I am pleased to say that after much anticipation, I recently converted my company from a legacy NEC Digital Telephones system to a state of the art VOIP ShoreTel system. It goes without saying that in the more then 15 years since the last system was bought a lot of features and abilities have come into being. These features clearly will benefit my company's phone centric operations and raises the question were we wrong to not have upgraded sooner?

Recently Vladan Djakovic a Technologist, Inventor, CTO, Entrepreneur, CEO posted a question on the discussion board for the linkedin group The Chief Technology Officer in which he asked:

"When was the last time you introduced a *new* technology into your company? Other than being clever about picking one-out-of-X solutions for the business, which is really the job of IT, how often do you get to introduce something truly new, unheard of, that CEO and board are not already familiar with and that was not discussed on Slashdot two years ago?

This is, I think, what CTO is for - to push the envelope against the common sense and be where the company will be in 3-5 years"

Some argue that technology should power innovation and that companies must advance to the cutting/bleeding edge.

Others argue that the role of technology is to empower and facilitate the goals and vision of the company.

The issue seems to be whether the technology creates the business or does the business drive the need for technology.

Is your company maximizing its use of the available technologies in both supportive and revenue generating roles?

In a world where sometimes fast is not fast enough are we being forced to consider technologies that will do more harm then good in the long run or does victory belong to the bold risk takers?

Is Technology the message or the medium in the business equation?

Join us as we ponder these technological and business issues!

As always, there is no better way to meet and connect with other executives then over dinner and conversation. $21 in advance via PayPal or $25 at the event gets you a full dinner, drink and the best networking around.