Intelisys: First Night Welcome Reception

Nancy & I got to the Channel Connect resort here in Napa with enough time to unpack & grab a bite to eat before the opening reception at 8pm. A very nice affair with probably 200 of the almost 400 registered guests in attendance.

Click the video below to see a quick walk around. The crowd doubled about 30 minutes after I shot this video.

We spent time mixing and mingling with the guests - many we recognized as agents but did not know they were with Intelisys. Everyone was in a party mood.

I spent some time speaking to one of Intelisys' founders Rick Sheldon. I didn't know until this evening that we had similar starts in the industry, selling local California LATA via dialers for 15 cents per minute against Pacific Bell's 30 cents per minute back in the early 1990s. Always nice to find some guys as old as myself still selling after 20 years.

I also spent time talking to InterCall's Brad Dupee and MegaPath's Ross Anderson about the evolution of telecom into the managed services industry. There seems to be general consensus that migrating to managed services is the best way to get away from the whole problem of telecom being viewed as a commodity.

Tomorrow it's a day of vendor presentations in a wine cellar while the honored guests (our spouses) enjoy wine tasting in downtown Napa.