I have to say that I’ve never worked on the scale of what IBM brings to the table.  In the past month and in the coming three weeks, I will have attended four IBM hosted conferences – two in Las Vegas and two in Orlando.

Let’s just talk about finances first.  With no less than 6000 people per conference paying a minimum of $2000 per person, the math works out that the revenue coming in for these events is in excess of $12 million dollars.  These are marketing blintzes on a scale that I have never seen.

The picture you see here was from IMPACT 2008.  The specifics?  The first day the theme is red-hot SOA – the entire staff is dressed in red and the banners and collateral are all red.  The next day?  The theme is going green and everything matches from people’s shirts to the marketing banners.  Someone did some incredible planning.  The third day – it’s on to blue.  Speaking of big budget, the keynote talks and main theater was emceed by Drew Carey and the cast of "Whose Line is it Anyway".  It kicks off with no less than a 40 person marching band, Harley Davidsons roaring into the auditorium, a 30 minute show of Cirque du Soleil … The "special event" on Wednesday night was the B-52s rock band live, with Cirque du Soleil performances before and after, fireworks, and more special performers than you have ever seen.  And that was just one of the the "technical" shows …

I have to say that the "IBM scale of big" outdid itself last week at the Rio.  For some reason, I was upgraded to the Masquerade Suite – a "hotel room" of 1800 square feet.  It had a 180 degree view of the city, dining room with a wet bar, and one and a half baths.  In fact, one of the bathrooms was larger than my living room.   Actually, on a comparative scale, our house has a smaller square footage than this.

Regardless, let me be home with my family building 24 sq. ft. playsets in the backyard.  It’s much more enjoyable.  Smile.  🙂