All posts by maria nordin

20/022017

Social Connections and DNUG collaborate to give you 2 great conferences in June 2017

Conflict in Dates!? No Conflict between Teams! – June is the month to enjoy one of the two major User Group Events in 2017

There will be a conflict in dates between the conferences of Social Connections and DNUG on June 1st, 2017. This happened by accident. We regret this inevitable circumstances very much, both boards agreed to cooperate and stay in close touch.

We will be able to offer two world class user group conferences in close time. As part of the short overlap between the opening session of 11th Social Connections in Chicago and the closing session of the 44th DNUG conference (#dnug44) in Berlin, we plan to have a joint web session.

Best wishes to the participants of both events for a successful and exciting conference, regardless of your decision.

Boards of DNUG & SOCCNX and good friends (!)

Daniel Reichelt, Erik Wüstner, Jörg Rafflenbeul, Maria Enderstam, Simon Vaughan, Stefan Gebhardt, Wannes Rams

17/012017

Announcement: Social Connections 11 comes to Chicago! See you there!

News connections, event, ibm, ibmcnx, ics, register, soccnx, soccnx10, social, socialconnections by Maria Nordin

Social Connections
comes to
CHICAGO!!!

Are you ready for the best conference of the year, organized by the largest user group focusing on social collaboration technology from IBM?

Good, we are too!

We are sorry we have kept you waiting. A somewhat bumpy road since our last event has made us focus on the thing we knew all along:

Quality before quantity

So here we are, ready to announce the location of Social Connections 11. We want to welcome you all in the beginning of June to the amazing city of Chicago!

What do we have lined up for you?

We will continue our success story with a 2 day event filled with keynote sessions, quality speakers, captivating break out sessions, lots of IBM Champions, a Gala night with extra specials were socializing is the focus, speed sponsoring and of course lots of networking!

We won’t stop there. This time we will renew our concept a bit and add some extra things which will make this our best conference yet!

But don’t fret! Social Connections will still keep our main focus and deliver a conference with a strong focus on social collaboration technology, aimed at both existing and prospective customers and partners, and at individuals with both business and technical perspectives.

Hello sponsor: for you we offer a solution showcase with sponsors and breakout sessions in multiple tracks! You will have the perfect opportunity to network with your customers and new prospects.

Hello IBM customer: for you we offer a broad variety of tracks ranging from use cases, management, best practices, development, design and administration etc.

Hello speaker: time to start thinking and write your abstract to the sessions mentioned above!

We have it all for you!

The Social Connections team is stronger than ever and we are working around the clock around the globe to make this event the best one yet!

Stay tuned for more details such as venue, exact date, where to submit your session and where we will spend our magic gala night.

In the meantime, contact us at info@socialconnections.info should you have any questions.

Wannes, Simon, Maria, Jan, Lars, Femke, Christoph, Doug and Martin

p.s. we are very proud to let you know that all our team members are IBM Champions for 2017!

27/102016

Revitalizing conversations in teams with IBM Watson Workspace (formerly known as Project Toscana)

News ibm, toscana, watson, watson workspace, watsonworkspace, workspace by Maria Nordin

Taste the word: Toscana. It promises a lot, at least if you have a little bit of a crush on Italy as I have. Food and wine in the sunset, overlooking a fabulous view of the countryside or the sea. There’s something ancient but invigorating in the name, no wonder I had high hopes on this team collaboration solution from IBM when I first heard about it!

Yes, the comparison is silly, but hey, don’t blame me! I didn’t name it 😉

Yesterday IBM launched Project Toscana with its new and equally invigorating name IBM Watson Workspace, at The World of Watson conference in Las Vegas.

You can see a replay of the launch here.

I have been in the privileged group beta testing this collaboration software for a couple of months before the launch. We didn’t just test it, we stress tested it.

My team (the team planning the Social Connections user group conferences) is an 9 member group located all over the world, in different locations and time zones. We know how difficult it is to bring a diverse team together working towards a common goal; to have a huge amount of topics to handle and what it’s like to have hundreds of messages to process in just a short time. How hard it can be to find relevant information and to create and manage workflows and tasks out of our discussions leading to decision making and follow ups in other systems.

Until this spring we used Slack but when we got the opportunity to join the beta program for Toscana the choice was easy, especially since we saw it as a chance to take part in the beta forums and give feedback to IBM and try and help make the product as great as possible!

We took the plunge and moved. Now, a couple of months in, I talk to my team of 9 but also in cross organization spaces, where members are from different companies and parts of the world. Small teams and large, some very active and some not. Now that we’ve been using IBM Watson Workspace for several months, I like it more and more each day. It’s the place to be, simple as that.

I see possibilities to bring teams together in many different ways. For shorter or longer projects, for interest groups, for departments at companies or even the local book club. IBM Watson Workspace is an agile environment where you can invite whoever you want and immediately start having a conversation and share your work. You can pick up the conversation on your mobile, when you are out and about, and seamlessly go back to your PC when you’re back at the office and, of course, you can integrate it with other systems.

What about the magic then? The first proof of Watson’s presence is what IBM calls “Moments”. Here we have a cognitive function which presents a managed list that helps you quickly scan the conversation for questions, tasks and topics of interests. Early days, but ever so promising! I can’t wait for more of this stuff! Take a look below:

Yesterday IBM announced a collaboration together with Slack, bringing the two products together in sweet harmony. This is how that looks:

So jump on the train to the cognitive era together with us, IBM and Watson!

01/062016

The Social Connections Team – who are we?

News connections, soccnx, social, socialconnections, team by Maria Nordin

First: you have registered for Social Connections 10 in Toronto, right?

Good. Then you can continue reading this post.

We thought it was time we told you a bit about ourselves. The people behind this fantastic user group called Social Connections.

So sit back and enjoy:

23/052016

We bring that extra to you in Toronto – a masterclass on adoption and engagement!

News connections, ibm, ibmbonnections, luis, masterclass, register, social, socialconnections, suarez by Maria Nordin

Meet Luis Suarez!

As if 2 days of networking, socializing and learning all about IBM Connections and everything around it isn’t enough, we bring you an extra day after the event with Luis Suarez and his masterclass ‘From Adoption to Adaptation, From Enablement into Engagement’.

Join us the day after Social Connections 10 for a full blast masterclass about Social Business. On how to inspire and facilitate adoption in your organization. Get the means to re-define a new way of working with your fellow colleagues and peers and become a successful Socially Integrated Enterprise.

What if that methodology, good practices, extensive expertise and know-how would all be at your fingertips, so you could apply it right away? What if you knew the nuts and bolts of getting your management and senior leadership teams all involved right from the start to help facilitate the final social business transformation you have always been looking for? Are you ready?

Come and join us on this one day masterclass to find out and learn how you can get the most out of your IBM Connections deployment to begin, or continue, that transformation journey into becoming a successful Social Business.

You will learn how to

not only install social software, but also make your business into a social business
promote and support new ways of working in your company
get closer together with new forms of communication and collaboration between colleagues and business partners, and accelerate the digital transformation
avoid typical mistakes in the implementation of company-wide social networks and achieve successful results.
convince executives and middle management and may face resistance

Whether you are just getting started with your Social Business Adaptation Journey, or whether you are already a very well seasoned 2.0 knowledge worker, this workshop will provide you an opportunity to learn with other fellow practitioners through plenty of practical, hands-on advice, good practices, lots of hints and tips and, most importantly, all of the necessary knowledge resources available to date.

This session is going to be really focused, packed with value and offer tremendous opportunities to learn from both Luis and the other attendees’ experience. So do not hesitate too long. Places will be allocated in order of registration.

22/042016

The Heat Is On: The Agenda for Social Connections 10 in Toronto is published!

News 10, agenda, heat, published, socialconnections, toronto by Maria Nordin

The last week have been busy in the team! The weekly run, the dog walk, that extra coffee break or the after work with friends were all cancelled. Our joined forces has been pointed in one direction only. The Agenda!

First, thank you all for submitting such interesting and professional abstracts! Just to read through them all was a treat in itself, and to get to chose from them an even bigger one. I can reveal that our scheduled team meeting where we concluded our votes doubled in time and discussions ran high.

And now we are done! The agenda is published! The mix of sessions is awesome. Both within the different tracks and in total. You will surely recognize some familiar names among our speakers, but also a bunch of new ones. This is what I like most. Our community is constantly growing, moving changing, evolving. To the better!

For example we will give you insight in the very large company Lowe’s journey to become a Collaborative Company. And IBM’s Take on the Future told by Sarah Gibbons, Luis Benitez and Christopher Crummey.

We are also proud to present to you 10 fresh case studies! Learn best practices and listen to those who have solved problems you might struggle with right now.

Or an interesting Case Study: Win, Win, Win: Changing Attitudes, Adopting Socail and Going Green with Graham Acres, Brytek Systems Inc. and Delores Beier, A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. Last but not least Best and worst practices deploying IBM Connections with Christoph Stoettner and Nico Meisenzahl, panagenda.

So now, when we in the team (only momentarily) fold back our desk chairs, stretch our legs and gaze out through the window, you only got one thing to do:

Register for this amazing event which will give you sparking ideas, networking, knowledge sharing and social seeds planting.

/Maria (your friendly Social Connections team member)

P.S. Today we counted 18 IBM Champions who will speak, network and mingle around the conference. That number will most likely change.

07/042016

Game time! Do you want to visit Hockey Hall of Fame with us in Toronto this June?

News gala night, hhof, hockey hall of fame, soccnx by Maria Nordin

We sure we do! That is why we have booked it just for you and all our attendees at Social Connections 10 in Toronto!

We always want to make our Gala night an extra treat for our guests, and this time is no exception. Say “Toronto” out loud and you immediately think of “maple leaf”, “maple syrup” and “ice hockey”. So let’s go with Ice Hockey.

Welcome to an extra special night at the famous Hockey Hall of Fame! Closed for other guests, exclusive use just for us!

With delicious food and the company of dear friends (and some suprises we have lined up for you!) we can almost certain promise you a great time!

For example: Interactive games are available! The impressive NHLPA Be A Player Zone, features the famed Shoot Out and Shut Out. These two games reside on the zone’s 2,400 square – foot simulated rink, complete with an overlooking gondola, two fan stands, arena rink boards and a multimedia scoreboard. We also have the Broadcast Zone, where you can choose from a menu of classic hockey games and then put yourself behind the microphone to try your hand at calling the action. Or why not take the opportunity to compete against each other in the ‘Game time Challenge’ to test their knowledge of the world of hockey.

Toronto’s premier hockey attraction is home of the Stanley Cup and the best of hockey, you can DO IT ALL…AT THE HALL. We can go one-on-one against life-size, animated versions of today’s greatest goalies and shooters; call the play-by-play of some of hockey’s greatest goals; get up close and personal with the Stanley Cup; explore the largest collection of hockey memorabilia in the world – A museum and entertainment destination like no other, the Hockey Hall of Fame is fun for all!

This is a night to be #social. So it doesn’t matter which team you support, or if you don’t understand the game of hockey at all. Join us on this fabulous night with good food, friends and fun!
Hockey Hall of Fame is just a few minutes walk from our conference venue. So you can easily walk there in your ice skating shoes!

Our event sponsors for the Gala night is panagenda! Be sure to visit them in their booth at the conference, and also over a bite to eat during the evening.

17/032016

Sponsor highlight: TIMETOACT GROUP

News by Maria Nordin

Time to highlight another one of our highly valued Gold sponsors. We say our thanks to:

TIMETOACT GROUP provides professional services for IBM Software, Microsoft Software, Google Software and open standards. The group includes the companies edcom, BLUETRADE, CLOUDPILOTS, novaCapta, TIMETOACT and X-INTEGRATE. With more than 200 employees, TIMETOACT GROUP is one of the largest IBM Software Services providers in DACH. TIMETOACT GROUP is located in several locations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

http://www.timetoact-group.com

08/032016

Sponsor highlight: Harbour Light

News by Maria Nordin

It is already March and we are fast approaching our 10th conference in Toronto. The planning for this event move very fast and we in the team work very hard to keep up. For example we are thrilled that our sponsor slots are filling up in a steady pace. As you know, this event could not happen without our fabulous sponsors. They play an important role in our community and we will highlight each and every one of them as they come onboard.

So here are our first sponsor for Social Connections 10 in Toronto, Gold sponsor Harbour Light

Enrich your web presence with social community services now !

The future of corporate web presence is no longer static content and forms. It is key for any organisation to recognise new market trends and to be responsive to changing customer demands. The delivery of first class seamless web experience that makes your client wanting to do business with you becomes critical to your business success and growth strategy.

By providing additional social components to your clients as part of your commerce or mobile strategy will increase client loyalty.

We believe that businesses that are enabled to include social components into their business strategy are better positioned for future growth. Also they are expanding their client reach better than others. But unlike public social networks, creating your own social community delivers true value to clients and your extended business networks.

By integrating tools from your present social intranet into your key web business processes makes these tools truly become social business tools for the first time. They start to bring new and extended value to web presences and customer portals.

Let your clients interact with one another and allow your product management and sales force to join in. Create social business interactions on the go.

We help you getting there !

We help you to evaluate the options and the steps to take based on your today’s web presence. We help you to evaluate the steps to transform your organization into fully social enabled web experiences, shops and customer portals.

Our consultants, products and implementation services are there to help you to take the next step on this journey to become a true Social Business.

All posts by maria nordin

Social Connections comes to CHICAGO!!!

Social Connections
comes to
CHICAGO!!!