Leading edge, not bleeding edge.
That’s how Alex Jarett, founder of the Technology Executives Club, defines his organization. Club members, according to Jarett, want to know more about what’s working, what other people are using, and how they can use it as well. They’re less interested in what new, unproven technologies are being developed.
The TEC’s stated mission is to foster thought leadership and business development opportunities in the technology marketplace. This combination grew from an idea in Jarett’s head to a small business that took up space in the family’s laundry room, and eventually to a full-fledged organization with six staff members in an office in Libertyville.
What differentiates the TEC from other technology organizations? According to Jarett, the first is a focus on creating events and seminars like the Emerging Technology Symposium that fosters practical thought leadership and demonstrate how technology can truly help businesses. The second is the highly qualified networking that can successfully open business opportunities.
Those two characteristics were prevalent at the club’s Emerging Technology Symposium, held at the Standard Club in Chicago on October 24 and attended by 180 executives. The symposium consisted of three forums, all focused on how companies are applying new technologies, with liberal doses of networking taking place throughout the afternoon. One forum included a panel of brick and mortar companies, and another brought vendors like Oracle, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard together on the same stage. A third presented case studies of successful projects of businesses and vendors working together.
“We’re creating an environment for business opportunities,” adds Jarett. “Highly qualified networking that allows executives, from technology companies and from brick and mortar companies using those technologies, to share their experiences with other businesses.”
While even the panel filled with competing technology companies was far from contentious, both the technology producers and the technology users had strong recommendations for each other. “We rely on technology to evolve with us,” noted Mike Saleh, manager of information security at W.W. Grainger. “It’s the responsibility of the vendor to learn and adapt to the market.”
“If vendors put us all in a room together, we can work together to solve their problems,” said Judson B. Althoff, director of business development with Oracle, addressing concerns about how competing technologies can become obstacles to progress. Oracle has supported the Java-based J2EE, a direct competitor to Microsoft’s .NET web services, although Althoff conceded that he agreed with .NET on a conceptual level.
The vendor panelist presented a number of technologies that they felt should be strongly examined by businesses, mostly in the categories of infrastructure, integration and standards. Extensible Markup Language, or XML, an open standard that allows disparate computer systems to exchange information, continues to gain support from private industry and even the federal government. Wireless networking, security and content delivery devices like Pocket PCs were also listed as important technologies for today’s businesses.
“If you look at the use of high tech, there are three ways businesses can apply it,” explained Jarett. “You can save money, increase productivity, or increase revenue. When dotcoms were hot, people were talking about revenue, but now they’re using it for strategic issues like productivity, or even security. That’s the driving force behind our thought leadership component.”
The TEC offers members and nonmembers a variety of resources, including the Technology Executives Review, an online newsletter with member-penned articles on business development, marketing strategies, and, of course, technology applications. The club also offers a number of special interest groups (SIGs) built around eCommerce, global business, human resources and other topics.
Upcoming TEC events include regular SIG meetings, a quarterly financing seminar on Nov. 7, and the 2003 Technology and eBusiness Sector Forecast Symposium scheduled for Dec. 11.
For more information about the Technology Executives Club visit www.technologyexecutivesclub.com.
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Brian Pelletier is a freelance writer specializing in
high-tech and business-to-business communications. He can be reached
at blp@chi1.com.
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