The magic of GrowthCamp

"Entrepreneurs are generally huge skeptics. So you can imagine the frustration as a room full of aggressive entrepreneurs found themselves baffled by one frizzy-haired magician.

"The CEOs from the PROFIT HOT 50 list of Canada's Emerging Growth Companies have faced down steely-eyed bankers and bull-spewing sales reps. But early this fall at GrowthCamp, PROFIT's annual HOT 50 conference, they couldn't figure out how conjuror David Ben knew exactly which cards had been selected from a deck by five volunteers spaced randomly around the room..."

For the rest of my inside story on the 2005 GrowthCamp conference, from the November issue of PROFIT, click here.

Highlight (for those too busy to click):
After lunch, PROFIT editor Ian Portsmouth interviewed Bill Tatham, founder of Janna Systems Inc. Campers were amazed to hear how Tatham transformed Janna from a slumping service provider into a red-hot provider of customer-relationship management software acquired by Siebel Systems Inc. for $1.8 billion.

Tatham showed a hint of his fierce drive in one anecdote. He was working a trade show when a key buyer from Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs walked by without even looking at his booth.
Tatham sent a staffer after him with the warning: "Go get him and bring him back — or don't come back at all."

For more management lessons from GrowthCamp, point your canoe here.