A friend commented the other day on my lack of new posts or articles to the various blogs I write for, and I realized how long it had been since I actually had posted anything.

There are several reasons for my apparent silence, including a busy work schedule, a case of writer’s block and the untimely death of my Toshiba laptop, which means I can’t sit in front of the TV in the evening and write. Which is in many ways a good thing…

I also just find I’m just too slow to write on subjects others have already blogged to death. Case in point, the IMC (Internet Marketing Conference), which was held in here in Vancouver Sept. 11-12^th. I attended as both a participant, as well as in my capacity as a Board Member of the IIMA, which co-sponsored the event. By the time I caught up on email and client work and actually thought about writing about the IMC, I had already found and read dozens of other posts about it. No news is better then old news.

That said, the conference was a tremendous success with over 200 attendees and more then 50 presenters packing the schedule with a fast-paced delivery of sessions, workshops and networking opportunities. It did a great job of raising the profile of IIMA and plans and discussions are already underway for an even bigger and better event in September 2009.

By two biggest take-ways from IMC 2008 were the focuses on “customer engagement” and “testing”, as well as the emergence of video ecommerce, which we are already presenting as an option to some of our clients.

As for my lack of a laptop… not planning to ever purchase a Toshiba again, I decided to go for a Dell and 2 days ago ordered an XPS M1530 (T8100 + 4GB RAM). The only downside is the 2-3 weeks for delivery, mainly because I opted for the (PRODUCT) RED version. A portion of profits from each (PRODUCT) RED product sold goes directly to the Global Fund to invest in African AIDS programs, with a focus on women and children. 

Why Dell? In addition to their participation in (PRODUCT) RED, I based the decision on both service and ability to customize the hardware to meet my exact needs. I couldn’t find any other company offering the hardware configuration I wanted, or the ability to customize, other than Asus for $500 more then the Dell.

Watch out cruel world! Once my new laptop arrives and I’ve removed all the Bloat Ware, figured out Windows Vista, and installed my own software (which hopefully will run under Vista) I will hopefully overcome my writers block and start producing regular posts and articles for the numerous blogs I contribute to.