iridiumInteractive Kenya – Cradle to the Brave

I started out with iridiumInteractive Kenya two months ago, as Social Media Associate, two weeks before I cleared Varsity, where I majored in Publishing and Media Studies. Having heard of iridium in mid-February through a Graduate Recruitment with Juliet, the Business Manager, and Sri, I immediately began working on a few projects here and there, specifically linking the Economic Stimulus Programme with iridiumInteractive Limited, courtesy of whom the program now has a website and the social media handles we are currently involved in raising awareness for.


It’s been quite a journey, one that’s opened up my mind to the endless opportunities I only thought existed in the minds of authors I read; in fact just before the Graduate Recruitment I’d acquired a copy of Tom L. Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat‘, and as soon as I heard what Sri had to say, I could not help but muse at the coincidences that had led me to iridium. I even imagined Sri saying,

“I picked the name [iridiumInteractive] because I wanted it to have a positive connotation of being assertive,”

reminiscence echoing words I had read only a week prior to this gathering at Kenya’s Bomb Blast Memorial Center.

The Graduate Recruitment Seminar, held on 21st February 2011

So now I find myself in an office, barely days after I did my last paper and effectively cleared my 8-4-4 (the Kenyan educational system, ironically tagged the moniker ‘8 – 4 – 4 = 0′ to signify the retardation of the system). Having been an AIESEC leader myself, the position feels a bit like running a Local Chapter, and in fact a lot of the guys interning for iridium under me are former or current AIESECers.
I find myself in the enviable position of being boss to my former boss, in terms of the AIESEC hierarchy in Kenya, but that’s a story for another day.

The Economic Stimulus program keeps us busy as we work as Social Media Marketers helping improve the Kenyan Government’s reach and accountability through iridium’s innovative ESP tool. The ability to track resource allocation in the various Kenyan constituencies via the Geographic Information System on the ESP gives citizens a lot of power and we’re proud to say that since we started our campaign on Social Media the awareness of this key Government accountability tool has increased momentously. Meanwhile, the rest of the team, including Annie and Rachel, have been working the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) project, intending to raise 1,000,000 sites for SMEs by 2014.

Too much analysis = paralysis

By the feel of things, and judging by my own assessment of the market during Sales runs, I am positively confident that this is not only achievable, but surpassable! I certainly can’t wait to do the SME clip productions next month with the team from Hyderabad. It’s a good beginning, a good course, a good track we run…carpe diem to you all!