Western CIO Forum, CSIA Wine Tasting, and more

Last night began the Western CIO Forum. I spent today high atop the Pinnacle Club located in downtown Denver listening to SME CIO's from North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Washington State, the Federal Government, and Colorado. Governor Bill Ritter kicked off the events, so it is nice to see that he is not blowing off every IT Event in Colorado. Well done Billy! The subject material is over my head, though I understood the business case presentations and the security portion. I am there in support of CSIA as they are co-sponsors as well as to meet the CIO's from the Western States. All in all, it was a good use of my time and I met some interesting people. Lunch was great in that I got to catch up with my friend Carolyn Duffy of Hein & Associates. If you ever need Accounting, CPA, Audit, or M&A assistance, they are the people to call. Tomorrow is the remainder of the program and John Oeschle, CIO - IHS, is speaking and I am excited about that. He is one of those interesting, intelligent, accomplished, but highly over-committed people that you never get enough of. I am honored to know a few of those personally with Kirby Slunaker being another.

Thursday night is the CSIA Wine Tasting at the Governor's Mansion. I am embarrassed to say that this is not a CSIA event that I have ever attended. The worse part is that each year my friend and ex-boss, Jeff Carr, donates his wine, which I love. Aimee was nice enough to remind me that I had not registered for the event, but it is on my list of things to do once I am back in the office tomorrow.

Julie Aigner-Clark was on the 9News Your Show yesterday. She is amazing in that the one time teacher decided to be a stay at home mother with her children and founded Baby Einstein because there was nothing on the market that stimulated her children with beautiful things, art, and music. Then she sold it to Disney. Oh brother. I could not come up with such innovation if it hit me in the head. She truly is amazing and I would love to know her. She is a breast cancer survivor and has started a company with John Walsh to teach children how to stay safe called Safe Side (www.safesidedvd.com). Truly amazing!