Change of leadershipin Orlando

Last weeks Orlando ITPRO meeting has been one of the best ones I’ve ever attended; it was also bittersweet because I was handing over the reigns of the group to the new folks but we made a heck of a party out of it and I was so darn proud to see the people just show what they do. Erik talked about the Kayako helpdesk tool he uses and showed the LiveChat feature as well as how he implements it in his business (by far the funniest presentation we’ve ever had in Orlando) as well as a really nice overview of CactiEZ he uses for monitoring. Ryan from Asystech hopped up on the screen in the middle of the conversation and started showing off their Connectwise / Kaseya deployment. I know what you’re thinking, “Vlad let all of these people talk about how they use his competitors products? WTF?”

Perhaps the biggest mistake I have made in my two years of leading Orlando is building it up on top of my own braindumps. I don’t have regrets about that per se because the show must go on and I needed to sell the people on attending the events so they could see the value in being a part of the community and just what sort of payoff that kind of activity can have to everyone. Even if they are discussing your very competition, there is a lot of value but you either come and get it or you don’t. Unfortunately, it’s not so direct input/output equation, there is a lot of stuff that goes into the organization of it and the execution as well as marketing, growth of the group, vendor relationships, driving speakers around the town, etc. But two of the downsides that came out of the approach I had implemented were primarily that this was seen as the “service” that some folks outright expected to be there – but never saw fit to contribute back to it. So I did a little spring cleaning, based on Jeff Middleton’s advice, that the group ought to be all about the people that chose to show up month after month, not only when it suits them. So I kicked a few folks out, will probably have to have an egg on my face and some uncomfortable social impacts in the future but I believe it will benefit the group going forward. Second, and a far more problematic piece, is that the group became “Vlad’s Orlando ITPRO” or “Vlad’s group in Orlando” which I had never wanted it to be seen as. However, I am a leader and those of you that know me know the type of intensity I bring to all of my projects (coincidentally, also the reason why I drop so much stuff that I don’t see going anywhere… in it to win it, otherwise what is the point?) But, easilly solved.

So, taking over the helm of Orlando are:

Judd Spence – Central Florida Helpdesk

Rob Richardson – Micro Logix Information Systems

Ryan Ford – Asystech

All three work for some very serious Orlando service providers and I’m sure have the resources to push this organization forward.

I will be there to help and will be (as a part of the evil stuff I discussed here before) organizing quarterly international events in collaboration with a very large company you may have heard of before. So at least once a quarter Orlando will be the center of the world when it comes to the Small Business Specialist expertise, between those we will focus on improving one another so we can all win.

As for me, I will be taking what I have learned and succeeded with in Orlando and taking it worldwide. I will also be leading some projects at OwnWebNow to help the partners that brought us to this stage. The key to success at OWN have been partnerships and while it has been a win-win so far we’re taking this thing to a whole new level. Stay tuned, news should be out very, very soon.