DCI's Small Crowd Seeks Big Advice

Last week, Digital Consulting Institute (DCI), based in Andover, Mass., held its annual West Coast DCI show at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Surprisingly, yet perhaps indicative of the slumping economy, some of the largest CRM vendors, including Oracle Corp., PeopleSoft Inc., and SAP AG, did not attend. "September 11 and the sluggish economy have definitely affected the show's turn out," asserts one attendee. The conference joined nearly 450 C-level executives, business professionals, and IT professionals, with leading CRM vendors including Computer Associates International Inc., Microsoft Great Plains, Onyx Software Corp., and Siebel Systems Inc. Nonetheless, the show drew several headliners such as Peter Solvik, chief information officer of Cisco Systems Inc., and several business and technology authors, including Rick Page who wrote Hope Is Not A strategy, and well-known industry speaker and author of Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs Don Tapscott. Aside from the breakout sessions, which often focused on future CRM technology, tips, and successful CRM implementation strategies, CRM vendors displayed their wares on the show floor for attendees to sample. Despite, declining attendance, the DCI show is drawing a more influential crowd. "When we first launched the DCI show, we had about 70 percent IT professionals and 30 percent business people," says Barton Goldenberg, chairman of the show and president of ISM Consulting. Now, the types of professionals attending has flip-flopped, he says, to 70 percent business people and 30 percent IT people. For CRM strategy tips from the show, look for our DCI story in the February issue of CRM magazine.

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