News

Latest news from the Let’sConnect user group

03/062016

Gala event an integral part of Social Connections

As people who have attended previous events know Social Connections isn’t just limited to a day time program. One of the things we try to do is to also provide attendees with an opportunity to really connect and network with other attendees, speakers and organizers by providing an evening program in the form of the Social Connections Gala event. A way to socialize, enjoy some good food, great entertainment and also see something of Toronto outside the venue location. All attendees are invited and there is no additional costs involved.

As we like to stay in theme and Toronto is known (among others) for its ice hockey we opted this time to select the Hockey Hall of Fame as our venue for the Gala. A great location to learn more about the sport (exhibits will be open) play hockey themed games but also a place where you will simply be able to enjoy a night out, have some good food, drinks, connect with other attendees and enjoy the life music. After all, Social Connections is a conference about social business so why not make that a reality!

The Gala event will be held in the Hockey Hall of Fame at 7PM directly following the speed sponsoring and is open to all attendees (badge required). The dress code is the same as for the conference itself (business casual) and the location is walking distance from the venue and most hotels.

We hope to see you there!

Entertainment will be provided by Toronto cover band “The Wrong Kids”:

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:

31/052016

In case you missed it – The Social Connections mobile app!

News by Lars Samuelsson

Well well well, time is winding down and we’re less than a week out from the event… So excited to go to Canada for the first time!

I thought this would be the proper time to remind you guys about our mobile app. This will be a great place to socialize with other attendees, build your own schedule, be on the lookout for last minute changes and you know, everything that you can imagine from a conference app.

We’ve had the good fortune of having the app sponsored by panagenda, so big thanks to them for making this a reality, and probably saving a tree or two on printing materials, good job!

This is the first time we’ve done a mobile app for the event, so we sure hope you enjoy it!
Go get it now from your local app dealer.. You know, App Store or Google Play!

26/052016

11 days to go…..

News soccnx by Simon Vaughan

With only 11 days to go until Social Connections 10 kicks off in Toronto, we wanted to highlight a number of the great sessions that are being presented at the event in Toronto…

The first session of the day is an introduction to IBM’s take on the Future of work followed by a demonstration of how this will work in real life. This session was a huge success at the recent Connect Conference in Orlando and it promises to be another great session

Following this session, we have a Case study from Lowes who explain how they have adopted and now use Connections in their organisation.

In addition, here is a selection other sessions that make Social Connections 10 in Toronto a ‘Not to be missed event!’

So, what are you waiting for – register now!

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.

20/052016

An exciting addition to our agenda…

News FOW by Simon Vaughan

The Social Connections team are pleased to announce that at our event in Toronto the internationally recognized digital workplace expert, bestselling book author and futurist Dion Hinchcliffe will be presenting a session –

‘Conversational Collaboration: How Messaging, App Integration, and ChatBots Are Changing Social Collaboration’

The session will cover the following topic:

‘While the enterprise social network is still the top model for mass collaboration, a combined sprint of innovation recently in the messaging industry, the user experience field, and lightweight app integration is blazing a trail towards the next generation of digital workplace engagement. Upstarts like Slack are showing us that our applications will be connected deeply to our daily conversations, which will be gamely assisted by intelligent chatbots in real-time messaging environments and connected devices. Understand the implications for modern collaboration strategy, the recent growth of private social media, and explore new case studies of how leading-edge organizations are blending all these technologies into a workable new digital workplace that does useful things we’ve couldn’t have just imagined 2 years ago’

Details of this session can be found here

Dion joins an international line up of digital workplace experts including Luis Suarez, Alan Leposky and Tony Bryne.

Make sure that you register and book you place at this not to be missed event in Toronto – Register now!

19/052016

2 days, 20 sponsors, 80+ speakers, 18+ IBM Champions and an awesome venue!

News sessions, Social_connections, toronto by Martin Jinoch

The countdown continues to Social Connections 10 in Toronto and the team who organise the event wanted to highlight some of the great things that you will find when you attend this event!

Some of key points that we would like to highlight are:

– This is an event managed by a team of volunteers who are IBM Connections users – it is put on by customers of IBM, for customers!

– One of the key themes of the event is to continue to develop a community, foster team work and share best practices around IBM Connections (Cloud or On Premises)

At the event in Toronto, a selection of our ‘Not to be missed sessions include’:

Alan Lepofsky, VP @Constellation Research will talk to how AI will help us get work done!
Luis Suarez (A World without E-mail) will present a keynote session, be involved in the famous ‘PTI’ session and also host a Social Business Masterclass on Wednesday June 8th
Tony Byrne of the Real Story Group will present a session on the ‘Next Digital Workplace‘
IBM’s take on the future of work and demo – If you saw this at the IBM connect conference, now is the chance to see an updated version of this session!
What is coming to IBM Connections
How IBM design their products – a number of sessions focused on this important topic
Toscana – Come and see what is coming!

– Come and hear how businesses are leveraging the IBM Collaboration platforms to drive business outcomes.

Here is a selection of the great customer case studies:

Lowe’s: will talk to how they enable collaboration and drive diversity of thought through strategic alliance that maximize impact to employees, customers and vendors
A&W: How they changed minds of execs to support adoption
Tuft’s Health: How they created an integrated intranet for communication, collaboration and applications
Waterfront Toronto: ongoing journey to becoming a more Social organization on a collaboration platform that supports all aspects of city buildings, citizen engagement and business ecosystem
TD Bank: Presenting their usage and journey with the adoption of IBM Connections
Verisure Securitas will explain their experience of using IBM Connections cloud
How Telus used Collaboration to change the company culture
The Superior Group will discuss their use of Connections
SES highlight their new way of Knowledge networking
and more….

And last, but not least, our sponsors, without who we could not put on this event!

Come to the event, listen to some great sponsor sessions and visit them on the sponsor floor!

In addition, we have a full program of Social events that will keep you entertained late into the night!

So if you have not registered, do so now before all the tickets are sold! REGISTER HERE

16/052016

Announcing another great speaker for Social Connections! – Tony Byrne Real Story Group

News by Wannes Rams

As Social Connections team we always try to get an optimum mix of speakers for our conferences. Not just the well known names from within the IBM ICS community but also experienced speakers from outside the IBM ICS community. To get the best possible diversity in Enterprise Social / Technology / IBM Connections related topics but also to ensure that the discussions going on during the event which are crucial to it’s success get new input and fresh perspectives.

We are therefore very happy to announce that for Social Connections 10 in Toronto Tony Byrne will join us for a session on “The next digital workplace”. Offering practical approaches to taking your current environment to the next level. An experienced and well respected speaker, Tony is also a former journalist, a 20-year technology veteran and the founder of Real Story Group. An exclusively customer-focused analyst firm that prides itself for being completely vendor independent and is known for its toughness and in-depth research into Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software, Web Content Management, Digital & Media Asset Management, ECM & Cloud File Sharing, Enterprise Mobile Technology, Portals and Content Integration and Marketing Automation & Social Technologies. Exposing the real strengths and weaknesses of digital workplace and marketing technologies. We are sure Tony’s perspective to what is going on in the market of social enterprise and Digital workplace is going to be a great addition to the event and hope you will join us for this great session!

Session details: June 7th, 09:40-10:30 am, Room: Calgary

Don’t miss out and register soon as seats are going fast!

Digital Workplace & Marketing Technology Vendor Map - RSG

Source: Digital Workplace & Marketing Technology Vendor Map – Real Story Group

10/052016

Toronto – less than a month!

News by Lars Samuelsson

Hey!

We’re really getting close. Less than two weeks left to pick up your normal price tickets. After the 23rd the late late-tickets will be on sale, and we know you want to avoid that! So hurry up! Register now!

We’re super proud of our lineup this time (as usual), we feel it’s a great mix between speakers and topics that ties in to the very core of the conference, which is Social Business and IBM Connections.

Have you visited us before? Then you know you are in for a treat. If this is your first time and you are on the fence whether to attend or not. Reach out to the community, via Facebook, LinkedIn or twitter (hashtag #soccnx), ask questions and be social!

Also we urge you to download our mobile app (apple,google), in there you can also talk to other participants.

And by the way, don’t forget the gala dinner on monday night! We’re going to the Hockey Hall of Fame for a night to remember, guaranteed!

We can’t wait to go to Canada, and we sure hope to see you all there!

26/042016

Social Connections 10 – An international line up of 70+ speakers!

News abstracts, agenda, connections, Speakers by Wannes Rams

Still undecided about attending Social Connections 10 in Toronto on Monday June 6th and Tuesday June 7th?

If you are then check out some of the great sessions by speakers from across the globe! Our agenda is now publish on our website Link and in our mobile app (where you can create you own personal schedule for the event! (Find out more about our mobile app).

Here is a selection of some the great sessions you need to come and listen to:

10+ user case studies focused on their implemention of IBM Connections!
Great sessions by IBM Champion (18 IBM champions are currently attending the event)
A peak into the future with sessions on Toscana, Future of work and What is coming to IBMConnections
Our popular ‘Spotlight track’ with 15 minute sessions
Some great sponsor sessions from IBM, panagenda, Harbour lights, TimetoAct, TrustSphere and Kudos
and more……

At finally, we have over 70 speakers at the event. These people are from all parts of the world and have some great content to share with you!

So what are you waiting for – Register now!