Fresh off a flight from Brazil the night before, surviving on only a few hours sleep yet full of his usual enthusiasm, I recently met with Rick Costanza, Regional Managing Director for Latin America, to chat a bit about the BlackBerry® Collaboration Forum he hosted. Similar in nature to the Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES), this regional event – now in its second year – was an overwhelming success with over 7000 customers, including representation from Pequenas e Médias Empresas straight up to F500 enterprises, as well as various government agencies.
We spoke about the nature of the event, attendees, content, key takeaways, and challenges for the future. Like many other regions, Latin America is dealing with challenging economic times, and IT / Business decision are under significant pressure. The BlackBerry Collaboration Forum, however, clearly demonstrated how small investments in proven wireless solutions could, as Rick put it, “reduce cost, drive revenue, and bring organizations closer to customers.”
We captured our conversation on video, and added some live footage from the BlackBerry Collaboration Forum to give you a taste of the event. If you weren’t able to attend, or are simply curious about the LATAM region, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the above video.
The challenge, like Rick said, is how to do it “bigger and better” next year. I don’t know how he’ll do it after this year’s event, but if I know Rick, I’m sure he’ll find a way!
If you’re based in Latin America, hopefully you can join us at the BlackBerry Collaboration Forum next year, or for those with other regional interests, we’ll see you at WES.
