Busy Thursday - MTS Allstream, Samsung, Canadian Blogging Idol

I had a triple-header on Thursday, with 3 different events. They were all different, so I covered a lot of ground, and got all my meals covered from sunup to sundown - that worked out well. Being out all day/night set me back on things today, and before the week is out, I wanted to share the basic highlights.

Stop 1 - MTS Allstream at the Board of Trade

The Toronto Board of Trade runs a breakfast series on IT, and I was invited to attend this one. The keynote speaker was Dean Provost, President of Enterprise Solutions at MTS Allstream. He's definitely an up and coming exec on the Canadian telecom scene, and he gave an up-to-the-minute presentation on the challenges faced by CIOs and IT in today's challenging economy. The themes were familiar but really well handled, and if MTS Allstream can execute on these challenges, they'll be in good shape.

Preceding Dean was John Pickett, long time Editor and now Community Advocate at ITWorld Canada, and he shared highlights from some recent research on what's on the mind of Canada's CIOs. Again, no surprises, but it was interesting to note how much focus CIOs put on reducing costs, and how much lower innovation and new services is on their list of priorities.


John Pickett, ITWorld Canada


Dean Prevost, MTS Allstream


Definitely a full house



Stop 2 - Samsung Canada

This was their first-ever analyst get together, and I was glad to be part of it. This is one of those companies that's bigger than you think, and their market presence is pretty impressive. The news of note, however, is under embargo until Monday, so the rest of Stop #2 will have to wait until then.


Stop 3 - ITWorld Canada - Canadian Blogging Idol Contest Launch

I had a double shot of ITWorld Canada Thursday, but this time with a whole different set of people. ITWorld Canada has come up with a blogging competition, and the launch of Canadian Blogging Idol was my evening destination. I'm not an IT guy per se, but I'm close enough to the space and comment on their stories often enough to be considered for the contest. Well, let's see how it goes.

All I can say right now is to check it out, and vote for the posts you like best. Also, it's not too late to enter, so jump in if you think you can win! You can follow the posts and participate in the voting from their website. By all means, tell your friends, read the posts, and cast your votes. I just got this going this afternoon, and look for me to start posting for real next week.

ITWorld Canada's Shane Schick leading us through the demo