Richard Chmura

I’m settling down after a long pleasant day in Chicago. While I visited the Sears tower yesterday, today I spent much time at the Navy Pier for HostingCon.

This morning I had a healthy meal at a local Chicago deli and then walked a few blocks to the Navy Pier. Walking the length of the Navy Pier itself is a solid 10 to 15 minute walk. If I had more time I would certainly check out the attractions or even bring the family for a vacation.

After getting my badge and swag from the registration desk, I attended the “Marketing Round Table” moderated by Brett Tabke. The information was nothing new to me but, I found the insightful angles from the panelists (all respected professionals in their field) to be of notable value. I joked with Michael Muise of Rconnection (of Register.com) about the uptime track record for twitter, before running to my next destination.

I met with Rob Ninow and Chris Finken from OrangeSoda to discuss some business development topics and get warmed up to the conference itself. Who knows, maybe soon phpFoX will be a suggested offering in the OrangeSoda promotion package?

I arrived late to the next session titled “How to Measure Recurring Revenue and Increase Profits by Design”. While I did not gather as much useful information as I had hoped, I think the e-onlinedata Dashboard platform has a solid potential to be an important piece of software for any business decision maker. I hope to talk directly with the speaker Marci Gagnon more in the future.

For the Conference Luncheon, I randomly met up with Rodney Giles from Eleven2 as well as a cadre of similarly minded individuals with which we talked about some challenges facing webhosts as well as various solutions and opportunities in the space. Rodney, as it turns out was on my train in from Midway Airport. I hope to talk with Rodney & friends more throughout the conference.

After lunch Corey and Mike from Ubiquity Hosting, brought me to their new state of the art Oak Brook IL data center. Biometrics, shiny surfaces and decorative lights really gave the center a clean, polished and futuristic appeal. I will be spending some more time with Corey and Mike this week.

The Conference networking reception was a relaxed atmosphere and very friendly all around. I met with some conference goers to talk about various web hosting related items: Richard Powell from Hostpond, Ryan M. Gyure from Fusionxhost, Martin J. Horan from ftpToday, Chris Merriman, Maha Kashani of GramTel, Rob Moore of Demo Wolf, Someone from GoDaddy’s security team, Ed Baker and Troy Augustine of iNet Interactive. (Not to mention several others which I did not record their names nor exchange cards - whom I have remembered their faces and I will see them tomorrow at their booths - I do hope the two jet lagged gentlemen from Ireland get some solid sleep for tomorrow!)

I’m very happy with the conference thus far. I look forward to touring the booths tomorrow, meeting more contacts and making new acquaintances.

edit: fixed the glorious spelling error in the post title!

My friend Hamlet Batista is visiting me here in Canada. I’m sure he had to endure some rush hour traffic on the 401 (busiest highway in the world) to get here from the airport. We even had the opportunity to cruise around University of Waterloo with the convertible roof down during a brief downpour. Hamlet is a very smart guy - one I would consider a first mover with many internet marketing related ideas. He is also very scientific and methodical with his approach. We were talking about some great strategy & marketing ideas and Hamlet has a wealth of information; if you have the chance to hear him speak or meet with him, I strongly recommend it. Hamlet is also a great mentor, be sure to follow Hamlet on twitter.

Hamlet is the reason I’ve started blogging today. Included in his pitch for me to do so is a short story about his time at customs. Long story short: the customs officer did a Google search for “Hamlet Batista” - saw his blog and his status as a successful entreprenuer and internet marketing professional. “Personal branding” - It’s important so people know who you are, know what you think and provides a great starting point for future success.

We had a great time we had and I look forward to meeting with Hamlet again soon!