BlackBerry® Collaboration Forum 2011 is coming to five Latin American countries starting in late July, bringing BlackBerry® Business Solutions to companies in the region! We’ll be kicking off the conference tour in Santiago, Chile on July 27th 2011. We’ll also be traveling to Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Sao Paolo, hosting one of the most important entrepreneurial conferences in Latin America.

This is the third annual BlackBerry Collaboration Forum. Last year, more than 7,000 guests attended the event, which more than doubled the previous year’s attendance. To learn more about the 2010 Collaboration Forum, check out these videos: BlackBerry Collaboration Forum 2010 (Subtitles in Spanish) and BlackBerry Collaboration Forum 2010 (Subtitles in Portuguese).

This event is a great opportunity for companies – from small businesses to fortune 500’s – to learn how BlackBerry mobile technologies can optimize their business. The BlackBerry Collaboration Forum 2011 will be divided into four tracks, each tailored to diverse areas of interest and knowledge:

• General Session: This is an introduction to the event and how the BlackBerry solution can assist companies through latest devices and software.
• Track 1 – Businesses: How to maximize the use of BlackBerry products, services and programs for large enterprise business.
• Track 2 – Small Businesses (PYMES): How to grow and expand your business through BlackBerry solutions
• Track 3 – Success Case Studies: Examining the successful adoption of BlackBerry services by companies in Latin America.

BlackBerry Collaboration Forum 2011 is free, but you must apply to attend. For more information about the events or to apply to attend, please visit http://www.blackberrycollaborationforum.com (note: the website and the events will be in the local language of the host country).

See you there!

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.

Before I came to Research In Motion® (RIM), I was the publisher of a small local magazine that kept me running around from early morning till late at night. I was so swamped with tasks every day that I felt like I didn’t even have time to investigate ways that I could save myself time or make the business more money. It was a strange predicament to be in – I loved what I was busy with, but I just felt so bogged down!

Yet instead of having to block hours of time at the beginning, middle and end of my day to respond to email, return calls, update our social media and review proofs, I COULD have done all of those things when I had a free moment before a journalist arrived or a customer was ready to chat with me. What I know now is that this is a common issue with many Small and Medium-sized business owners – ones who are balancing so many different roles in a day.

If any of this sounds like it’s something you’re dealing with, I hope that you’ll take just a bit of your day’s time to check out a couple of these new BlackBerry® Customer Success Stories. They are a quick read, and are real-life examples of customers who are using the BlackBerry® smartphone solution to provide better service to their clients, keep cash flow moving and stay up-to-date with the flow of their business. Taking a couple minutes now could save you hours of time later – and hopefully give you a little piece of mind that there are ways to make your day-to-day just a little bit more manageable.

• California Burrito Company: a fast food restaurant chain in Latin America with over 100 employees. They’re using Documents To Go® for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry Messenger™ (BBM) and Windows® Live Messenger to manage multiple locations and a growing staff while out of the office. Click here to see the full story.
• Duncan and Craig LLP: One of the oldest law firms in Alberta, Canada with 140 employees. This company was already using BlackBerry smartphones, but they implemented a A4P®-Professional (link) to let their staff track billable hours from their devices to help them save time and money. Click here to see the full story.

You can also go here to check out more Customer Success Stories that are in your industry, or to watch a video featuring a few of our customers and how they’re using BlackBerry smartphones to do business better. There are new Customer Success Stories being released all the time, so I’ll let you know when more become available.

I’d love to hear about how you use BlackBerry smartphones to improve your business – please post a comment!