Canadian IT Manager

Professionalizing the Profession

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional and President of VANTUG ) The Opportunity to Spread the Word Last week Stephen Ibaraki (blogger extraordinaire – congrats on being named one of the top 10 in Canada ) and I attended the "Global" Read More...

Global MVP Summit 2008

There's an extraordinary event happening in a matter of a few weeks. It's the MVP Global Summit 2008 -- a celebration about contribution, and value involving communities worldwide. The upcoming summit, April 14-17, will feature a keynote from Microsoft Read More...

The Changing Role of User Groups

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional and President of VANTUG ) The Traditional Role The traditional role for most UG's has been to hold technical events to inform and educate their members, promote networking between members and perhaps to run certification Read More...

Community Connection Event Notes

As part of the launch events for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, there are a number of Community Connection Events happening across the country in 14 cities. My colleague, Rick, does a great job of explaining in detail what Read More...

Looking for IT Events in Calgary? Check This Out...

I often talk about events that I attend or that are going on in southern Ontario, because that's where I live and work. However, my team and I actually work and connect with IT professionals and groups across Canada. I won't be able to personally attend Read More...

Are We There Yet?

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional) Leading VANTUG I have written here several times about running User Groups and the important part that I believe that they play in the IT Community. When I took over as Leader of VANTUG a little over 6 years Read More...

The Value of Networking Through CIPS

Adam Cole (Toronto, Director of Specialty Technology Solutions for McKesson Canada) Recently I talked about the value of networking. Personally I do a lot of professional networking through CIPS (the association of the Canadian IT professional). For CIPS Read More...

IT's Changing Reputation

Welcome to the first post of 2008! I hope you all had a good relaxing time over the holidays with friends and families. I know I did! Now it's time to get back to work... A few weeks ago, I asked what you thought of IT's apparent bad reputation , according Read More...

Connect Your Small/Medium Business with Microsoft Resources

Yesterday I was in Toronto talking to a room of IT managers about Windows Server 2008 and virtualization. After I finished, I had tea with a gentleman whose son runs a small local business providing computers hardware and IT services to the disabled and Read More...

IT Executive Roadmap Tour - Coming to a City Near You

One of the toughest things about being the IT manager in a small or medium sized company is that you tend to wear many hats and need to be up to speed on so many different technologies to be able to do your job effectively. This fall, myself and my colleagues Read More...

[Guest Blogger] JDQ Takes Home the "tia"

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) In a recent blog here I wrote about JDQ’s nomination for the 2007 BCTIA Technology Impact Award for Leadership in Social Responsibility. The awards dinner was on June 6 th and I had the pleasure of being there Read More...