Calling London...Ontario, That Is

My colleague Damir will be kicking off the IT Executive Roadmap Tour in Winnipeg this coming Tuesday. Since I first wrote about the tour, we've had a great response in registration with most cities exceeding our predicted numbers. One notable exception, however, is London, Ontario. I'll be heading there next Thursday and to date, we're at less than 50% of predicted registrations. 

We often get feedback from people that don't live in one of the major Canadian cities, asking us to hold events in their area once in a while. And we do, as long as it makes sense. It would seem to me that holding an event in London would make a lot of sense - there are lots of people and companies in southern Ontario, it's far enough away from Toronto and we should be able to draw people from other nearby cities such as Sarnia, Chatham and Windsor. Well, perhaps the Windsor people all head to the US events in Detroit. But there may be people in Brantford, St. Catherines or Kitchener who would rather drive to London than to fight the Toronto traffic. There are many companies in the London area doing cool things with technology and there are a number of technology support organizations there, such as the London CIPS chapter and TechAlliance.

So I'm at a loss to know why our events aren't well attended in this area. Is it that people don't know about them? Are there date conflicts? Is the subject matter not of interest to IT managers and decision makers in London? If you have any ideas or insight, I'd love to hear from you.

Meanwhile, I'll start packing my bags for what is shaping up to be an awesome tour. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you face to face!