankees building by a Red Sox fan? Roger Clemens or was it just his ego?

4) Chicago 16″ Softball Hall of Fame broke ground on the inductee park area in Forest park, IL after rasing $150,000. Big thanks to March Manufacturing….they make pumps.

3) The Arizona Sports Hall of Fame will induct 4 new members on Thursday at the Phoenican Resort from 4-6pm.  Join the fun…buy a tix there.

2) I felt good yesterday when one of our inside component salespeople stopped by to say hi…he said business is improving and was optimistic, well finally that’s one in a row, I need to ask more folks…yippee.

1) Happy Easter

Avnet Tech Games drew nearly 200 students this weekend to compete for scholarships in nine different games – a record number of students participated representing colleges and universities from across Arizona — there was even a team from University of Arizona in Tucson that trekked in for the event!.

Winners were announced this morning via press release and photos from the event can be found on Flickr.

My personal favorite – and of course for many of the on-lookers – was the robot obstacle race.  Under the direction of faculty advisor Bassam Matar, the Chandler-Gilbert team won again this year.  Their robot was one of the few that made it around the entire obstacle course and the only one to successfully to transport a red rubber ball around the 5-ft. course.  Robot races sound much easier than they are, apparently, as most of the robots couldn’t make it around the course at all.  The students had to use a robot kit with about a gazzillion Lego parts and some electronics to design and build their own robot.  Each team came up with their own design (they didn’t have to use all the parts) and had some interesting twists on how to capture the ball.  One team built a pair of pincer arms like on a scorpion (must be the desert influence) and another a little scooper arm like on a skip loader (didn’t work at all).  The winning team had a little trap contraption that descended on the ball (sort of like from the game Mouse Trap if you’re as old as I and can remember that game) and kept it from rolling away while the robot pushed the ball around the course. It was the only design to successfully grab the ball – earning it a great cheer from the audience.

All the teams deserve recognition and gained valuable experience in trying to solve real-world problems – well, okay, so maybe moving a rubber ball around a table doesn’t sound real-world.  But maybe some day, those students will be designing robot arms to perform delicate surgery or better yet, do the dishes.

Rudy Navarro from Chandler Gilbert CC puts the final touches on the winning robot.