Wisdom Gleaned from the Small Business Summit
- Posted February 11th, 2008
- Filed under: Events/Presentation, Technology
Michelle and I are traveling back from New York City tonight having spent the day at the Small Business Summit. Technology for small businesses is a tough industry nut to crack, as small businesses are so varied and dispersed. So I applaud the folks who put this show on for filling up a good part of the Crowne Plaza Times Square with eager businesses and vendors all diligently working to raise the technology bar for the business world’s worker bees.
There were some great presentations, and as with all networking events, you had to be there to fully appreciate the dynamics and the flesh pressing opportunities. But I thought I would share a few of the insights I gathered for interested folks who could not make the trek in person.
The event hosts included Nancy Ploeger with the Manhattan Chamber, Marian Banker from Prime Strategies and the inspirationally dynamic Ramon Ray from SmallBizTechnology.com. These three did a bang-up job keeping the speakers on topic, on time and well hydrated.
The first presentation titled “Marketing in a Digital World” by Karen Quintos of Dell focused on the importance of reliable technology (the single biggest factor in the failure of small businesses is the loss of data) and community. My favorite takeaway was her advice to “fix the issue, tell the customer you fixed it and make sure the customer feels the fix.”
