A Dream Team Panel at ICCA

I had the privilege of serving on a panel this afternoon at the ICCA conference in Washington DC with some of the best in our industry. Dave Sobel (HTG5) was our moderator. The panel consisted of Erick Simpson (HTG1), Stuart Crawford (HTG3), Karl Palachuk (HTG13) and Matt Makowicz (gonna get you soon). We were in front of the audience for 2.5 hours and it could have gone longer but we had to shut it down for the welcome reception.

The ICCA is the Independent Computer Consultants of America. http://www.icca.org/ This group has been around quite some time - over 30 years and is focused on serving independant consultants in the technology industry. My distinguised counterparts are all presenting a session over the next couple days of their conference. They are tackling some key issues facing our industry. Check them out on the web. They have local chapters in some of the major US cities and may be close to you.

Our panel focused a lot on what success looks like for consultants in the coming years. We shared some of our success habits, things we have learned and our vision for the future. The discussion was spirited and the questions very engaging. As always, serving with this dream team always gets my juices going. There are so many brilliant people in our industry, and attending an event like this and sharing thoughts always gives me a lot of things to go home and take a hard look at. The real learning is that there is so much to learn from each other. I am always amazed at how quickly a conversation can provide me a great thought to consider and take back to HTS. That is the value of community - we can learn from one another and not have to learn it all the hard way. I love letting others make some of the mistakes - I used to do it all by myself.

So get involved with community. Karl has a document that teaches you how to engage with the many groups that exist today. There really is no excuse to run your company in isolation any more. The tools are there to connect no matter where you are based, even the middle of an Iowa corn field. Get involved.