The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

The mobile world is such an amazing space.  I have been in love with this industry since before I made it my professional calling almost seven years ago.  In those seven years I have witnessed countless dramatic changes in this space…the rise and fall of titans, as well as the general growth of our industry.  For so many years, industry insiders have asked themselves “are we there yet?”  We of course were able to answer that question definitively this past year.

I created the Enterprise Mobility Forum just over two years ago because I believed we needed a community to independently foster discussions and debate around those pressing issues that IT departments – and more commonly now business departments – are struggling with while looking to drive the further adoption of mobile benefits in the workplace.  The EMF has over these two plus years become the largest community for discussing these increasingly important issues.  From a personal standpoint, it has afforded me the opportunity to learn tremendous amounts from both IT vendors and end user organizations as well.  It’s been one of the most amazing journeys of my professional life.

This is why today I want to share with you some personally exciting news.  Over the last few months, I have seen some industry peers and influencers (most notably Vanessa Alvarez of Forrester and Gene Signorini from Yankee Group) make the switch to the vendor community.  Today, I want to announce that I am following in their footsteps.  I have decided to join a European enterprise mobility company called VeliQ.  There you go…the cat’s out of the bag.

Of course, this begs the question “What happens to the EMF?”  The answer, while very simple and one that I can summarize in two words, is one that I cannot stress enough.

Absolutely nothing.

The EMF has a rich community of users and influencers, such as Benjamin Robbins, Brian Katz, and Hyoun Park.  These people and the thousands of users who independently provide their insights are (at least in my opinion) invaluable.  Why on earth would I ever want to stop this crowd-sourced ecosystem and community?

I wouldn’t…and nor does my new employer.  In fact, they love the EMF and want to see it continue to grow.

So what does this mean for me personally?  Basically, my days just got a whole lot busier.  I’ll be working on things to help my new employer become a global success.  That said, my solemn promise to you is that my commentary on this site will remain as independent as ever. Candidly, if my wife (a.k.a. my REAL boss) can’t make me shut up, how the heck do you expect my employer to do so? (ha, ha)

If anything, my hope is that as I now will be even more in the trenches than before, the commentary I will be sharing with you will become even more relatable and relevant. In the meantime, I want to thank you all again for your continued contributions that make this site what it is.