Imagine a county fair where attendees camp out for two weeks: lots of tents, mud when it rains, about 50,000 people representing over 150 countries, all in the spirit of learning new things from each other.  That was the setting of this year’s World Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, West Virginia. A small group of IBM’ers were there and they, over the course of two weeks, introduced almost 3,000 young adults to IBM Z.

 This World Jamboree was an official educational event for the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Because of this focus it was designed for young adults ages 14 to 17.  In the U.S. we are familiar with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts being two separate organizations, however in other countries there is one organization for both boys and girls.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many young women were at Jamboree.  I even saw a Girl Scout wearing her vest and a Tech Scout wearing her lab coat.  As a result of this diversity, all signage needed to be presented in three languages and there was close attention to cultural sensitivities, for example not having alcohol-based hand sanitizer because some cultures do not want to consume alcohol.  It was the first event I have ever seen so welcoming and accommodating of all cultures and genders.

The highlight of our presence was the IBM Z classroom where the IBM team staffed four activities.  We provided a “petting zoo” where Scouts could get their hands on real Z hardware components.  A separate section displayed some older computers from the 80’s and 90’s including a Kaypro that actually powered on – or at least did until it started spewing noxious smoke and had to be unplugged.

The center of destruction was a table of PC’s where Scouts quickly demonstrated their ability to disassemble even the smallest of components.  Our original plan was for them to then reassemble the computers, but that was quickly abandoned with the crush of participants.  Volunteers reassembled things the best they could during lulls in the crowd – only to have to repeat the process over and over throughout Jamboree.


A bank of iPads gave Scouts the opportunity to test their skills at the Mainframe Mike arcade game. While this wasn’t the most informative activity in the room it held people’s attention while they waited for other activities to free up.

The centerpiece of the activities was a Virtual Reality tour of a data center at IBM Poughkeepsie. This was a quick video which tried to highlight some key statistics that the average Scout could relate to.  It was a perfect pairing where the VR drew people who wanted to see what it was all about and captured their attention while learning about IBM Z



The combination of all of these activities held Scouts’ attention for longer than I expected. There were groups that spent hours at the PC station after going through the VR experience.  Scouts even returned to our classroom over the course of a few days to bring their friends and so on.  Parents fiddled with Mainframe Mike while waiting for their son or daughter to finish the datacenter tour.  Everyone was polite and friendly, and they all learned something about IBM Z.

While the Z classroom was our highlight it was actually only a small portion of the activities that we brought to Jamboree.  IBM provided activities, which Scout volunteers ran, on subjects including quantum computing, Internet-of-Things, Blockchain, and more.  While the impact of these activities isn’t easily measured it is undoubtedly sizeable.

Have you ever had a “pinch yourself” moment where you realize how fortunate you are to be doing something you are passionate about – and that you actually get paid to do? This event was one of those for me: literally a once-in-a-lifetime moment where, as geekie as it sounds, I can stand IBM-proud.