No, not Muhammad Ali.
The young guy behind “The Greatest” is a very early version of the guy who would become our Fearless Leader.
He was fearless even then,
winning the rights to promote Ali’s fight with Larry Holmes. He was 23 and—let’s face it—had no business putting his name forward to produce the closed circuit telecast in the upper Midwest of that fight. But, as the saying goes, he didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so he just went ahead and did it.
Greg Geisler went on to produce closed-circuit broadcasts of several of Sugar Ray Leonard’s world championship fights and then moved on to a new frontier: trade shows. Along with his partner John Caruso, Geisler started producing trade shows across the country, and they built a regional powerhouse trade show business that lasted for many years. But, in the late 90s, Geisler began to notice something: a sea change.
He was listening to the CEOs of the companies his trade shows served, people who had by that time become friends, and he was hearing that they wanted something different.
Greg sought the input of 50 chief information officers at mid-sized and large companies.
They said while trade shows had their place, they needed something else.
These Executive leaders
Needed meetings tailored to their specific needs rather than a generic booth aimed at 20,000 attendees
Needed to meet their executive counterparts with strategic decision-making authority
And also needed a better way to filter through the overwhelming barrage of solutions.
Greg heard the same thing from the executives at solution provider companies. They needed focus and less noise. They asked for a laser-focused search and private, one-on-one meetings with senior management. At the time, that simply didn’t exist.
VerticalXchange was the answer.
Today, VerticalXchange is the ultimate solutions search/strategic partnership matchmaker.
