IT Nation 2011 Conference: Day 1 Keynote

This morning has been great.  After adjusting to the crazy time difference (getting up at the equivalent of 3am my normal time) I grabbed a quick breakfast and found a seat for the first keynote.

The main presenter was Dan Burris, a technology futurist who’s hired by the highest echelon of corporations to help them determine hard trends in technology, and adopt accordingly.  The man had some great analogies about how we can often be blind to coming change in both our industry and in business abroad.  One way he put it…

“You know, often times the excuse I hear from those who have either failed to change quickly enough or even seen the need to change is this, ‘I was just sooo busy with things…blah blah blah.’.  The truth of the matter is that we’re all busy.  The top 20 execs of GM we’re ‘super busy’ as their meltdown in 2008-2009 fast approached, but they did little to prepare their company for the things to come.  We’re all busy, the choice we need to make is this, are we willing to slow down for a moment to really consider what the future will look like and how our ‘busyness’ fits into preparing for and taking advantage of it.”

Needless to say I was inspired to some extent.  However, I’m also proud.  I see Allixo doing this exact thing to phone system competition.  They continue to tell their prospects and current customers that VoIP ‘isn’t a mature technology’ or that it ‘isn’t for small business’. Not only are they wrong, their actually hurting their ability to stay in that market in the near future.  Some of them are nimble enough to get dragged kicking and screaming into VoIP effectively, but others will move on or go out of business.  We have awesome technology partners and I’m hoping to improve those relationships.  This will result in us staying ahead of the curve and being a ‘visionary’ tech company in Skagit Valley and beyond.  I know Allixo is a quality IT company in Skagit Valley, and part of that is due to our ability to see what’s coming and adapt quickly.

There are of course areas in which we are likely stuck in poor thinking too, so I hope to find the worst offences and deal with them quickly with the help of my team.

Dan Burris’ resounding theme for this whole conference?  Two thoughts:  a) foresight b) the fast will eat the slow.  I want to give a hat tip to Brendan, our Service Lead at Allixo, for expressing early on in his time here a desire to remain nimble.  We can expand on that desire to be a ‘nimble’ company by looking forward and constantly adjusting our roadmap to what’s going to be most effective vs. what we’ve always had success with.  I know we can strike the balance of old and new that will keep our growth well ahead of the curve.