Neal and Darlene:

It is rare that I am asked by my senior management at IBM to immediately hire a keynote speaker when he is barely off the stage to give another keynote speech the following week - but that is in fact what happened with you Neal. And I want to take this opportunity to thank you not only for the extraordinary presentation you gave in San Diego but for the follow up presentation you gave in Barcelona with virtually no prep time as well.

While not all the ratings are formalized by our research company - I can tell you that you generated some of the highest ratings and most positive feedback I have seen in many years of running events in this division.

I was particularly impressed with the amount of time you put into your presentation to customize it to the audience and make your points valid within their line of business and the context of the attendees overall job scope. As any event person can tell you we always go into show day with a great deal of trepidation with any outside keynote we hire - particularly with a sales audience who can be one of the most skeptical audiences I have - but I truly was in awe of the spirit you drove into the audience and how you made your own journey so very relevant to every person in both locations. You were nothing short of a genius by utilizing our event theme and messaging within the context of your presentation and it was exactly what we needed to reinforce our theme. I particularly admire this given that you spoke to over thirteen thousand attendees ranging from America to Canada to Europe to Latin America to Asia Pacific - the feedback across all the geographies was equally compelling - which is again unusual given that the backgrounds of the attendees are in fact so varied.

When we first discussed your selling and autographing your books in our solution center - I anticipated a good turnout but happened was absolutely extraordinary and a testament to the success you received at this event. I don't know what the total number is that you sold but I can tell you our security team advised me that we had to shut it down with well over 200 people still in line after your inventory ran out which I believe was well over a thousand books. That is just a record at our events - even with some famous athletes we have used in the past.

So in closing Neal I owe you a great deal of gratitude - you truly provided the inspiration and motivation for this team that I was looking for externally and the success of this presentation has been heard throughout the IBM Corporation.

I look forward to working together again in the near future - and expect you will be hearing from other IBM divisions shortly as well.

Thank you for your professionalism and commitment throughout this project.
You are also an inspiration to work with!

Leslie Benway
IBM - Worldwide Events