News

Latest news from the Let’sConnect user group

22/022016

Social Connections 10, we will go to Toronto!

News 10, abstracts, canada, event, ibmchampions, ibmcnx, june, registration, soccnx, soccnx10, social, socialconnections, toronto by Wannes Rams

We know we have kept you waiting. Maybe longer than both you and we wanted. But it was for a good reason!

After the great success of our last event in Stuttgart, and because this is our 10th event, we have cooked up something extra.

We won’t release all the details yet, there are much more exciting things to come.

But we can say this: It is with great pleasure that we can announce the dates and location for our next event. This time we will be crossing the Atlantic again, but to a new country for us. We are going to Toronto, Canada! Yes, you heard it right, the beautiful city of Toronto is waiting for us!

So gear up with your biggest smile and join us on June 6 & 7, 2016 in the vibrant capital of Ontario, Canada.

As before we are running a 2 day event filled with good speakers, captivating sessions, lots of IBM Champions, a Gala night you wont forget and of course the amazing Social Connection team.

But we cannot do this without you! So send in your abstract for that session you already have in the back of your mind here, or register here.
And last but not least, there is much more to come. Keep your eyes open here for more details, news and announcements. We will updating you on a regulat basis from now on.

16/022016

We’re still here, and we’re cooking up something amazing

News by Lars Samuelsson

Hey everyone,

Sorry for our absence from most communications channels lately. It’s a bit ironic, working with social.

We are in the process of finishing up the details for our 10th event, which sure is promising to be something special.

We can’t turn double digits without doing something a little bit “out there”, right?

This blog post is just to tell all of you that we are still here, we are working as hard as we possibly can to get details out, and we hope that once we reveal it, you’ll like it as much as we do.

What we can tell you? We will be going to the eastern part of North America, we will throw an awesome gala dinner/party as usual, Maria will sort that one out, AND we will have some great people joining us for keynotes and presentations.

I hope that this blog will very very soon be followed by details. Just get your passports in order!

The soccnx team through Lars

11/012016

Changes to the Social Connections organisation

News by Wannes Rams

Over the past year, the team behind Social Connections have been working hard to put the organisation onto a firm footing for the future.

As a thriving user group that had delivered 7 successful events between 2011-2014, and a growing leadership team featuring a number of IBM Champions from around the community, it was felt that it was time to cement the great work that had been done to get this far, and to build an organisation that would support and withstand the efforts of organising regular events across the world.

As part of this effort, I’ve been delighted to work with Wannes and Simon in particular, to transition the ownership of the events from my own company, Social 365, to a brand new entity (registered as a company in the UK). This company is solely responsible for planning and delivering the Social Connections events, and has been set up from day one with the right frameworks to enable it to manage the demands of worldwide events, including the complexities of tax and VAT across national boundaries, a team based in more than half a dozen countries, and that is capable of working with sponsors that range in size from independent ISVs to multinational corporations!

Back in November, we delivered Social Connections 9 in Stuttgart – the biggest and (from your feedback) the best event so far. This event was run by Soccnx Limited, and with the vast majority of the planning work done by others on the Social Connections team. Whilst I was incredibly happy to attend and to speak at the event, the plaudits for that event should go to the rest of the team – they did an incredible job!

So it is with this in mind, that I was ready to step away from the Social Connections effort at the end of 2015, and leave it in the very capable (and indeed, talented) hands of Wannes and Simon, and their brilliant team (Christoph, Doug, Femke, Jan, Lars, Maria and Martin).

I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved with Social Connections, and can’t wait to see and hear from the team as they plan for the events in 2016 and beyond.

12/112015

Social Connections 9, it’s a wrap!

News soccnx, stuttgart, wrapup by Wannes Rams

It’s great to be back at home base, recovering from the Social Connections 9 event and resuming normal family and work pace. After the hectic weeks leading up to the event and the effort of actually running it, this is proving to be a welcome and much needed change!

Before too much time passes, the team wanted to quickly write up the event for those that couldn’t attend. We tend to follow a broadly similar pattern for each Social Connections conference, so hopefully this will help you to decide whether you should attend the next one!

After a short introduction from the team, the first day of the two-day event kicked off with a warm welcome from Barbara Koch (Solution Sales Leader Social Business & Commerce, Germany) and Huguette Ranc (Vice President, Client Success Social & Smarter Workforce, Europe). We quickly moved on to the event keynotes. We’ve been proud of our keynote speakers and sessions at every event, but think that we surpassed all previous lineups this time, featuring presentations from John Stepper (Deutsche Bank), René Schimmer (IBM), Eric Marzo-Wilhelm (ThyssenKrupp) and Silvia Cambie (IBM). The keynotes varied in tone and content, but were all very well received by attendees. After the first break, and alongside the third keynote, the breakout sessions kicked off (with Victor Toal having the honour of launching the technical content for this event). We had 23 breakouts planned for the first day, split over several tracks to have something of interest for every type of attendee. Rooms were full, speakers were energised, and the audience seemed to appreciate the content as well.

Meanwhile, our sponsor lounge was already alive and buzzing. With a record 16 exhibitors (from a total of 22 wonderfully supportive sponsors) the area filled up nicely at each and every break time. After the last session of the day, we served drinks in the sponsor lounge and kicked off our Speed Sponsoring with MC Tony Holder. This was the opportunity for our sponsors to convince their audience of their solutions in just 3 action-packed minutes and to open up conversations for the next day.

With Speed Sponsoring closing out the formal agenda for the day, the team had arranged for bus transport to Sensapolis for our Gala Reception. The idea was to pick an informal location (Sensapolis is primarily an indoor child’s playground) to ensure that our attendees had an opportunity to network, but also to thoroughly enjoy themselves in the process! We offered some activities after dinner such as a challenging climbing wall, karting and Segway-riding. We even had a professional photo booth (with topical props!) to provoke some fun pictures. It worked out exactly as planned, check out the pictures here. Thankfully, despite the fun, games and beverages consumed, everyone managed to make the bus to their hotels and were picked up again on the second day.

On Friday we had another 32 sessions lined up, split over 4 breakout rooms. Many of the sessions were extremely busy, but the most popular was surely “What’s coming in IBM Connections Next” from René Schimmer.

We closed the day’s agenda with the popular ‘Ask IBM’ session. We had some unscheduled departures from those earmarked for the panel (due to the Lufthansa strike and people rebooking their flights) so we owe a debt of thanks to the other IBM people that stepped up on stage and maybe answered some questions outside their comfort zone.

As is now our custom, we couldn’t depart from the venue without our Social Connections community photo!

As a conclusion, we think that this was the best Social Connections event that the team have run so far and it feels as though we are improving every time. We received a lot of compliments as an organisation team, but we could not have done it without a superb venue, supportive sponsors and insightful speakers. I would like to thank our awesome team (onsite, off site and those that had to leave early!) for all the work and all the fun. I’m very sad that we did not have the time to have some quality time together!

Finally, I wanted to share some statistics with you. Social Connections 9 had:

72 sessions (including 11 showcase sessions)
63 speakers (excl. showcase speakers)
268 registered people
260 checkedin people
28 % Customer ratio
Visitors from 22 Countries
19 IBM Champions, 12 of them as speakers

Thanks to everyone that attended.

You can check out all the photos from the event on our Flickr photo stream, and see a really good summary of the social media coverage from the event in this Storify (curated by Alexander Kluge).

See you all for Social Connections 10!

28/102015

Social Connections 9 – Speed Sponsoring 101

News soccnx, speedsponsoring by Wannes Rams

If you’re attending Social Connections 9 next week, and you’ve already taken a look at the agenda on our site or in PDF form, you’ll have noted that we have Speed Sponsoring scheduled at the end of our first day’s sessions, before everyone heads off to the event’s Gala Reception.

For some attendees, Speed Sponsoring is a well-practiced ritual, whereas if you’re new to user groups you might be asking ‘what is Speed Sponsoring?!’

So here’s the Speed Sponsoring 101!

There’s a free bar! This is important…
All our 16 exhibiting sponsors man their pedestals and have a pitch ready to go.
Attendees split into groups so that there is a group at each pedestal. Each attendee gets a form containing all the sponsors logos
Each sponsor gets 3 minutes to pitch their product, solution or service. Plus answer any questions and collect business cards as required!
At the end of the 3 minutes, attendees have their forms stamped by the sponsor and move on to the next pedestal.
At regular points, everyone gets the chance to grab a fresh drink and take a deep breath!
Once all sponsors have been seen, all completed forms are collected and a draw takes place to hand out some awesome prizes!
There is a free bar!

In short, it’s great fun for everybody concerned. Sponsors get to talk about their wares in a rapid and light-hearted way, attendees get a whistle-stop no-pressure tour of all the exhibitors, and plenty of drinks and snacks are available to help the time pass by with even more good humour.

And just to make the Speed Sponsoring at Social Connections 9 go with even more of a bang, we’ve drafted in a friend-of-the-event and IBM Champion to act as MC!

Yes, that’s right, Mr Tony Holder will be in the house!

So, if you’re attending Social Connections 9, make sure you stay around at the end of the Thursday sessions, grab a beverage of your choice, partake in the pitches and hopefully, win a prize!

07/102015

Social Connections 9 Gala Reception announced. “It’s Playtime!”

News reception, sensapolis, stuttgart by Maria Nordin

We are happy to announce the venue for our Gala Reception on Thursday evening, ending the first day of Social Connections 9 in Stuttgart.

We invite you to Sensapolis, a place of adventure and excitement!

Enjoy a night of great food and drink in the company of your fellow attendees, speakers and sponsors. Plus, if you wish, take part in an array of optional activities including rock climbing, a race on the electric go-karts in the Sensadrom, a chance to learn to ride a Segway, or even dancing to the in-house DJ. The entire venue is open just for us!

With an array of attractions the indoor park Sensapolis, is a unique and entertaining place in Böblingen close to our daytime venue. Usually open to children and families, the park offers such delights as a fairy-tale castle, race track, climbing areas and a space ship with daring slides.

So, bring out your playful self and join us for an evening of fun! The dress code will definitely be at the casual end of smart-casual!

Given our location at IBM in Ehningen, a short journey to Böblingen is required. We will therefore provide bus transportation for everyone registered. The buses departs from IBM right after the speed sponsor session and will take approximately 10 minutes. Once the event is over, the buses will deliver attendees back to our recommended hotels. For those that have their own transport, there is plenty of parking at Sensapolis for the evening.

The Gala Reception is free and open for all registered participants, courtesy of our sponsor Fritz & Macziol.

Please contact us if you have any special dietary needs or allergies.

We look forward to seeing you in Stuttgart for Social Connections 9, and to enjoying a fun and relaxing evening at Sensapolis!

P.S. If you’ve not checked out the agenda, or our speakers and exhibitors, or actually registered for the event – there really is no time like the present!

25/092015

We want you… to check out our agenda and join us for Social Connections 9!

News agenda by Lars Samuelsson

Hey everyone!

After a short period of radio silence where we were getting everything in order, we’re back with an update as we now have our agenda in place. The team published it to our site last week, and you can see it for yourself on this very link!

We were delighted and honoured to receive a larger volume of abstracts than for any previous event, and the general feeling is that they were all of a really high standard – it is such a shame that we have to turn any speakers and sessions away. However, we’re really proud of the agenda that we have pulled together – there is variety and quality in every slot!

As we try to achieve every time, we’ve got a little bit of everything for you… From the ‘future of work’ to high-level management sessions, to the nitty-gritty fiddling with TDI settings for your perfect Connections deployment. Whilst the majority of sessions are running on our well-known 30 minute schedule, we are also continuing some of our innovations from the US event, and we have two blocks of the TED-style spotlight sessions that run for 15 minutes, as well as a number of longer, mostly very-technical sessions hitting the 60 minute mark. Come one, come all!

We’ve gone through the keynote speakers in earlier blogposts, please check back and read about them!

One thing that is new for this Social Connections is that we will hold a Connections Clinic in the sponsors area. Meet the people behind Connections, Docs and their Cloud offerings and ask them any questions you like – roadmap, deployment, customisation, adoption and more!

These two days in November are jam-packed, with an incredible 60+ sessions from some of the top names in the business, and we really want to see you be a part of it.

Register here (or via the form embedded below), and join us for 2 days of fun, socializing, extending your knowledge as well as your personal network.

As we say every time, we could not have done this without our sponsors, and we would like to extend the biggest THANK YOU to all of them for helping us put this together! If anyone is still interested in sponsoring the event, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Check out this page for more info.

Also, we will in a very short timeframe announce our gala dinner for this year, don’t forget that one!

Hope to see you all in Stuttgart!

/Lars, for the Social Connections team!

31/082015

Yet another keynote speaker

News by Wannes Rams

We are very happy to announce René Schimmer as keynote speaker for Social Connections. As a sr. product manager for Social Software at IBM René is in pole position to talk to us on how Working Out Loud translates in the IBM Social Software roadmap.

Please register asap for the conference if you want to hear René speak. You can find his abstract here

27/082015

Our lineup is growing, Social Connections presents second keynote speaker

News keynote, soccnx9, wol by Wannes Rams

After announcing John Stepper as keynote speaker yesterday, we are very proud to present Silvia Cambie as keynote speaker. As a digital strategist and thought leader in social technology she is well placed to talk about cultural changes needed to adopt to enterprise social networking.

Convincing the C-Suite: Collaboration begins with Culture

We are in the middle of the biggest change the enterprise has ever experienced in history. Yet, according to a recent Altimeter study, getting buy-in from execs still remains a top priority. Only 9% of the companies surveyed reported participation from the C-Suite on social.

Why are senior execs still so reluctant to embrace the benefits of enterprise social networking?

In this talk, you will learn how to use collaboration’s core principles as well as emerging phenomena like employee advocacy and disruptive innovation to get the C-Suite’s support to help you create a new corporate culture of connectivity and sharing.

You can find the abstract for her session here

26/082015

Social Connections first keynote speaker announced

News keynote, soccnx9, wol by Wannes Rams

We are very proud to announce John Stepper as one of our keynote speakers. John is the author of “Working Out Loud”.

A lot of his ideas and work is available on http://workingoutloud.com/

He will talk about how to make work more effective & fulfilling across your organization.

You can find the abstract for his session here