Mark Shearer, IBM's vice president of marketing and offerings for the IBM Business Systems group, thew down the gauntlet from the stage at the COMMON Opening Session in Nashville yesterday. By the end of this week, Shearer told the crowd, "If you're not hanging from the ceiling with enthusiasm, send me an e-mail."

I'm sure he was just using a metaphor -- the ceilings are quite high at the Gaylord Opryland Resort -- but Shearer was serious about the e-mail. How he came to this throw down, however, the context, is worth backing up for.

"IBM's objective this week is to have you return to your companies at the end of the week from Nashville thinking that this has been the best week fofor our i clients since the launch of the AS/400 twenty years ago," Shearer said.