AFSMI Dinner

Here are some shots from Pim's retirement party at the AFSMI dinner! Congratulations Pim and best wishes for the next stage of life.

It's a wrap

We've come to a close on our first annual AFSMI, SSPA and TPSA conference here in Europe. The overall event was a huge success and the feedback we got was that this absolutely has to be an annual event (even if we hold it in cities outside of Paris!).

Thomas Lah closed the day summarizing the themes that JB started and were carried on by a number of speakers throughout the 2.5 days. His presentation on professional services and the challenges and opportunities was insightful, challenging and made everyone walk away with a set of ideas and concepts that we need to be focusing on as we move forward.

I'll put a more detailed summary of the whole event online in the next day or two (and for attendees, please remember that all of the presentations will be made available online on the association websites).

I hope you all have a great weekend -

Stephen

The final day

The morning session started off with Laurie Young talking about how to make the successful transition from products to services. His presentation resonated strongly with the audience as this is an issue all of our members are facing. We're now into the last of the breakout sessions and then have a closing keynote by Thomas Lah, Executive Director of TPSA.

SSPA Dinner

We had our association dinners last night. The SSPA dinner, attended by over 70 members and partners was at Alzacar over in the Latin District. TPSA and AFSMI also hosted their dinners and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meals, the wine and the company. Here are a couple of shots from the SSPA dinner.

End of day 2

A few more pictures to summarize the day. Matthias's presentation has just ended and everyone is heading back out to the Tech Expo to learn more from our partners and grab a glass of wine. Tonight we have the association dinners and I'll drop one more line to cap off the day after we get back from an evening in Paris.

Pictures from the day

It's been a busy afternoon. After a great lunch session in the Tech Expo we had the association specific breakouts. The SSPA breakout was a packed room and went 30 minutes past its planned stopping time (so much for my time management skills). We had a great set of discussions around web 2.0, support metrics, certification and some of the specific needs of the European marketplace that we should be focusing on in the future.

We're heading into the last of the breakout sessions now and then it's once again the evening cocktail hour. Today has gone amazingly fast and tonight we have the association dinners around town. Here are a few shots from earlier today.

Start of Day 2

Day two of the Technology Services Europe conference is off to a fast start. Tom Pridham kicked off the day by hosting a keynote titled "Succeeding through Service Innovation: Implications for Education, Business and Policy."

This opening session had a three-person panel including:

• Professor Mike Gregory from the University of Cambridge
• Kevin Bishop, Vice President of Marketing for IBM Europe
• Tom Pridham, Executive Director, SRII

During the event, Tom noted "the importance of raising the awareness for the need for more targeted and funded service innovation activity through industry, academic and government collaboration."

Following the keynote, we moved into another series of concurrent breakout sessions which included presenters from Tetra Pak, Openwave Systems and Kaidara.

The afternoon includes SSPA, TPSA and AFSMI specific breakout sessions where the Executive Directors for each association will provide updates on the activities within each association.

Stay tuned for more pictures shortly.

Wrapping up the first day

The keynotes and breakouts from day one are now a memory. I'd like to thank everyone who presented today - the feedback that I got in numerous conversations was astounding. The interactions were everything that people had hoped for and more .

At 1730 out came the appetizers and the cocktails and it was time for everyone to visit our Partners in the Technology Expo. It was a great first day - superb turnout, great interactions, a lot of questions, a lot of excitement and clearly an energy that made this conference seem like a natural. As we wrap up the first day and head off to our various dinners, I thought I'd post one last set of pictures from the tech expo to give everyone a sense of the how the day was wrapping up.

I would like to add a note of personal thanks on behalf of AFSMI, SSPA and TPSA to all of our Partners who joined us here for the Tech Expo at our first European conference. This event would not be the same without each and every one of you here - so "thank you."

So long for today --