Recently, the ASBN team was on-location at the 2021 Georgia Technology Summit where anchor Jim Fitzpatrick spoke with Chad McCloud, Executive Director of Jabian Consulting, an Atlanta-based management consultancy that applies senior level consulting specialists to our client’s top priority projects. Jabian focuses on creating and implementing strategies, enhancing business processes, developing human capital, and better-aligning technology to help our clients drive business value by increasing revenue and decreasing operational costs.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the 2021 Georgia Technology Summit.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Chad McCloud, Executive Director of Jabian. Thank you so much for joining us on the Atlanta Small Business Show.
Chad McCloud:
Jim, thanks for having me.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. So you’re one of the presenters here today at the summit?
Chad McCloud:
I am.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Great. Talk to us a little bit about what you spoke about.
Chad McCloud:
You bet. So the summit here, really what we’re about is trying to be able to promote the vibrant ecosystem of what’s going on here in Georgia from a technology perspective. So my role with TAG right now is a volunteer role. I’m the Leadership Council Chair. There’s 23 societies within TAG.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow.
Chad McCloud:
And they focus really on a number of different types of topics and industries here in the state. So my job is to be able to really help coordinate and make sure that they’re getting the right support from TAG so that they can support their membership through all these different avenues from what they present.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Fantastic. Now, this is a virtual event simply because of the virus that we’ve all been dealing with, right? Coronavirus. Talk to us about the impact that that’s had over the last year in this sector.
Chad McCloud:
This is something that I’m really impressed with, Jim, about how the societies have really pivoted. The pandemic, of course, hit in early March of last year. The primary way that our societies engage with their membership was through in-person events. You get 50 to 100 people together in a ballroom and have a conversation about a specific topic.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, of course. Of course.
Chad McCloud:
The societies really had to be able to pivot and change how they worked with their membership. And I’m really proud to say that the first virtual event that a society did was actually held on March 31st.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh wow. Of last year?
Chad McCloud:
Of last year.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh my gosh. Wow.
Chad McCloud:
Just weeks after things changed.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
You guys did pivot.
Chad McCloud:
It’s a credit to the society chairs. They’ve done a great job as well as a lot of volunteers with TAG and employees, but the societies held about 60 different events last year. And I think we really learned, all of us really learned how to be able to create this virtual ecosystem of vibrant conversations that’s happened.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Chad McCloud:
The summit, of course, this is all virtual this year, but what I’m really encouraged by is just this ability for us now to be able to create this hybrid world of how we can interact going forward. So we will have in-person events coming back, hopefully Q3, Q4, when the time is right. But if people don’t want to be able to fight our infamous Atlanta traffic-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
We have traffic here in Atlanta?
Chad McCloud:
Go figure.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
I wasn’t aware of that.
Chad McCloud:
They can always join in virtually too. So I think that’s where I would predict our world is going to be going, is just this virtual hybrid in-person environment, which we’ve learned so much about how to do that better.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
For sure. Some of the people that we’ve spoken to about, they’ll say, “Not only can you attend at the click of a mouse at your desk and not have to fight the traffic and what have you, but you can have other people listen in that you want to attend that normally might not be able to leave the office.” In addition to that, you can go back and see the recordings of it. So, you can show others or maybe if you missed a session, you can go back and do that, something. That wasn’t always available on an in-person basis, right?
Chad McCloud:
That’s exactly right. I think that’s really true. And also the fact that we can really increase our reach. I mean, with in-person events, I mean, we are TAG, the Technology Association of Georgia, many of our events are here in Atlanta. We’ve got events all over the state, but now we can really expand that reach-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, for sure.
Chad McCloud:
… to a lot of different geographic areas, which we’re really thrilled about.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Israel or North California, what have you, they can just click on as well, right?
Chad McCloud:
And we’ve seen that too, with the engagement from a lot of the events that we’ve put on. They are more global these days.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
For the people that are watching that aren’t as familiar with Jabian as we are, tell us a little bit about your company and what solutions you provide.
Chad McCloud:
Yeah. You bet. So we’re a 15 year old management and technology consulting firm based here in Atlanta. We’ve got four offices now in Charlotte, Dallas, and Chicago as well. So it’s been expanding, but what we do really well is we work with mid-market, high-growth companies. Companies are always trying to be able to figure out how to be able to better engage with the marketplace, with their customers, and also how to be able to transform internally to be able to scale and grow and make sure that their internal ways of working, their processes and their technology and their people can all rise up and continue to be able to scale and support the growth that they’ve achieved. So that’s two things we do, we think, fairly well is that we help companies figure out how to be able to re-engage with their customers and connect in a really intimate way. And then also internally, how do you make sure that you’re scaling in the right way too?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. Sure. And for somebody that’s listening right now that says, “This guy might just be the guy that I need to talk to you right now,” is it a major thing to have you go into their company and just sit down and talk to them about a little bit about their future and where they are now, where they want to go before they hire you?
Chad McCloud:
We love doing that work. I mean, there’s always that brainstorming aspect that really helps companies trying to be able to figure out where to go. So, we would be happy to have any conversations people would like to have.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Cool. Chad McCloud, thank you so much. Executive Director of Jabian. Thank you.
Chad McCloud:
Thank you very much.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thanks. Appreciate it.
Chad McCloud:
Thanks.
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