I was at my first meeting with a new client last week. We were brainstorming ideas for their blog when the CEO told the story of a recent WHOA moment and I just had to capture it.

My client, FixStream, provides an advanced operational analytics and visualization platform for IT. Think of it as ‘Google Maps’ for the network and data centers. One of the super cool things they provide is a dynamic map of business process, down to all the applications and every piece of infrastructure through the network, data centers (!) and VMs. Trust me, this is ground breaking and so needed by IT.

During the brainstorming, Sameer, the CEO, was describing a recent partner engagement with their sales reps. He had set up a WebEx to show the reps what the product could do for their customers. He wasn’t getting much response from the reps, and he eventually asked how many were on the WebEx from their computer. Turned out, only 4 or 5 were, everyone else had just dialed in through the phone (no visuals). “OK, to those of you on the computer, let me show you what our product can do.” He started the demo and 20 seconds in there was a unanimous “WHOA!” from the guys who could see it. Immediately, the other reps were asking ‘What? What is it? What did you see?” The guys who had seen the demo started describing it, and the general tone turned to one of excitement and purpose as they started talking about how this could help their customers, and where they were going to take it in. Turned the whole meeting around!

I can picture the video we’ll create to show this. More on that later.

Meanwhile, what’s been your most recent WHOA moment?