"So you see, eating at the sushi bar at ISPCON was worthwhile. Sushi is a good, quick, healthy meal while you're on the road and still have work to do after dinner.
"But we didn't expect to get some work done during dinner. It turned out we were seated between an IBM executive who didn't want to talk about what he was doing and David Pikal, vice president of sales and marketing at Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Tachometry, who was eager to talk about business (and hockey).
"We explained to Pikal that part of ISP-Planet's mission for 2006 is to explore how ISPs can become more like VARs (the other key part is to become a better advocate for independent ISPs). So we arranged for an interview later in 2005 with Pikal and with Tom Evans, Tachometry's CEO and president. Pikal promised we'd learn about a company doing something unique. We get this promise all the time, but in this case, it was the truth..."
