Like with all good things, they must come to an end....

"...and I miss you when you're not around..."

A line from my favorite song by U2 called City of Blinding Lights. Buffalo has reminded me of this song a lot. 

"The more you see the less you know

The less you find out as you go

I knew much more then than I do now..."

Such truth to that statement, and not negatively but in a positive light. As we step out of our comfort zones and we meet new people and try new things we find out that, "the more we see, the less we know." A whole new world is opened up to us that we find ourselves lost again and not nearly as in control as we thought. 

We get so busy with so many things that, "the less you found out as you go." How can we know everything and we feel smaller as we learn more about what is around us. The world is so big that the task of knowing everything is very daunting, and I feel like, "I knew much more then, than I do now..."

Now this blog was not meant to analyze the U2 lyrics but to set the tone for it. 

Buffalo has been amazing these last 5 years, watching so many things happen in the WNY Region that it reminds me of a City of Blinding Lights! From the Downtown, Canalside, HarborCenter, tons of Brewery's, the Medical Campus, and DIG to Buffalo Manufacturing works and the Foundry. I could list 500 more things that have happened between all the items above. And I have been lucky to have witnessed all of it because of my involvement with Infotech WNY. 

I joined the group in November of 2011 when it was called Infotech Niagara. It was formed in 1999 to promote, support and grow regional businesses involved in the advancement of computer technologies. I had no idea it existed until around 2010 after I met Jeff Ross at a Golf Outing that was put on by Infotech and we hit it off right away. Jeff was the Executive Director for the organization and he knew everyone in the WNY tech scene. He said I should consider becoming a BETAS judge (The yearly Awards show they have put on since 2000). I gladly accepted and I became a BETAS Judge for the 2011 BETAS (Buffalo Emerging Technology Awards). It turned out to be a great event and I wanted to do more, so in November of 2011 I was elected on the Board! How exciting!

Fast forward to November 2016, 5 years later, things have been beyond amazing. My blog over these 5 years is proof of that, as I look back on that time and there is so much that has happened that I cannot believe 5 years has passed. I have met many great people here in our Region and our organization has really helped many others grow.

So my tenure has come to an end, I did not run for re-election, and I turned down the role of Chair of the organization as I never did this for the control or power of running an organization, I did it so I could help others see the power of networking, meeting new people, organizing events so that others could grow their, idea, business or sphere of influence, and I did just that!

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope to start something new soon!