IILC 2014, July 31 August – Team challenge and end of the Florida adventure

Ready, steady, go! Put on your socks guys cause today is gonna be a sportive day!

When I woke up this morning, I knew it was our last day at the IILC2014 and I was wondering what the facilitators planned for us. Only one thing was certain, no business casual clothes today! The theme of the day was about Teamwork, Leadership, Excellence. I was teamed with 15 people coming from all around the world, mostly American, to meet some sports challenge: 3 to be more precise!

Can you imagine what a room full with 3 000 interns look like? Let’s give a shot.

 

The atmosphere was really good, so electrifying! People were dancing, singing, jumping, it was like a brief warm-up before a concert of Coldplay. See by yourselves.

We were divided into 187 teams whose aim was to win every single challenge. Two facilitators were designated to support our team: Elise and Hannah, respectively Manager and Senior Manager at the Atlanta office. Their role consisted in helping us realised our tasks thanks to reliable advices and scoring our performance as there would be a winner by the end of the day!



Concentration and rigor are required!

These three challenges were all at a time different and complementary. They required various specific knowledge and skills as:

-          Precision and dexterity

-          Balance and mutual aid

-          Climbing and confidence

I would not tell you exactly in what consist every single activity as it would remove any suspense if you were to be selected in the next few years to attend the seminar and  to my mind, the photos say much enough.

Can you do it?

However, all of these activities have one thing in common: Teamwork. All by ourlselves, we could have never done what we did all together and I have to tell you that we were all thrilled by the outcome of the session as we realised what we can achieve as a whole. Unfortunatly, we did not win but we had a lot of fun and that’s all that matters.

Once the team challenge was done, we enjoyed our last hours of free time with our new friends in the pool before joining the final dinner session where a great meal and some inspiring speeches were waiting for us.

For our last evening at Coronado resort, EY organized a party and what a party that was! To say the least, we’ve been welcomed and treated as kings. Eating, soft drinking, gaming, dancing, in short celebrating, were there.



Let's have a drink?

Everything was gathered to ensure we had a great evening and you’ve got my words we did! 

Partying with our mascot

I have no words to describe the IILC 2014 as it was really an incredible experience but if I were to summarize my time there with all my fellow interns, I may say, and I think I can speak on behalf of  Violette, Jean-Baptiste, Antoine, Julien and Matthias that we were all amazed by the speakers, the activities, the resort, Disney parks and more generally by the great atmosphere that existed there.

In this regard, it would be interesting to know what other interns from different nationalities think. I was lucky enough to interview two interns at the airport before we took off.  Let’s just hear what Sarah and Jan have to say:

 

 

 

To finish, I’d like to thank all the people without whom this event wouldn’t have been what it was:

-          The EY American staff  for their incredible job as event organizator

-          The American interns for their inclusiveness

-          The Global interns for their diversity

-          My fellow interns from France: Violette, Jean-Baptiste, Antoine, Julien, and Matthias without whom this adventure wouldn’t have been the same, best team ever ;)

-          EY Société d’avocats for their support and for choosing me

-          Paris Transfer Pricing team for all they taught me