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The Digital Runway: IT at the Philadelphia Airport with Camille Tomlin
6 Plays11 days ago
Scott sits down with Camille Tomlin, Head of IT at Philadelphia International Airport, to explore the intersection of aviation, technology, and leadership. They discuss how airports are transforming digitally — with IoT, data analytics, and smart infrastructure — and how Camille leads a team that bridges city government, airlines, and millions of passengers every year.
This episode is sponsored by Tuple
Check out https://tuple.app/hanselminutes for the best remote pair programming app on macOS and Windows
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey, friends, it's Scott. I want to take a moment in the middle of the show here and just thank our sponsor, Tuple. I was chatting with Johnny Marler recently. You know, Johnny, isn't screen sharing like a solved problem? Like, why would I even consider something custom or a premium tool like Tuple?
00:00:17
Speaker
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It's interactive, it's fast-paced, there's exchange, and you know it requires precision, um unlike a meeting. So it's kind of like, you know why would you buy a gaming mouse when a laptop trackpad works fine? Yeah.
00:00:40
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you know Technically, you can play Elden Ring with the DK bongos, it's possible. But if you know if you want to play it well, you want a nice controller. um So it's the same with Tuple. People use Teams and Zoom for meetings because they're optimized for business conversations. But you know we need something for pairing, and that's what Tuple is. It's just one click to jump on a call, to share your screen, to start annotating on that screen. And Tuple's optimized so that you can actually still compile your code while you're pairing.
00:01:07
Speaker
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00:01:28
Speaker
It's the best remote pair programming app on both Mac OS and Windows. Hi friends, I'm Scott Hanselman. This is another episode of Hansel Minutes. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Camille Tomlin, VP of IT t Systems and Infrastructure at the Philadelphia International Airport. How are you?
00:01:45
Speaker
I'm great. And yourself? I am very excited because I just got back from overseas and you know we're all thinking about the airport right now because of the shutdown. We're all thinking about all those systems in our lives that run perfectly and quietly until one day they don't.
00:02:03
Speaker
And we start thinking about that. And my wife and i were getting on the Wi-Fi at the airport. And then my wife was like, who who's in charge of that? Like who, who does the wifi? And then we like saw when they were changing our ticket, like who does that thing? And you can just sit in the airport and just sit at a gate and look at everything from the signage to the screens, to the wifi and just like, who's in charge of all this? So I thought it would be amazing to talk to someone who's actually in charge of that. And I'm curious when someone hears head of it t at an airport, what do they misunderstand about what you do?
00:02:34
Speaker
Oh, you know, ah usually the first thing I get is do you get the fly for free? People always say. It is crime. is a crime. No, we do not. I do not get to apply for sure. But so working for the airport, the airport is we are the landlord for all the tenants, all the businesses, all the airlines that operate within the airport. So our job is to maintain all the infrastructure, the facilities and make sure passengers have a safe and seamless journey.
00:03:08
Speaker
That is a really interesting way to think about it. Like it makes total sense when you say it like that, that it's a big apartment building and like, okay, United has that terminal and American has that terminal and they, they, they're renters. They're, they're leasing, I guess, aren't they?
00:03:22
Speaker
Yes, yes, yeah. um It depends on their are different type of lease agreements and all that. um But like at ah Philadelphia, ah we have American is our we're hub for American Airlines and they control a ah large portion of our terminals and they manage their their terminals.
00:03:40
Speaker
So like that infrastructure is all of them. um We support my team supports the base um infrastructure, but the airlines manage their own. Okay, so then what's the layer though then? There's, like I'm imagining there's like, there's cables, there's racks of machines, there's the actual internet relationship with whoever's providing internet and getting them connectivity.
00:04:03
Speaker
do different air Do different airlines want different stuff from the landlord? Yeah, it depends. Actually, we just ah onboarded our newest airline in June, Aeromexico, a direct flight from Pihalo to Mexico City.
00:04:17
Speaker
But ah that was the first time I actually had a new airline. So once they worked out their lease agreement and all the corporate stuff, it's how do we get them set up? So, for example, any airline, they need internet, right? So they're like, okay, we're going to get a circuit.
00:04:34
Speaker
So that's where my team comes in. we will work with whoever is their internet provider. Let's say it's, I don't know, Comcast or something. Mm-hmm. that they work with us to get access to our facility to put their circuits in. So we have like a central utility hub building that circuits are, and my team will extend that circuit to wherever that location is. So we provide that fiber to like their nearest closet, wherever they're located. And then we hand off and the airline or tenant take it take it from there to to place in their space. Okay, so you're spending a lot of time in like project management type meetings with their IT t head about they're going to bring their machines in, they're going to rack them and they're going to they're going to live here and they're going to plug in there.
00:05:17
Speaker
And then when are you managing how they use that internet? Like I assume it's their own dedicated line, so they're not anywhere near one of the other airlines. Correct. Correct. They have their own circuit, their own fiber. Sometimes tenants will lease fiber from us. Like we have, we have miles and miles of cabling throughout the airport. So they may lease fiber from us, um but we would just have a handle that handle, but we don't have any insight into their, into their networks or their systems. So when I'm sitting at the airport and I get on the public wifi, that's another, I'm, I'm, I'm effectively borrowing that and that's provided by, by you, or is that a company that brought came in and did that for you?
00:05:54
Speaker
it It depends. um I will say just for everyone listening, like there's a saying in the airport world, um if you've been to one airport, you've been to one airport. Because how everyone does it, it's it's to it could be done in many ways. Sometimes the airport may provide a Wi-Fi services or that may be a vended. We have a contract with a vendor that provides public Wi-Fi. So there are different ways. Yeah, I see Boingo. I see T-Mobile. I see different, depending on which airport you get into, it's easier or less easy to get on the Wi-Fi.
00:06:26
Speaker
Correct, correct, correct. It depends on what works for the airports. This might be outside your purvey, but it just made me realize that sometimes I see when I go at an airport, you see all these different Wi-Fi's like that are locked down that are probably not for me.
00:06:39
Speaker
Right. And then I see like something with an underscore or a letter A because they're trying clearly to be at the top because it's alphabetical order. And then I'm like, how many times does someone sneak into the airport and try to make a honeypot to get me to give them my details? Is that oh yours?
00:06:55
Speaker
You're nodding. Unfortunately, that is something that happens in many public spaces, right? Yeah, in many public spaces. You you can find these erroneous um Wi-Fi networks. um Never click, people.
00:07:07
Speaker
Safety first. Safety first. I would a tip is you can always like go to the airport's web website and like they probably have a link for like their Wi-Fi and you'll see the specific SSID that that airport says is their Wi-Fi. So don't just, even though it says like, you know,
00:07:24
Speaker
land or phl airport guest just check with the official website to make sure that ssid is correct i would say that use it and generally in your life do you ever like run into like terminal b or whatever and you're just like yeah there's someone in here there's evil like there's an evil ssid do you have network engineers that are watching for rogues and running after them or do they take care of themselves We have a dedicated InfoSec team. That's amazing. And our CISO does check and we get, i can tell you about all the PIM tests we've been through and all the ah the work we do to keep everyone safe. But generally, like everyone, practice, was it digital health?
00:08:02
Speaker
think Don't join things you don't know. Or seriously, check out with the the the airport's website and they'll tell you exactly what the SSID would be. So give me a sense of the scope of technology that you and your team have under their care. Like I'm imagining everything from checking in and those kiosks to runways. How much of it is provided by the airport versus how much of it is provided by, you know, has brought in and then you're they're just sitting in your infrastructure?
00:08:27
Speaker
um So we, with the airport, okay, I'll give i'll give you another thing. i always tell people, like an an airport is a mini city, right? Like just imagine like we have a fire department. We have a police department. We have, of course, airlines. We have stores. It's a public space. it's We have everything a city has, like water, bathrooms, restaurant. like So everything you would take to support a city, we actually do in an airport.
00:08:58
Speaker
And on top of that, we have, it's it's aviation, so we have all the FAA regulations and safety and all that, that our operation teams manage. So when you say the scope of IT, t it's like, it has a chip in it, it requires a cable, I probably was consulted chat for you or are or would be involved in the basic infrastructure. Okay, but then the the the tower where the the air traffic controllers are,
00:09:26
Speaker
They're probably on their own network with their own machines. Is that something that's under your purvey as well? So the FAA tower is totally separate. This is a fun fact. So there's like the FAA tower and then we have like ground towers that manage once the planes land. Oh, really? American, they tell what gate and once it lands, then it's handed off to the the ground towers. I didn't know there were multiple towers. Yes. Yes. If you go, come on to PHL, you'll see. anyway Just look me up. oh I'll give you the talk. Exactly. um Next time I land, I will come and get a tour of all the towers. I'm always thinking about like, this is the thing about, I think people like us that we're, we're systems thinkers. So it's like, how can you visit an airport or any public space that's a mini city and not start just getting overwhelmed with like all the little details of all the little systems and everything, like you said everything with a chip.
00:10:13
Speaker
and And this is why i always tell people the airport is so fascinating for anyone who's like a general technologist or you just, you know, if you're into tech, like the airport is your is your place because you can go in many, many directions because we touch on many things. And on top of that, it's planes. Who doesn't like planes? um What the fun part there? But yes, if there's a...
00:10:37
Speaker
Our operations, there's lights, there's runway lights. If they need support, there's cabling, there's all the fiber infrastructure that has to go through the entire grounds. Like our team makes sure that stuff is up and running and operational.
00:10:52
Speaker
You know, it seems like if there's one word, and I'm going to i going to take your entire job and break it down into one word. I keep hearing cabling. It seems like there's just more cable involved at the it in your job than I would have expected.
00:11:03
Speaker
Yes, yes. I always, I tell people, like sometimes we have, I talk to like the high schoolers and all the kids who come and visit the airport, but i was like, you think this is magic, right? It's Wi-Fi, it's cellular. There's a cable, there's a cable, trust me. So that a tower, there cables that go back to a data center. Even Wi-Fi, there's a cable that goes anywhere. um But yeah, that's how we, we, we, we um,
00:11:27
Speaker
We communicate like if you want this the same, you know, all the fit we call them FIDS, the flight information displays. and when you're in the airport with all the um the oh flights, like the arrival departure boards and all of those like big TVs.
00:11:41
Speaker
Correct. It's the same system. I have to cable that from terminal A west to terminal F, right? Like all that stuff is interconnected. All the number of switches and rooms. So those all have IP addresses. Every one of those TVs has an IP address or more. And they're I'm wondering about like subnetting and are they VPN? And how do you keep people from sneaking in and taking over that TV set?
00:12:02
Speaker
Oh yeah, no, that it is it is. We have a lot of closed networks. You cannot just join. There's no plugging in. It's no grabbing anything. That's another thing. we We do have a lot of on-prem systems that keep things locked down that don't talk to the internet at all. Good.
00:12:19
Speaker
But yeah, but it all starts with the, the, the, the cable, right? Yeah. and If you even go a step further, it also starts with the circuit, right? Um, So many people do assume that it's Wi-Fi. Like I was sitting at a, I was in practice. because I mentioned that I was traveling last week. I was in Portugal and we were sitting at a food court and I was with a techie and i'm I'm a techie, but this guy was a little more of a hacker type. And he noticed that the menu of the little Jamba Juice that was there or whatever the Portuguese equivalent of Jamba Juice was really just a TV with a Chromecast. So he joined it and started putting putting like family pictures on the the TV of this poor little Jamba Juice. And I was like, dude, dude, don't don't do that. And he's like, well, they shouldn't have had an open network.
00:13:01
Speaker
It makes you realize that like that not every TV at the airport is a Chromecast with like a TV from Costco. It's pretty sophisticated systems. Yeah, that is unfortunate. No, there are enterprise grade monitors that we buy and displays that ah don't have all those smart TV connections ah to it. um So no, they're their're enterprise.
00:13:23
Speaker
That's another badder. We always tell people, that you know, everyone i always equates things to like, well, in my house, it's like, well, yeah, you know, enterprise level. See, when people say enterprise level, it's like when people say military grade or whatever. It's just trying to express that this is a level that you didn't even know existed.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. it's It's a little different. It is a little different. here's a Here's a tough question for you. What is the proudest quiet win that your team has had? Like something that made a huge impact, massive impact, but it's not going to get in a newspaper because people are always redesigning airports and they have a whole thing about visit the new airport. It's got a new terminal, but they don't talk about your team and something amazing that you guys pulled off.
00:14:02
Speaker
Wow. Hmm. Wow. Scott. Mm hmm. The spotlight, I feel it. no stress. I just feel like there's like it could be bringing on Aeromexico for the first time, like a new airport. I about to say that. like That was one.
00:14:17
Speaker
Because it's it's you know aviation is highly regulated. You have to meet certain specifications. And we were able to work with our partner, Aeromexico, to make sure they were operational in time for all their inspections and all that. So we were able to work...
00:14:32
Speaker
and partner to make things happen. I would say generally because airports are twenty four seven the the best thing for me is our uptime. If things are operational, if you don't know we exist, let let I'm fine with passengers assuming it's magic. right like As long as I know everything is up, there's no out outage, or if something goes down, I built the redundancy in our system that you don't notice.
00:14:58
Speaker
That's where I am happy and my team is happy. You don't notice any of the mistakes. Don't watch. Even just I'm realizing the fact that we're here doing 30 minute podcast that the airport's still running.
00:15:10
Speaker
Like your team is there. Like they're always there. And there's probably, is there some kind of a knock or some kind of like a central place where you can sit and see like red, green, yellow, and how everything's doing and the health of the the system?
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, we have the standard tools everyone has. Like I said, it's it's so big. the The number of switches our team monitors and makes sure it's up ah is is a bit much. And it's always growing because there's always new projects, new projects. But that's also part of the the the fun thing about aviation. Like there's a lot of capital programs.
00:15:44
Speaker
And every capital project that they're building, whether it's even new windows, right? There's tech and new windows. There's sensors now. Oh, because it's a smart building. The whole city is a smart city. You're thinking about humidity and you probably know temperature and all that throughout the whole place. Yes.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yes. So we like consult with whatever new technology or whatever capital project they're they're working on, right? How can we make this cooler? How can I get this data? And then the next level is once I have the data, what can I do with some AI with it? So there's a lot.
00:16:15
Speaker
I don't know if I answered your question. I kind of got No, I think you did because it well well that's why I wanted to talk to you because I think it's just so your your vibe of enthusiasm through public service, through technology.
00:16:28
Speaker
just comes out. I mean, like you and you work, for example, at the Free Library of Philadelphia for like almost 15 years. You have been a public servant through technology pretty much since jump. Like, what does that what does that mean for you? How does working for a public agency different than like coming and working at Microsoft or Google?
00:16:46
Speaker
Which is funny because when I graduated back in the day, Microsoft was always the thing like, oh, I want to get a job at, um but I'm here in Philadelphia. I'm like, oh, I can stay here. There's opportunities here. But no, I was able to co-op. um I went to Drexel University, DU.
00:17:02
Speaker
The co-op program got exposed to different areas. I started as a web developer. I love that. um And this was the early two thousand so it was like the heyday. You could really code, notepad and all that stuff. That's when civilization peaked. peace Yeah. Don't get me started. That's a whole nother pot. Man, we talk.
00:17:20
Speaker
And then, you know, i got the opportunity to work at the public library system, which I love. That's one of my other um loves and special interests. Don't get me on books. Started there and then I moved up, became a web development supervisor. And then over time I became the IT ah department director for the library. But the thing is I've changed. like Working in a department or working for the public service, you get exposed to more things in tech. Like I didn't have to stay in my lane of web development. I actually moved to like, hey, we have some on-prem servers. Now I'm going to learn about servers or i have to reboot this thing. Now I'm now'm in the server room. Now I have to care about cabling. Now I have to learn about this, learn about this, learn about this.
00:18:00
Speaker
And I don't think I would have gotten that opportunity if it wasn't for this department or working for the government. Does the government, the government, I think it's a reputation of having older systems or being like, not just a year behind, but like 10 years behind.
00:18:18
Speaker
But I would suspect that at ah at the airport, it's kind of a balance. Like it has to be stable uptime above all else. So systems shouldn't be sexy. They should be reliable.
00:18:29
Speaker
But at the same time, you don't want to miss the boat. Like you, you kind of steepled your hands and you said AI because you're probably looking for new ways to use new technology, but you're also, I assume prioritizing stability above all else.
00:18:41
Speaker
Right. It's, it it's always a balance because, know, There's always a OPEX, right? Like we want to do all these things, but can i actually maintain this once I implement something? How do I now make this a line item and can afford it? and OPEX is operational expense?
00:18:58
Speaker
Yes. Sorry. Yes. ah And in government, sometimes it's a bit hard. We have budgets, constraints um that sometimes maybe other private sector does not in their round of funding. Mm-hmm. The constraints that we may have. So I'm always looking for that balance of we want to stay innovative. Can I sustain this? And is this reliable? There's something um we don't want to be on the cusp. It's like what's slightly behind, but not 10 years. No, we don't try to be that far behind.
00:19:29
Speaker
Do the do VPs of IT t at airports have a convention? Do you all have a group chat? How do you all talk? Because you said you've been to an airport, you've been to an airport, but there must be best practices and you all must be hanging out together, figuring it out together.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yes, actually, it just so I'm not going this year, but our annual is actually the international convention. it's called ACI. i like I'm going to forget what ACI stands for Airport Council. Conferences this weekend in Toronto.
00:19:57
Speaker
But no, there are a lot of organizations in the airport world. It is a close, we talk to different airports all the time. where We have a lot of the same struggles. I met recently like the folks in Atlanta, which I'm always like, wow, the level of scale, the busiest airport in the world. I'm talking to their IT department and I find out they're having the same issues or trying to solve the same problems I am.
00:20:18
Speaker
um So no, our our worlds, we we do talk a lot. This is the, I'm looking online, the Airport Councils International. Yes, Toronto this weekend.
00:20:29
Speaker
wow. And you're not going. what It's got everything. Look at this. Airport infrastructure funding, airline competition, security, connectivity, all that stuff. Oh, yeah. it's it's It's fun times. It's so funny to discover that. there like There's a whole world out there, and you all are just making it happen. And we just we just fly, and we don't even think about it.
00:20:50
Speaker
That's good, man. Enjoy the magic. Yeah. Enjoy the magic. We want a seamless, your your travel should be seamless, right? Like I know you you said yeah your you report there were a couple of hookups on your last trip.
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, we had a really interesting one. I won't name the airport they the the airline or the airport, but basically we were in the middle of boarding. I was looking at my at my Apple wallet and the pass disappeared.
00:21:18
Speaker
And then this murmur went through the crowd and we were all checked. The opposite of checked in, we were all checked out simultaneously. And then when we went to the change seats map to look at the map of the, of the, of the seats, they were all empty.
00:21:31
Speaker
Like everyone was, just randomly unchecked in and they freaked out and it it pushed the whole thing back like, you know, three hours. And ultimately it was the airline, not the airport that had the issue. But we, we had never heard of anything like that in the middle of a boarding process to deplane and reassign seats to everyone. It was crazy. And it just felt like one of those select star from seats, delete seats kind of situations. you know what i mean? Like little Bobby tables got involved and we all lost our, our seats.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah, no, that that that sounds unique. If that's any consolation, I don't think that happens often. That was very unique. It felt very strange. Yeah. yeah I'm curious, is there something that is like the culture of airports, the teamwork, the coordination, the constant motion that maybe more people should appreciate that you're you're seeing every day in your job, but we don't know that exists? Yeah.
00:22:22
Speaker
There is. So like I said, the airport is a city. We we we we work with, of course, the airlines. We have our our tenants, like the commercial space. the ah We also have the federal agencies, Customs Border Patrol, TSA, Piper.
00:22:38
Speaker
FAA, that we all work together to make sure, again, everyone is safe. Like the the number one thing in airports is safety, right? Safety is number one, full stop. And then we try to make sure your experience is as seamless as possible and as comfortable as possible.
00:22:56
Speaker
but So it's always collaboration and it's all a mission. Like with operational, we always say, as long as those planes take off and land, as long as the planes take off the land, we're good. but That's all that matters. where You need to go.
00:23:07
Speaker
Is it is it a a secret or is it okay to know like generally how big your team is? like How many people are working in IT t at an airport? So in our IT department, we have about a a little shy of 80. Oh, wow. eighty We're a good mix. We have a city staff and we have a lot of contractors. We do have a lot contract staff, em but embedded staff that help us.
00:23:33
Speaker
Now you moved from the, from the city of Philadelphia to the library, to the airport, but like, how would someone just even get involved? Like, I think I saw on your LinkedIn that you were actually, you're, uh, yeah, here you Come join our team, cable plant software coordinator. Like these jobs are happening. There's like cable management is a job and vendor oversight.
00:23:55
Speaker
Uh, it's not, it's not a secret club. We can just apply for these jobs and get into this, this business. Without a doubt. I will say anyone, if you go to your ah local airport website, there are job openings. there The airport is always hiring. If it's not just the airport, the airlines, you can always work at an airport.
00:24:18
Speaker
oh For example, at our airport, in the tech world, yes, we're always trying to get more staff. And because we're a city, most of our jobs are publicly announced. You can always go to the city's website. Oh, good point. now And that's the same for every city.
00:24:31
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Because just so people may not know, most city most airports are either owned by a local city or an authority. We are ah a city-owned. A lot of the biggest ones, like Atlanta is a city-owned airport. Los Angeles is a city-owned airport. But then there's like JFK. they They have the authority, the port authority. The port authority. But it's not a business in the sense of, like is the goal of the airport to make a profit, or is the goal of the airport to break even and keep running?
00:24:59
Speaker
ah but there's not a I can't buy stock in an airport. No, it's a government agency. Right. It's a service being provided. Right. Even though it's an authority, it's still a government entity. Okay, good.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's another thing that's important. that Right now we're having a lot of conversations about where people fit and how these, like the the post office or the airport, like these are not businesses. Do not expect profit.
00:25:26
Speaker
Expect high quality service that runs 24-7. So given your job and what we understand as techies, what do you think that the public or maybe policymakers should better understand?
00:25:38
Speaker
about technology within civic infrastructure? What's a thing that if I were, you know, a congressperson or a city council person that I should know about your job that maybe they don't know?
00:25:52
Speaker
everyone who works for the airport, I generally, yeah, I'll speak for all people who work for, we are dedicated to what we do, right? Unlike, I know we talked before, like, there are a lot more glamorous world, the startup world, like the glamor, but the people who work in this space,
00:26:12
Speaker
want to do this and we're dedicated to providing the service and making sure people are able to use our facilities easily, safely, quickly.
00:26:24
Speaker
So it's the people who run these systems. We're dedicated. We like it. We love it. And we just need as much support to make sure we can maintain all these services. Yeah. I think that people need to realize that like civil servant and being a civil servant and working in public service as a public agency is a, is a choice and people do it because they, they, they love it. They're excited. They want, they want to be in the room where it happens.
00:26:48
Speaker
Yes. I tell people like it did. You got always every, every young tech person has to ask themselves, what kind of tech person do I want to be? Yeah. Right. And I realize i I like all of the things. Right. And I position myself to have exposure to all of the things, physical infrastructure, cloud infrastructure.
00:27:09
Speaker
i don't know if there's other places you can do that. Right. Like the ability to switch between. That's a great point. like I started at the library and then I moved to the airport and then like, well, maybe I want to switch to the water department. Maybe I want to like I can move around. Right.
00:27:27
Speaker
And it's a playground. Like I have a small half rack in my house. Cause I think we're all it for our homes. You know what i mean? So like I feel like a little tiny bit of like, I'm running the little tiny city that is the little, you know, a couple thousand square feet of the house and like managing our little ubiquity network. So when I look at things like an airport or a library or a city, I i put it in the context of what I understand, except it's just that times 10,000 or whatever. But What what a playground for for cabling, for software, for systems, for hardware that you get to get to play in every day.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah, it truly is. It's everything you can think of. we Like I said, we have on-prem, we have cloud, ah we're hybrid. um We have the securities piece. We have an InfoSec team. We have our systems. We have help desk. We have anything you can think of under um airport. And the same thing exists in every airport every commercial airport throughout the United States.
00:28:29
Speaker
Has it helped in your job? I'm assuming that there are IT VP types in airports that aren't technical. They're just more managerial, but you're a programmer also. And like, you know, you you like, you know what they're doing in the sense of like, you're not asking anyone to do something that you couldn't maybe either do yourself or learn to do yourself. So does it help to be a technical manager in this kind of a space as opposed to simply a people manager?
00:28:55
Speaker
I think, uh, You know what I always tell people, no matter what the key thing, regardless, curiosity, curiosity, you have to just be curious about it. Cause you'll, the higher you go up, you're, what it? Like my, I'm not as, I'm not as me anymore. i more of, I have a large, a wider breadth of things. I think about as being like a Swiss army knife. Like I can do a bunch of little stuff, but i'm not very good at it. Cause it's a kind of a crappy little knife.
00:29:19
Speaker
Right. I might be good at it that day. ah It becomes my special hobby and I'm focusing on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or sometimes I feel like, you know, the Matrix and Neo, like, I know Kung Fu.
00:29:30
Speaker
like so Like, I just have to do a deep dive. When she downloads the helicopter and starts, I need to know how about helicopters right now. And they go, okay, now I can fly a helicopter. Sometimes it's like that at the airport. Like, I'm doing this or we get a lot of... ah you you You just have to adapt. You have to, one, be curious.
00:29:47
Speaker
I always say that's just my personal motto. You have to be enthusiastic about everything. Otherwise, why are we doing this? and ah But the tech background does help. It does help. But I saw someone posted this thing on ah a GitHub. It can show you like a graph of your all your... ah ah ah Oh, see how far it is? I'm forgetting. All your...
00:30:08
Speaker
When you push, what's that called? All your commits. All your commits. See how, see, I became corporate. So now you're going to have to i have to go and get back into it. But it showed a graph, so you can make a graph of your commits. And I did it, and I was like, oh, wow, I can see the point when I became management. Oh, no. You just see all the, it just dies off. No, I kind of, you're hurting me because I know exactly when when my GitHub commit graphs is not quite so green. Yeah. It's like, yeah, what were you doing there? I was in meetings, man.
00:30:37
Speaker
So it's like you, as you grow, you accept that, but it's still exciting. It's still fun. And yeah I get to dabble in when I want to, but ah my team will not give me the keys. I'm like, read only access. Don't, don't let me. It's probably best that we have read only access. Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today. My pleasure. It has been a lot of fun talking with Camille Tallon, VP of IT Systems and Infrastructure at the Philadelphia International Airport.
00:31:05
Speaker
This has been another episode of Hansel Minutes, and we'll see you again next week.