An idea can turn to dust or to magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.

So said advertising executive William Bernbach, who could have been talking about Scott Humphrey's annual Pacific Northwest BI Summit in Grant's Pass, Oregon. Scott has once again introduced noteworthy ideas and flat-smart talent to the extent that attendees were positively raw from the four days of dialog, debate, and fun that have become the Summit's brand. While we're on the topic of talent, Scott Humphrey, President of Humphrey Strategic PR, has an enviable knack for convening a fun crowd of BI pros to compare notes, share experiences, and even forge new business partnerships.

This year's Summit saw the return of the four expert panelists--Claudia Imhoff, William McKnight, Colin White, and yours truly--who held forth on a diverse and interesting set of topics. Claudia talked about Software as a Service, Colin discussed data warehouse appliances (referencing his recent B-Eye-Network research report on the topic), William, reprising last year's topic, gave us an update on RFID developments.

Me? I weighed in on the pervasive issue of business-IT alignment. My hypothesis was that BI is the perfect pretext for stronger collaboration between the business and IT. Companies that see their BI efforts as a portfolio of applications deployed to the business over time are those that understand the opportunity for engaging the business around their requirements, in their vocabulary, in regular intervals. And aligning around business processes is the optimal way to make this happen.

In our customary ritual on the Summit's final night, we broke out the Don Julio 1942. To quote a contributor to www.ilovetequila.com, 1942 is "the shit." Shawn Rogers says is the best tequila he's ever had, which is all you need to know about the smoothness of that juice. (That and the fact that I bet a 500 chip on a pair of threes.)

So herewith, a virtual tequila shot toast to Scott Humphrey for another successful BI Summit. Salut!