704_ Disrupting the Conference Call Market – Gold Systems does it Again
Until now it has not been practical for companies to host their own conference calls with any kind of scale, so conferencing service providers have thrived — and your costs have exploded. Traditional conference companies are paid for every minute that each person is on the call. Larry talked with Terry Gold, co-founder of Gold systems about the big changes in that industry. Gold Systems just released their new Conference Server. This is a new conference call product built on top of Microsoft Office Communications Server. Terry shared some great ideas for any entrepreneur as it relates to selling your product or surviving in this economic environment. "Yes, you know we've been through this before, my service anniversary was July 4th, 18 years, and so we've seen a few tough times. When this one happened, and I'll pin it back in October, that's when we saw a big change in incoming orders and the way customers were talking, and we realized it couldn't be business as usual. We were thinking of a new product at that time and made the conscious decision that we had to think of it from a customer's point of view - 'what would make it easy for them to say yes'. We think Unified Communications is part of that, in fact we sometimes think of this as a Trojan horse. Back in October we were thinking, wow, is now the time to go in and try to convince a company to rip out their old PBX's and replace it with something new and kind of unknown? We thought, No. " There are a number of specific ideas ...listen for more...
Related Links: Gold Systems || Conference Server || Feld Thoughts || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Terry Gold, Gold Systems, Conference Call Market, Conference Server, Unified Communications, Microsoft Office Communications > Channel: Software 6233759 bytes - 8/3/09 LISTEN

702_ Pushing Water Uphill with a Rake, Memoirs of a Successful Failure
Larry sat down with Steve Baker who was sued for $1.4 Billion and is the author of 'Pushing Water Uphill with a Rake, Memoirs of a Successful Failure'. Steve reflected back and said, "What I learned, going through this is, you can go out in life and particularly in business, do everything right and still fail. I did, we did everything right, as I tell the story in the book, and along came this suit for $1.4 billion dollars, and the stock market crash. Everything I did right didn't matter, everything went wrong. I lost everything, I lost my home, I filed for bankruptcy, and through that experience, I learned many valuable lessons and that's why I'm still here today. The biggest thing I learned going through that experience is the road to success is paved in failure, and you will fail to one degree or another, it's just part of being a business person. So know that going in, accept that and learn from it. As you and I have talked about this, the person who goes through this stands back and learns from it, that person will achieve success. The next thing that I learned and was able to do, is do your best and maintain your ethics, at all costs, as you're going through failure. Because what happens, and these are the turbulent times that try men's souls, and you must maintain that, because if you cross the line of ethics, very often, you're not coming back. I quote Thomas Hopkins, especially when speaking with kids, 'We are not judged by the number of times we fail, but by the number of times we succeed. And the number of times we succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times we fail and try again!'" Listen...
Related Links: Pushing Water Uphill || Steve's Blog || Colorado Rising - Steve Baker - Ethics || Colorado Rising 6/15/09 Pushing Water Uphill || Mastering Change Interview with Larry || Keywords: Steve Baker, Pushing Water Uphill, Stock Market Crash, Ethics, Thomas Hopkins, Mastering Change > Channel: Entrepreneurs 6542213 bytes - 8/3/09 LISTEN

703_ NOTE: This article is not a political directive. Rather, it is to pique your interest - Do some research, Learn what this legislation says, how will it affect you. Develop your opinions, based on knowledge and join the valuable and meaningful conversation. It is a right and a privilege you should exercise. Regardless of your position, it is your responsibility to know the issues. Don't be bullied into accepting or rejecting. Dr. Feld has knowledge of the industry and has worked for years on a plan for healthcare reform. He offers information based on first-hand knowledge of working as a doctor, caring for patients. If you read his blog you will see that he offers his opinions for your consideration...

Repairing the HealthCare System - Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
Because the pending bill on our ‘HealthCare System’ will have such a huge impact on all sizes of companies and to all of us personally, we decided to give you a link to the person we know and respect in the area of health care research, Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE. Congress did not have time to study the proposals, we didn't either! Congress is in recess now; the voting will come up again this fall. As you all know, there has been a great deal of discussion on this topic. Not all of it, but most of the rhetoric was based on what side of the isle they came from. This is too important of an issue to make decisions based on partisanship. Here’s the information you need to begin developing an informed opinion. There are hundreds of links you can find online. We invite you to post your thoughts on Dr. Feld’s blog as well as w3w3.com blog.
NEWS FLASH:  WASHINGTON, July 31, 2009 - "Health Care Bill Passes Key Committee - Democrats Pushed Legislation Through House Energy and Commerce Committee, Clearing Way for September Showdown..." Pay attention, this is about your medical care!
Related Links: Repairing HealthCare || Dr. Stanley Feld Blog || You Tube - Atlas Shrugged || Brad Feld Blog || Mastering Change || w3w3.com Blog || Keywords: HealthCare System, Stanley Feld, Congress, Atlas Shrugged, Blog > Channel: News 8/3/09 Follow the Links - Read More...

A Message from Governor Ritter,
"I officially proclaimed Saturday, August 1, as Colorado Day in the State of Colorado. The date marks the 133rd anniversary of Colorado's statehood. Known as the Centennial State, Colorado became the 36th state in the Union in 1876 upon the signature of President Ulysses S. Grant. I want to invite you to join in the celebration by helping us create a list of favorite destinations for experiencing or learning about Colorado's rich history. Along with Lt. Gov. O'Brien and my staff, I took the liberty of starting the list, which you can view by clicking here."

386_ Liberty Global - Leading-Edge Coupled with Ultimate Integrity
According to a recent article in the Denver Post, Michael Fries is the highest paid executive in Colorado. We appreciated his advice on change which is included in Larry's book, Mastering Change.
      Michael Fries, CEO and President of Liberty Global grew up with a large family, 7 brothers and sisters. Mike said, “In many ways I think my skills perhaps in listening to people, managing people and having a pretty good EQ or a sense of where people are coming from is partially related to the fact that I grew up in a big family." Mike reflected on his early work career, "I’ve only had two jobs. I’ve been lucky to work for, at least in my cable career, two really fantastic entrepreneurs and business people. The first was Gene Schneider, really one of the pioneers in the cable industry – just a fantastic individual. A great leader of men but more than anything has great integrity. And of course, John Malone, our current chairman, and I don’t think you could have a better partner or individual to be working with, who is far-and-away one of the smartest business people I’ve ever come across. But on top of that is a great human being, a really nice individual, loyal and generous and really loves and is excited by this business. It’s kind of TCI-2. So I’ve been lucky to work for some really great individuals. Sue Wyman and Larry did some more probing.
Related Links: Liberty Global Home || Communications Technology Professionals || CTP Home || Mastering Change || Keywords: Mike Fries, Liberty Global, Leader, Communication Technology Professionals, CTP, Sue Wyman, Gene Schneider, John Malone, Mastering Change Channel: CTP Bytes: 21031604 - 8/10/09 LISTEN

593_ Brad Feld and the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Tool Box
Brad Feld was being drilled by Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy along with Larry Nelson about the learning experiences of a new entrepreneur for the new NCWIT series, The Entrepreneurial Tool Box. And as Brad said, “Dave Jilk, was a college friend. In 1987 we launched a company which we then grew, with no financing into a couple million dollar business and sold in 1993. So that was the first real success I had, after a couple of companies that went absolutely no where." When addressing the failures Brad said, "Well you go through this cycle of believing, sort of the optimism of the creation at inception of the company, some progress, whatever progress there is and then ultimately you start to have some problems and you either push through the problems or you don’t. I mean Feld Technologies had all kinds of things that could have caused us to fail. In fact, one of the first things we did was hire a half dozen college friends and part time people, and spent money we didn’t have and all of a sudden we were upside down $20,000 and we had no money, and we realized we couldn’t do that anymore because we didn’t have the money to pay the people and we had to get to a place where we’d make money. In the case of the other failures, I think it was pretty clear at some point we were not making real progress." Chairman of the NCWIT – also co-chair of the Governor’s Innovation Council. Brad Feld said, "My favorite entrepreneurs to work with and invest in their future companies are ones that have had a success, at least one success and one failure. If you’ve had three successes in a row and no failures, you think you’re invincible. Listen for more insights...Brad and Lucy also offer some great insights about change in Larry's new book, Mastering Change.
Related Links: Foundry Group || Brad's Blog || NCWIT Channel || NCWIT Practice || Mastering Change || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, NCWIT, Entrepreneurial Tool Box, Dealing with Failing, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Leadership, Mastering Change, Blog >> Channels: NCWIT, VC, Bytes: 12940750 > - 8/10/09 LISTEN: Part 1 of 2; Listen Part 2 of 2
- Part 1 of 2 - Part 2 of 2

428_ Maturing of the SBIR Program Means Big Changes: $2.2 Billion at Stake
There is more change brewing for the SBIR and STTR programs. Listen to what Russ Farmer had to say last year. The good news is that successful commercialization from those receiving SBIR funds (non dilutive to the receiver and are grants that don't need to be paid back) are working. The challenge is the rules have changed over the past 25 years and for the better, at least for those who adopt to the way 'the game' is now played. Russ Farmer, Executive Director of SBIR Colorado and President and Founder of PBC, Inc. explains these new innovative strategies and shares some of the local SBIR funded success stories. They include Coherent Technologies, Myogen, and Powercycle. Russ shares the some innovative ideas that are revolutionizing the entire SBIR and commercialization process. It's Powerful, Proven and People Oriented. After all, who doesn't want a piece of the $2.2 Billion available to small companies and inventors for their great ideas? Russ offers some great advice in Larry's new book, Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos.

Event Photos: Take A Walk Down Memory Lane, 2003 - 2009
Event photos galore: CORE; ACG; E&Y; RVC; CSIA; BARD; Feld/Weiser; SFC; TiE; RVC; HRO; Fowler; Botanic Gardens; Telluride Tech Fest...and many more in the archives and all with a Colorado connection.
Related Links: Event Photo Albums || Quarter 1 2009 Photo Albums || 2007 Photo Albums || 2003 Photo Albums || Keywords: Event photos galore: CORE; ACG; E&Y; RVC; CSIA; BARD; Feld/Weiser; SFC; TiE; RVC; HRO; Fowler; Botanic Gardens; Telluride Tech Fest, archives, Colorado connection

698_ Ground Swell of Change - Technology and Communication Article
We would really appreciate your input; comments, suggestions, additions. We are in the process of building a platform that allows everyone to interact and be an integral part of the ‘changes’ that are important to us personally and professionally. When leading workshops and seminars, there’s plenty of two-way interaction and this is how we can do it virtually.
Related Links: Mastering Change Book || Mastering Change Blog || Order Book || About Us || Keywords: Ground Swell of Change, Technology, Communication, Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos, Larry Nelson, Social Networks - 7/27/09