Common Connect - 2012 Buyers Guide

President’s Message First, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year from all of us here at COMMON. While January is really just another month, it is the beginning of the year and a time for reflection on what we accomplished last year, as well as a good time to start to plan what we want to do in the next year. Many people set goals for the new year on what they wish to accomplish.

A study cited in the book “What They Don’t Teach You in Harvard Business School” by Mark McCormack, examined why 3% of Harvard MBAs make 10 times as much as the other 97% combined. It seems that the key was those 3% had written goals; of the other 97%, 13% had goals and the other 84% had no goals. Ten years later when the class was interviewed again, there were some amazing results. The 13% who had goals were earning twice what the 84% of the people who had no goals. The 3% of the people who had written goals were earning 10 times what the other 97% were making combined! So, spend some time writing your personal goals, career goals, family goals, and whatever else you want to improve this year.

I also know the importance of education in improving your career and skill set. As IT professionals, we must constantly strive to improve our skills, learn new skills, and even reach outside the box to learn skills that are not part of our present job. I always call this the importance of investing in yourself. If you don’t take the time and energy to invest in yourself, then who will? COMMON has many ways in which we are able to help the community in their quest for knowledge. From free monthly Webcasts where you take a 75 minute presentation, Webinars where you take a series of webcasts over a few weeks for in-depth education, Virtual Labs, a Fall Conference with 100+ sessions, Virtual Conferences, to the Annual Meeting in the Spring which offers over 325 sessions. COMMON provides a wide range of options to help improve the skills you need for your job. So, if written goals can help you achieve your goals and improve your career outlook, and COMMON can help with your education to improve your skill set, wouldn’t the perfect written goal be to attend COMMON in 2012 to improve your career and your skills?

With only 4 months left till the Annual Meeting this year being held May 6th to the 9th at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California you should start thinking about attending. I know the call for sessions has already gone out, and the education team is putting together the final grid for the conference, making this the largest Power Systems education event in the world. We have also been in touch with the vendor community, and they all seem to be taking booths at the conference, continuing to make this the largest Power Systems Expo in the world. Plus, we have had many people take advantage of the end of year discount, and the number of people already registered is higher than the last two years at this point. So, this is all pretty exciting news. We also know, that not everyone can make the conference, so again this year we will be streaming the Opening Session live to everyone in the Power Systems community, and then making a virtual event of the conference where you can attend select sessions even if you aren’t at the conference. For people who might still have some travel restrictions due to budgets, this is a great way of leveraging your educational dollars.

We aren’t stopping there either. COMMON is continuing to invest in itself, invest in programs for our members, and build an infrastructure to deliver future educational products and services to the community. 2012 looks like a great year ahead, and I wish you the best.