The Need for Thank You's

We have just come off an unbelievable event with HTG Summit 2009. It would be easy to bask in the glowing reviews and positive comments from our members and vendor sponsors, but the reality is a whole lot of people were involved in making this event happen. I want to make sure to recognize as many as I can (sorry if someone get's overlooked). Too often we don't stop to say thanks to those who make things happen. So here is a list of people who were instrumental in making HTG Summit 2009 a success. A very special thanks to all of you.

Scott Scrogin who serves as president of HTG, is my first thank you. Scott works tirelessly and passionately to make HTG what it is. He was instrumental in helping pull off a great event.

Bob Burg did an awesome job sharing the principles of being a Go-Giver and the power of referrals, networking and relationships. His time with us was powerful and gives us a true focus for how we need to engage with our clients and community.

Christy Sacco was our event planner and took us up a few notches in terms of everything. She is the best there is and really helped make HTG Summit a fabulous experience for all.

Ken Shetler manages our vendor relationships and worked many long and sleepless days trying to herd the vendor cats so we could have a meaningful engagement with them in the lunch and learns, dinners, seats at the table and vendor fair experiences.

My bride Nancy tolerated a whole lot of long days and lots of people for months leading up to this event. I could not do what I do without her support and encouragement. Nancy also trys to keep up with all the agreements and contracts for HTG which is a whole lot of paper.

Sue Sorensen handles all the accounting for HTG. Talk about a wizard at billing and managing the A/R and other aspects of accounting, we could not do it without her.

Mary Petersen did all the design work and handles our newsletter production each month. She worked to help put the conference book together, sign design, shirt design and on the list goes. She also took a whole lot of pictures that are posted to the member portal.

Brad Schow and family (Robyn, Ben and Rachel) were instrumental in helping us with registration and a thousand other tasks that week. They spent spring break serving the HTG membership. Now that is commitment (or they live in a dictatorship). We never would have made it without them.

Aaron Booker brought VarVid to the event and captured some powerful video for us. We really appreciate all the support Aaron gives to HTG. Check out the video at http://www.varvid.com/ and next time you need something done, let Aaron know.

The HTG advisory board of Brad, Lyf, Scott, Stuart and Dan really help set direction and keep the ship on course. We are thankful for all their investment and leadership. A special thanks to Lyf for the literally hundreds of hours he spent making sure the HTG portal was ready for the event (which is why he recieved the Founders Award on Tuesday evening).

The facilitators did a bang up job of leading their collective boardrooms. These folks are in the trenches and do a fantastic job of helping members learn and grow.

As always, the team at the Omni did an unbelievable job of taking care of us. Ramses, Terri, Cameron and team were very efficient in meeting our needs and serving our members.

We had 37 vendors there to connect with HTG members and this event doesn't happen without their support. Make sure you reach out and thank our vendor partners for being part of HTG.

The lineup of speakers for our breakout sessions was first rate. Thanks to all who were willing to share knowledge and guidance to our membership. You did a fantastic job.

A very special thanks to Paul Dippell and Ryan Morris for helping us convey the HTG 3.0 message to our membership. Change is a coming, and these industry thought leaders helped flesh out and explain the changes that are driving our strategy for the next version of HTG.

Last but certainly not least, we thank our members who spent 3 or 4 days out of office to attend the week in Dallas. As we talked about in our keynote, HTG is you. It would not happen without your willingness to be part of the community and living a go-giver life.

So thanks to all. A great week with a long lasting impact. THANK YOU!

HTG Summit Review

Stuart Crawford hosted a great blogtalk radio show about the HTG Summit. Hear feedback from a number of HTG members on their takeaways from the show.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2009/05/01/Thought-Leaders-Converged-On-Dallas

It is worth the listen!

2009 HTG Award Presentations

This year marked the first year we have presented the HTG Awards to our membership. We have some of the greatest partners in the IT Channel, and we were able to recognize them on Tuesday evening as part of our HTG Summit in Dallas last week. Here is the list of winners:

Award - Name - Recipient Company
Group of the Year - HTG2 - Facilitator Nate Austin
Rookie of the Year - Amy and Peter Kardel - Clever Ducks
Facilitator of the Year - Erik Thorsell - Success Computer Consulting
Vendor of the Year - Zenith Infotech Ltd.
Spirit Award - Robert Lindley - Innovative Systems, Inc
Leadership Award - Dan Hay - ISOutsource
Founder’s Award - Lyf Wildenberg - Mytech Partners
Friend of HTG - Paul Dippell - Service Leadership, Inc.
Excellence in Partnering - Aaron Booker - Hardlines Co.
Best Practice/Great Idea - Mitch Miller - Dynamic Computer Solutions
Best Practice/Great Idea - Alex Ziogas - AZBS
Best Practice/Great Idea - Andre Vittorio - Idealogical Systems, Inc.

Group Members of the Year
HTG1 - Dan Shundoff - Intellicom
HTG2 - Lyf Wildenberg - Mytech Partners
HTG3 - Steve Riat - Nex-tech
HTG4 - Garrett Brucker - Solve IT
HTG5 - Cohen Barnes - TBC Net, Inc.
HTG6 - Dave Rodman/Jeremy Kurth K&R - Network Solutions
HTG7 - Chris Bates - The Computer Hut
HTG8 - Roy van Norstrand - Usherwood Office Technology
HTG9 - Gary Stein - Netlink Systems Inc.
HTG10 - Randy Biggs - VACS
HTG11 - Raja Pagadala - The Final Step Ltd.
HTG12 - Jamison West - JWCS
HTG13 - Steve Winter - ERGOS Technology
HTG14 - Don Bentz - Preferred IT Group
HTG15 - Amy and Peter Kardel - Clever Ducks
HTG16 - Tom Fox - Tech Experts
HTG17 - Greg Gurev - MySherpa
HTG18 - Ben Rife - Integrity Networks

Congratulations to the winners. We are proud of you!

HTG Wrap Up - Blogtalk Radio

Last week IT Thought Leaders converged on Dallas. Will it ever be the same? Small Business IT Thought Leaders and Industry Experts recently invested an entire week to focus on the growth of their businesses at the Q2 meetings of HTG.

Want to know what came out of it? Well tune into Small Business IT Radio on Friday, May 1st 2009 to learn how the cloud will impact your managed services business, what disruptive technologies are on the horizon and how your business will change because of it. How important is marketing and sales to a managed services provider these days? What about financial benchmarketing, why is this important? HTG brings together IT partners from three countries quarterly for in depth, highly focuses and stressful (in a good way) business development and growth focused peer groups that hold each member accountable for the success and challenges in their business.

Tune in Friday May 1st to learn more, showtime is 12 Noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific Time - tune into http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2009/05/01/Thought-Leaders-Converged-On-Dallas. Arlin Sorensen will join host Stuart Crawford and other HTG members for a review of the content that was covered.

HTG Summit 2009

This week over 400 people will come to Dallas to the Omni Mandalay for the Q2 meetings of HTG. All 19 of our groups are meeting this week. All our vendor sponsors will be here to engage with us. We have a keynote address from Bob Burg on Tuesday. Wednesday is filled with 18 breakout sessions featuring the best and brightest from within the HTG ranks as well as the industry as a whole. It is going to be a great week!

Today the core focus of HTG is in full swing. We have 11 peer groups meeting in their own communities tackling the problems that each face. That is the real key to HTG - a community of 12 companies focused on helping each other reach their goals and take their business to the next level. It is powerful stuff. Those goals may be growing their business, overcoming a challenge, tackling a life issue - it doesn't really matter what it is - the groups dive in and help one another. The value is in helping each other achieve and execute. As that happens, good things happen to all. It is the Go Giver in action.

Part of the focus for HTG is also beyond business. It is about life. This morning (like each morning this week), we began our day with over 30 attendees gathered for morning devotions in the Presidential Suite on the 28th floor at 6:30 AM. That is execution in full swing. We had a weekend prayer vigil coordinated by one of our HTG members where 48 people prayed for 30 minutes each to ask for God's blessing over this week of activities. There will be many other life interactions this week - some spiritual in nature - others around family, marriages and people - but all about relationship. That is really the bottom line for HTG. It is about the relationships we have. At work, home, play, spiritually - life boils down to relationships. We all need to focus on taking care of them whether they are with a customer, employee, spouse, child, banker, lawyer or God Himself - relationships matter and do create the outcome of our life. How are your relationships going? What score would those you are in a relationship with give you?

Check out this Go Giver Discussion

Today Stuart Crawford hosted Bob Burg, co-author of The Go Giver, and myself discussing the book and upcoming HTG Summit. Bob will keynote our event on Tuesday April 21 in Dallas as part of our Q2 events. Check out the recording at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/va/2009/03/18/the-go-giver-with-bob-burg.

HTG also announced today our Go Giver Economic Stimulus offer for the HTG Summit. If you haven't seen the details and gotten registered - check the newsletter that came out earlier today. Your HTG contact has it in their inbox.

Make sure to listen to the recording, find your Go Giver book, and bring it to the Summit so Bob can autograph it after the keynote. I look forward to greating each of you there!

Upcoming HTG Summit Talk Show Featuring Bob Burg

On March 18th at 11AM Eastern, Stuart Crawford and myself will be joined on Blogtalk radio by Bob Burg, author of "The Go Giver" and more importantly to many of us - the keynote speaker for our upcoming HTG Summit meeting in Dallas on April 21. The current schedule is at http://www.htgmembers.com/HTGSummit09/Agenda.htm. Bob is a gifted communicator and will be with us to discuss our upcoming event and help us set the stage for a fantastic three days in Dallas in a few weeks. This is a call in program and you can join us that day at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2009/03/18/The-Go-Giver-with-Bob-Burg. And do not forget, if you want to call in live and speak with us, be sure to dial 646-716-8372. You will be placed into the caller queue where you will still be able to hear the show while you are on hold and then have a chance to speak with Bob directly.

For a little background, here are some facts about Bob Burg. He speaks for corporations and associations internationally, including fortune 500 companies, franchises, and numerous sales organizations. Bob has shared the platform with speaking legends, celebrities and business leaders, and even a former U.S. President.

He is best-known for his book “Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales” which has thus far sold well over 175,000 copies and is still going strong.

His newest book (co-authored with John David Mann), is entitled, “The Go-Giver.” A business parable that both touches hearts and build bigger bank accounts, it shot to number 6 on the Wall Street Journal Business Bestsellers list just three weeks after its release and then hit number 9 on the BusinessWeek Bestsellers list. It has also become Bob’s fourth book to hit the 100,000 mark in sales. This book is about more than just succeeding in business; it’s about succeeding in life.

Bob is a staunch advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Safe Harbor, the Humane Society of Jupiter, Florida.

He has been a good friend and supporter of HTG and all that we are doing. He understands business and wants to help us grow and achieve our goals. Join us for our call, and plan now to be in Dallas to hear him live and on stage. He will sign books following his keynote, so bring your copy along and take advantage of that as well.