ABSILVER's World

I am trying to remember the last time I have been able to disconnect from work and breathe, exhale, and to take a few moments from the production of work and income, to focus on me, home, Frank and our four-legged kids.   Truth be told, I left IBM full time more than eight years ago to work for iSOA Group. The goal was to do great work and achieve greater balance between my work and personal life. That worked for a while, but it still was challenging un the scheduled 30 hours a week to not find additional time where work was not on my mind, to not think about ideas to promote the business, find new clients, or for marketing to help the business grow.   When I left iSOA Group, to become a consultant / marketing strategist for other companies, it became easier and harder to disengage.   When you are on your "own" you tend to worry about the next gig even if you have your toes in the ocean or are watching sunset at Mallory Square in Key West. Th

It was a week ago, the morning of Saturday February 9th, and I was on a flight at the beginning of the year. What are the odds that I am not on the way to some holiday but rather headed to a conference? If you have happened to follow my blog for more than a year, you are probably not surprised that I ended up at an IBM conference.    This year was “Think 2019” in San Francisco.   After years too many to count of conferences in Vegas, it was nice for a change of scenery even if it came with its own set of challenges.    While Vegas swallows up conventions easily, most cities don't have the abundance of hotels with thousands of rooms jammed next to one another nor the short distances between venues.   It also didn’t help the cause that the weather was rainy and cold most of the week.   San Francisco is a great city, but its ability to handle the crowd of over 26000 IBM employees, customers and fans was a challenge. Interestingly enough, at this confer