As first year attendees at IBM’s PartnerWorld Leadership Conference (PWLC), we didn’t quite know what to expect. No customers? Only for business partners in attendance? Very few sessions and tracks? A chance to get away and spend a few days in the 70° weather of Las Vegas, NV? We decided to give the opportunity a chance, and at the same time be recognized by IBM and fellow partners for Outstanding Innovation in Software Development with #bluejazz – why not…
The tone for conference was set from the very first Keynote where Marc Dupaquier (@Marcdupa), General Manager Global Business Partners at IBM and Ginni Rometty (@GinniRometty), CEO of IBM, kicked-off the event and paved the road for the week, the year and the new IBM vision.
Business Partners- If you are looking to learn about market trends, business opportunities and Sr. IBM executives, this is the conference to attend. A few words: #Phenomenal. #Yeah. #Absolutely.
Blue Agility (@blueagility) was awarded the 2014 Beacon Award for Outstanding Innovation in Software, Systems or Product Development with our solution, #bluejazz, running up against distinguished companies such as Sogeti and National Instruments. Quite an honor to be chosen. Validation that our small yet rapidly growing company is really really..well..innovative. An achievement and victory that belongs to the employees who have worked hard to build a product that has revolutionized the way we learn how people, process and tools come together…in concert!
Eyal Abukasis (myself), accepting the Beacon Award from Marc Dupaquier
There were many notable lessons, here are a couple:
Becoming a social business - Empower Employees to amplify your message. Build your brand. Build your company. The real power of social business comes when a company combines the collective social networks from all of its stakeholders to amplify its messages by orders of magnitude. Many organizations are training employees to become their voice and their ambassadors. Their their marketers. This, in turn, drives leads and sales. In order to compete, businesses need to hire employees whom align with their values and fit into their culture, those willing to adopt and adapt to social media policies and evangelize them to energize employees.
Business transformation briefing - The business model transformation necessary to keep pace with current market demands and increase recurring revenue is a tough one. Understanding the current environment and learn the appropriate skills needed to begin an evolution. As an alumni of the workshop, Blue Agility and Galaxy Office Automation shared our lessons learned with industry leaders and future alums. oh..and I was interviewed too. My first youtube video (here).
PWLC 2014 was concluded with a LIVE performance by the Goo Goo Dolls (@googoodolls). Awesome way to finish a great week. Four days later, we came back to a snow-filled Philadelphia (16 inches in February???)… Reminiscing about PWLC in Vegas… In summary, a memorable event.
Pratik Bengali @PratikBengali (left) & Eyal Abukasis, @eabukasis (right) pre-award ceremony
See you next year!!!
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