The ITEC conferences I’ve been keynoting run May through June and then return in the Fall in October and November. I just finished the spring tour and had the pleasure of meeting people from small and midsized businesses in Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle and Indianapolis.

Some of the attendees filling out sheets evaluating my performance simply left their e-mail address so I would send them a copy of the presentation, but others took the time to tell me what they wanted to hear more about in future ITEC shows and newsletters. Choices ran from VoIP phone systems to online collaboration services to data storage options to reducing hardware and software costs.

Surprisingly, the top vote getter was "How to keep up with technology." I put that in after a friend met with a local business group and they listed that as their top issue. Quick answer: keep reading Network World (end of plug).

Second most popular subject was, "How to speed up and secure your PC." Since we all have computer problems regularly, I'm not surprised that got a lot of response.

Third most popular was "Office suites (free, fee, and online)." That topic rates first if I add in the strong response to "Replace Microsoft Office with Open Office." Perhaps some can accuse me of loading the deck with that question, since office suite and operating system alternatives received considerable coverage in my speech. I also believe the constant news roar over Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 made people much more sensitive to the topic.

The variation between hot topics in the different cities surprised me. Indianapolis and Dallas worry about keeping up with technology, while Houston wants to speed up their PCs. Detroit wants to know about free office productivity suites, and Seattle attendees want to learn more about Web site development. If you can explain these regional variations, please share with the group.

During the shows I made videos of vendors explaining products that caught my eye. Want to know about earthquake mediation for computer systems? How about portable air conditioners or step-up servers or disk-to-disk backup appliances or a close look at a VoIP phone system? I have videos of all those and more, including Kim Brand's presentation of Free Software Choices, on my page at PodTech.

One of the items I was curious about, Blogging for business, wound up in the top third of the voting. That could be because I talked about ways to better resonate with customers, so people heard me talk about blogs and declared themselves interested.

A bit higher in the rankings was "Reducing hardware and software costs" which could also tie in with free office productivity suites. I believe this is interesting because many large vendors don't seem to appreciate how price sensitive small businesses are. Total Cost of Ownership thrills big companies, but Money Out of Pocket worries small ones. As we say in Texas, a horse is expensive at $2 if all you have is a quarter.

But following that, the ranking of "Buy online safely and save" and "Online auction selling secrets" ranked down near the bottom. I always thought small businesses were buying and selling quite a bit online to help save money when buying and help move old inventory when selling. If some are, they don't feel they need to know more, and the rest of the small businesses aren't interested.

The least requested topic for future shows? "Replacing PCs with Macintosh." I guess those who want to switch have, and those who don't want to feel no need for more information. That answer surprised me, especially with all the noise about Macintosh and the iPhone recently.

As a bit of a joke, I asked people to choose one of the following: "James is an idiot – Vista rocks" or "James is a genius - Vista Stinks." The third choice was "I don't care about Vista" which got the second most votes. Most attendees voted me a genius, an interesting feeling. One funny guy wrote on the form that he feels Vista stinks, but "didn't know" if I was a genius for saying so. I hope I can find him on the surveillance tapes.

James Gaskin writes books (16 so far), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area.