IBM Think Parade 2003
by Volker Weber
I have been kicking around this news since last week but I did not want to preempt my customer. Today their site went live and I can break the news:
IBM has hired me to host a roadshow that will travel through eight german-speaking cities in early fall. My role is to be a moderator and advocatus diaboli to make the event more interesting for the customers and partners attending. The roadshow will touch on all new technologies and products coming out of PCD, which sells notebooks, desktops, xSeries servers and all kinds of options, especially screens.
These events can be kind of boring if product marketing managers go through endless slideshows. So IBM is hiring someone independent to ask questions and stirr up the event a bit. That does not mean I am going to eat marketing managers for lunch. Actually I have to finish before lunch. :-)
A friend asked me this morning whether I am turning to show business. The correct answer is both yes and no. I am actually returning to show business. But you must have known me for a long time to remember that. In a former life, you know. That was vowe 4.0. The current release is 7.1.
So, this is the event schedule:
15.09. Köln
18.09. Hamburg
23.09. München
25.09. Frankfurt
30.09. Wien
02.10. Zürich
06.10. Herrenberg
10.10. Stuttgart
I have contemplated about conflict of interests regarding this particlar event. After all, most of my professional writing is about IBM, especially in the collaborative software business. As this event is about hardware, I felt reasonably secure that I can keep those things neatly separated. I actually think that there are more conflicts in my consulting practice since I am a lot better educated about IBM's offerings than those of their competitors.
IBM certainly has a very strong brand, as most of their products. You probably remember this punchline from an IBM advert: "And who gets his Thinkpad?" — What I find most interesting is that IBM tries to leverage my name to raise interest for the event. Am I famous now? :-)
Want to come? No problem, the event is actually free. As in free lunch. You can sign up here >
Comments
no, duesseldorf :-( luckly i have a "pismo" so no problem at all :)
A pismo?
Mazel tov, I expect the IBM stock price to soar tomorrow ;)
Sorry I don't think I'll be in Europe during this time. Of course, nie sprechen kein Deutsch so it wouldn't matter anyway...
Ha ha! IBM is lucky to have you. I'm sorry I won't be able to see one of the "shows."
Maybe a new Thinkpad for the "new Lotus Development World"? WSAD, DB2, Domino, Notes and Thinkpads only up to 1 Gig Rams right now available.... Running all Applications on a A31P with 1 Gig takes about 12 Minutes to start all.
That does not fit at the moment.
There is definitively a white spot in the eastern region
of your road-map.
You might miss *very* good IBM customers, especially in south east germany. Some of them even need a thinkpad on their knees,
when they take a sunbath on their deck chair.
And even some of their moonlit nights are ThinkLight enabled ;-).
Agree, Berlin seems to be not interesting enough to perform the show in eastern germany. So i will have to come down to germanys banking capital: Luckily i will be able to attend there ;-)
Schweppes, maybe I can join you in Frankfurt and show some respect for our dear friend Volker :-)
ciao tpk
IBM gains a new Guru
cheers
