The journey beyond IBM

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”

Don Williams, Jr

As some of you already know, with mixed emotions, I’ve recently left IBM to join Bell Canada’s Business Markets Division. It was definitely not an easy decision to make as I’ve made many friends over the past 4+ years at IBM and outside of IBM and I will miss them dearly.

Over the past few years, working closely with our valuable family of partners, bloggers, developers and IBMers, we have evolved our products faster — together with you, product launch cycles become shorter, business become open and transparent and improved customer centric focus all across our portfolio.

We have closed deals faster. We developed real relationships. We listened and we cared. Heck, we even changed how we approached marketing. And that is a major feat for a Fortune 500 like IBM. I am grateful to the smart inspirational business partners, superb developers and even more amazing intuitive folks at IBM and outside of IBM who have helped me poke the box and be different.

Over the years, IBM has provided me with an opportunity to speak at events (keynotes even), lead,  experiment, pursue my passions and learn from the smartest people on the planet. From the conception of Lotus Foundations to the worldwide launch of Lotus Knows campaign to the Project Northstar to IBM Software to Groundswell Award for DevleoperWorks to upcoming killer apps for the social web generation. (You would have to kill me to get that out!)

These past few years have been a blast and I look forward to changing a thing or two at Bell Canada as the Associate Director of Marketing, Social/Digital at Bell Canada.  I fully plan to keep in touch with my friends and as always, I am just a tweet away.

As again, thank you for everything and let’s change this world for the better together.

@BilalJaffery // linkedin // email: bilal at jaffery dot ca (Canadian eh)

National Geographic picks the World’s Greatest Scenic Routes

To anyone who says that nature lovers can’t be driving enthusiasts, National Geographic has something to tell you, but it isn’t “take a hike” – it’s “take a drive.” The society’s Traveler magazine has just released a new list of their favorite driving roads in the world, and the rundown has itching to trade the information superhighway for the plain ol’ highway.

Naturally, the National Geographic Traveler “Drives of a Lifetime” list is comprised mostly of roads in the United States, from California’s Pacific Coast Highway to New York’s Hudson River Valley and everywhere in between. But if you feel like venturing a little further north, Traveler’s highlighted some choice routes through the Canadian Rockies all the way to the Cabot Trail in the Maritime provinces, and they’ve thrown in some island and European destinations for good measure.

Rest of the story with pics here.