Yesterday I had the honor of being the closing keynote speaker at the 2010 Wyoming Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) Conference. With over 200 attendees, the conference attracted a wide variety of people, including entrepreneurs, university faculty, and representatives of different government agencies.

It was not good enough to simply turn on and off our coffee pot. We wanted to indicate the status of the pot. Questions like “is it empty?” “is it brewing"?” “should I wait for a new pot?” all had to be answered.