Midwest Technology Leaders Knocks IT Out of the Park

The Midwest Technology Leaders conference hit a home run this year with the quality of the people it drew.  I’m talking about the CIO’s, Directors of IT and most excitingly the IT entrepreneurs, those small business people who have slugged out an IT business in Michigan and have continued to grow.

Frankly, this was a group of people I didn’t know existed in the area (and I’ve been here for 11 years). I saw a slue of these companies come into existence during the .com boom but after the implosion, the landscape seemed dead.  Seeing these people all in one room, talking to them -all still hungry,  seasoned and focused on growth, created a buzz that I haven’t felt in Michigan in a long time.

I’ve attend conferences and business meetings across the America’s, felt the buzz and creativity in other cities. Attending this event opened the door for a perception change about this region. 

And what is the secret to this event, what brought these people out of the woodwork? The credit’s got to go to the people behind the scenes who dreamed it and made it happen (people -and not organizations), specifically,  Tracy Ann-Palmer. She launched the symposium and benchmarked it with leadership conferences from around the world. Thank you Tracy-Ann for brining the vision to this area.

This year, Tracy-Ann, had another powerhouse behind the scense to make it happen and up the energy level even more: Cindy Eggleton from CERB Associates.

I talked to many people there and the consensus seemed to be the same. I don’t know how they did it or what it is, but this year more than others, the event inspired and energized those who participated to reach farther and grow further -no small feat in Michigan today.

BTW, the location rocked, the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Who knew we had such a gem of conference facility in the area?

    

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Software and Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.