The return flight back to Calgary
A quick, less than 24 hours on the ground in Toronto trip has just completed (well actually not, I am writing this in the air). What a busy day in Toronto, lots of stuff posted on some other blogs that I take care of. I posted twice during the day to the http://www.weareitpros.ca website, once on the launch of Office Live Small Business and another posting to help us recruit the top IT talent in Calgary. We are looking at filling more technical roles at IT Matters and we are in the need of some great people. So if you know someone or yourself, shoot off a resume to careers@itmatters.ca. Visit our IT Matters Blog at http://www.itmatters.ca/blog to get the scoop on the position.
OK, back to the stuff that matters about life, not that a shortage in great people doesn’t matter…
Relationships matter as well and that is what Thursday in Toronto was all about, relationships. It started after a quick sleep at the SOHO Metropolitan on Wellington, what a great hotel, top notch. It is too bad that I did get to spend more time there. My friends at Highroad Communications needed me to help them with the launch of Office Live Small Business and you can read my post from yesterday to understand the importance of why I had to be there. We had a great room full of people itching to learn more about this wonderful solution for Small Business. Office Live Small Business provides the Small Business is a low cost entry point into the world on the web, and yes, it is coming and we must embrace it. Just look at me, Mr Web 2.0, you have to embrace it, you must take action right now, we are beyond getting ready, it is here…where are you? You can learn more about Office Live Small Business at http://www.officelive.com. You still need a partner to truly get the most of the solution, call me at 403.710.4357, I can help you out.
After I was finished with Highroad, I swung by the DELL event at the Toronto Convention Centre. I met up with some of my friends from DELL Canada. You know something, DELL is a great company to work with and I will argue this with anyone. These guys get the channel and the importance of partners. I spoke with a few DELL reps today and they all told me that they are now doing business directly with partners because they get the solution. Kevin Peesker during his PartnerDirect talk said that “80% of DELL’s business is through PartnerDirect”, I know that DELL does alot of business with us, something like 7 figures in DELL business. IT Matters is someone you can call on if you need DELL systems in Calgary or anywhere in Canada.
Do I sound like an infomercial today? Sorry…
After my brief chat with my buddies from DELL, I had lunch with Leslie, who used to be my DELL rep until she moved on to BMO. This is the true value of a relationship. Leslie has been gone from DELL since May (I still miss her), however we are good friends and almost every time I am in Toronto, well at least downtown, we get together. I feel bad because I short changed Leslie today with our time together. Relationships in business need to be more about dollars and cents, we have to go deep with our vendors and friends who work for them. They are people too, they have challenges in their lives, they have credit card payments to make, they have mortgages to pay and they are concerned about the markets as well. Never under estimate the value of your vendor relationships. Keith Ferrazzi taught me well at the event in Calgary as few weeks ago.
I also took sometime to meet with my board from the IAMCP, well most of them. We had a great lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Downtown Toronto. The upcoming Microsoft tour is occurring during Q2 of Microsoft’s FY09 and we have been invited to show off our goods with the IAMCP. It was wonderful to spend sometime with my board members, too often we just meet on the phone and I really appreciate the face time with these fine folks.
Are you seeing a theme here, I hope so, it is about relationships.
Finally, my friends from Microsoft, Paula and Rob took me out to Riva Supper Club on College Street for dinner, thanks Rob for playing host tonight and Paula for the ride to Pearson when we were done. I really appreciate all that you guys do for me. How can I help you succeed? That was the question of the evening for me. How can I help my friends reach their goals? How can I help my staff reach their goals? How can I help you reach your goals?
The Toronto trip was a great reconnecting experience today, jammed packed into about 10 hours, WOW, I did it…
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