I moderated a panel entitled “Creating a Technology Services Company” last night. I recruited a great panel of experts including: David Kelleher, founder and CEO of CGI Interactive; Denise Aronson, founder and president of Safety Partners; and Joseph Sanromá, Principal of DBA Partners. The event was jointly sponsored by the IEEE Boston Entrepreneur’s Network (ENET) and IEEE Consultants Network (CNET), the session was a huge success.
We had some technical difficulties at the start but got them all worked out. Words for the wise: always bring your slide deck(s) with you, as well as hardcopy slides, handouts, & notes if used. The panel started a little slowly but after about 25 minutes we hit our stride. The audience of about 70 people started to ask good questions and made good observations; they were clearly into it. I enjoyed orchestrating the event—interacting with the Denise, David, and Joe; picking out members of the audience, and keeping things moving. Not surprisingly, the most animated part of the meeting centered on social media—how much time people spend on it, what the costs are, and what is the ROI. A lot of heat came into the room on such a cold night!
Here are some comments from people who attended:
Robert Adelson, Chairman, ENET Executive Committee commented: “We had a very nice meeting of ENET last night. Tim did a fine job moderating, all panelists were very good and the meeting proceeded right on time. Also despite low earlier registration, the attendance was 70 which is the best of our last three meetings and very good for a cold January 3.”
Robert Lento, ENET Vice Chair, Programs and CNET Liaison to ENET agreed: “Jan 3. was one of the best joint programs ever presented by CNET/ENET. Congratulations to you, David, Denise, and Joe. The panel was well-rounded. The speakers complemented each other and worked well together in the panel-discussion format. Several attendees commented on the contributions made by the moderator during the meeting. Of course, they were not aware of another major contribution—the teleconferenced dry runs that you orchestrated!”
Angela Roberge, President of Accurate Staffing, LLC: “Enjoyed the panel – liked how they each had varying years of experience – found that interesting and informative.”
After the meeting each of the panelists had a cluster of people around them—always a good sign. Many people came up to me too, including a David Beberman, a long-ago colleague from Genetics Institute who now works at a Solutions Architect at Aicas Realtime…small world!