News

Latest news from the Let’sConnect user group

08/012015

Wrap up of Social Connections VII

News connections, event, soccnx, stockholm, vii by Lars Samuelsson

It’s been a while since we closed Social Connections VII in Stockholm, but it’s finally time to do a wrap-up and an official send off, over the Atlantic ocean and to Boston, MA.

First of all, our team.

Stuart, Brian, Martin, Jan, Wannes, Maria. Some of them I knew from before, some I met for the first time, but I hardly think i’ve ever worked in a team that was so hell-bet on delivering a project. We’ve done our fair share of stressing about with getting it all together, but the feeling of seeing it play out was all thereward i ever needed.

Thank you guys!

Secondly, Stockholm.

It was great seeing so many people coming to my home town to be part of this conference. From all across the globe, people came to socialize, and freeze their toes while beeing outside. I sure hope you liked visiting, and that you got to see a glimpse of the city as well, however, it is a lot more comforting in the summer, so I urge you to come back by then. It’s not as dark, and not as cold.

So what can we say about the event itself?

We had a 100% attendance rate, which is totally amazing. There were some nervous discussions in the team about the idea of charging for the event for the first time. In the end we are happy that we did.

The event itself seems to have been very well received, the results for the survey have been fantastic, also the amount of answers have been much higher than previous events. We wanna give you all a big thank you, it really helps us in planning onwards for the future!

Our sponsors?

What can we say apart from that we are so happy to have you? You are the ones making all this possible. Infoware, Affecto, IBM, TrustSphere, Kudos, TimeToAct, Connect2Cloud, Intravision, Longana and Belsoft. We know that you all put so much energy as well as your time and money into sponsoring this event, and we are forever grateful for that.

The sessions?

The agenda was a little different this time to previous events, with the volume of abstract submissions lower than before, but the quality was definitely still there! With fewer sessions the team had the opportunity to offer some longer 65-minute slots for the more technical topics, whilst still offering at least four session options for most time slots. With speakers from more than 15 countries, including many IBM Champions, we feel that the agenda was one of the strongest we’ve fielded. The feedback has been good, though a few attendees suggested we needed to go a little deeper for those organisations that have been using Social Business technologies for a number of years. We’ll certainly be looking at that for the next event. Our speakers did a fine job, so we thank them all!

The receptions?

We always try to deliver receptions that make our even especially memorable for our attendees. We know that everyone takes time out from their families and friends to travel to the event, and so we want to give them a reason to feel they’ve had a special and enjoyable time as well as achieved their work goals.

This time that took the form of a gala reception at the Fotografiska photo gallery on the water’s edge. Whilst the venue was a little bit of a trek, hopefully the quality of the food, wine and conversation more than made up for the effort involved in getting there!

As usual, we invited our speakers and sponsors to attend a special reception to thank them for giving up their time and energy to plan, prepare and attend the event. This time we hit the Hard Rock Cafe just 100 yards from the conference venue. Beer flowed, friendships were rekindled, and the world was put to rights!

So where next?

Stuart and the team are not so presumptuous as to claim that they’ve conquered Europe, but with events in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and now Sweden over just 3.5 years, Social Connections has given it a good go!

So we’ve expanding our reach and heading to the US for the first time. To Boston (or Cambridge to be precise), on 16th and 17th April 2015. Registration is open, the call for abstracts has been made, sponsors are invited, and we’ll reconvene for Social Connections 8 in just a few months!

So finally…

Thanks for coming to Stockholm, to my home town, it was great to have Social Connections here and to welcome so many to this great city. See you in Boston!

05/112014

One week until Social Connections VII in Stockholm

News soccnxvii, stockholm by Wannes Rams

Whoa! Where did the time go…? It seems like just a few short weeks ago that we were in Prague announcing that our next event would be this November in Stockholm. And here we are already, in the beginning of November, only one week away from Social Connections VII! Exciting times…exciting indeed!

First things first, I wanted to mention the truly awesome team who are responsible for organizing Social Connections’ 7th event. Without this team, there would be no event. Period. From organizing the venue and securing fabulous locations for the receptions. To making sure we have everything we are going to need covered – from the big things like sponsors and sessions to the small stuff like pens and notepads. And it’s also worth noting that every member of our team, past and present, does this work pro bono since the very first Social Connections event was held in July, 2011. If you do not know who the team is, be sure and check out our team page.

For Social Connections VII; we have over 140 attendees registered. Some familiar faces but a lot of new ones! Stockholm is going to be a real hotbed for fresh social business and IBM Connections discussions! I am personally really excited, not only to see some of my old friends, but to make new ones. And a neat little fact: Once VII is done, we’ll have had over 1,000 Social Connections attendees over 3 year at 7 events! That’s a lot of networking!

We continue to have some great organisations sponsoring the event this time around, 11 in total. And they have a similar story to the attendees – some familiar sponsors and some new ones! We are so pleased and thankful, not only the long-term sponsors we’ve had over many events, but those new ones we’ve gained this time. It’s so rewarding for us to have these business partners, ISVs and vendors seeing the value of our event and putting their money where their mouth is, giving us the resources to make the conference happen. We always hope to provide a truly great environment where the sponsors can connect with our attendees and share their ideas and solutions with the community in a non-sales atmosphere. Be sure to participate in Speed Sponsoring on Thursday evening for your chance to meet each sponsor and win great prizes!

Another thing we are excited about is the gala reception. It is a tradition for us to gather in a more relaxed environment and keep the conversations going. A chance to “be social” if you will. The gala in Stockholm is shaping up to be, dare I say, the best yet. Did you ever think you would have the chance to wine and dine at the world renown photography museum, Fotografiska? We didn’t either! And as we are completely SOLD OUT for the gala reception, we know the attendees are excited too! It is a bit unfortunate that we had to cap the attendance for the gala but we hope that that everyone who couldn’t get a seat understands and appreciates that it’s not a case of not wanting you there, but we just didn’t have the budget to invite everyone.

As I said from the start, we are excited! Can you tell? And if you haven’t registered for the event yet, be sure to act quick as there are only a few spots remaining!

We look forward to seeing everyone in Stockholm next week!

31/102014

Social Connections VII – RESULTS: You pick the session

News soccnxvii, stockholm by Wannes Rams

For the first time, at Social Connections VII in Stockholm, we organized a poll for a session topic to be chosen by the attendees. The choices were: Ask IBM, PTI or Ask the Experts.

The results are in: “Ask IBM” wins at 43%!

This session will be Friday afternoon at 4:00PM in the main tent. This is your chance to ask our panel of IBMers about anything! Want to know when they might release the next version? Want to know what they were thinking about some decision? We’ll have an open discussion answering any audience questions.

We look forward to seeing you in Stockholm! And if you are not already registered…there is still time to get into the event! Register here!

20/102014

How do we host Social Connections? Here’s the answer…

News soccnx, soccnxvii, sponsors, stockholm by Wannes Rams

Although you can see who our sponsors are via their own sponsors page on our site, we wanted to highlight each of our valued sponsors and tell you a bit about each. Why?

Because Social Connections simply wouldn’t go on without sponsors. We are grateful for them as they make the whole thing possible, from the venue to the sessions to the gala reception and more! Please take a few moments to familiarize yourself with each and start thinking of all the questions you might have to ask at our sponsor showcase in Stockholm.

Infoware Solutions (Champagne Sponsor & sponsor of our Gala Reception) is one of the largest IBM Premier Business Partner in Scandinavia with full focus on IBM Social Business. With good understanding of their customers’ challenges and expertise Social Business, they develop successful products that make IBM platforms more efficient. Their experiences include content and user management, as well as social platforms for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Today, they have gathered all of their company experience in implementing and managing IBM Connections, and developed a revolutionary tool for easy and powerful management of content and user access: DomainPatrol Social.

Affecto (Gold Sponsor) is the forerunner in the field of Enterprise Information Management in the Northern Europe. Their solutions for information management and business analytics help organisations to improve productivity and competitiveness with superior use of information in decision making and execution. They also deliver operational solutions for improving and simplifying processes at customer organisations and offer geographic information services.

TrustSphere (Gold Sponsor) is the recognized market leader in Messaging Intelligence, having pioneered a next-generation approach to analyzing both internal and external communication patterns across an organization and synthesizing these to provide actionable insights. Clients who implement their solutions, which are primarily based on their existing corporate data, improve visibility and collaboration among management and customer teams. Collaboration leads to an improvement in performance and productivity across multiple lines of business. The insights gained have a direct impact on both customer experience and business performance.

Kudos (Gold Sponsor) can transform and accelerate organisations usage of IBM Connections by encouraging users to leverage the full capability of social enterprise as well as increasing their productivity through clever design. The Kudos Suite for IBM Connections includes Kudos Badges, Kudos Awards & Kudos Thanks, Kudos Analytics, and Kudos Boards.

TIMETOACT Group (Gold Sponsor) loves IBM Connections and its potential for social business. As a full service partner, TIMETOACT GROUP walks the social walk with their customers. During the whole time they help and assist thier customers to find the best seeds, the most promising acres, efficient farmers and high quality fertilizer within their enterprise. There is no question in their mind about the worth of the fruits of Social Business. But depending on the foundation and the maintenance there are significant differences in growth and quality of the harvest. Let them help you with their expertise and simple to use extensions for IBM Connections to get the best out of your installment.

IBM (Gold Sponsor) is the global leader in IT solutions and services with over 100 years of experience in innovations that have been shaping our world. IBM Connections is a leading social software platform that can help your organization engage the right people, accelerate innovation and deliver results. This integrated, security-rich platform helps people engage with networks of experts in the context of critical business processes. Now everyone can act with confidence and anticipate and respond to emerging opportunities.

Connect 2 Cloud (Silver Sponsor) is owned by Sander Software. Sander Software is a development and consulting business. They primarily work with software from IBM and Microsoft. They have worked on some of Denmark’s largest IT installations and have great experience in understanding complex problems within system administration and application development. They also advice businesses on picking the right solution and technologies. They are characterized by the will and urge to solve the problems that are meet through their customers and partners. In addition, their employees are obstinate and have professional pride which means that they never give up. Therefore, they often solve problems that have made other consulting businesses give up. They take responsibility and always challenge their customers to achieve the best results with them.

OnTime by IntraVision (Silver Sponsor) have always been focused on delivering the number 1 group calendaring solution to their clients, no matter where or in which context they work. Therefore it was obvious for us to introduce “Real Calendaring” into IBM’s social platform – IBM Connections. OnTime® Group Calendar for IBM Connections joins the circle of full social coordination: Coordinate and schedule your meetings directly from IBM Connections. Full group calendar functionality supporting dynamic project groups in IBM Connections Communities. Search and find available help right now directly from your IBM Connections Communities. Easy access to availability of colleagues from IBM Connections profiles. Real Time information… everywhere. And so much more…

Belsoft (Silver Sponsor) is an independent, innovative solution provider with more than 15 years experience in developing and implementing complex customized solutions for SMB and large-scale enterprises. The IBM Premier partner is headquartered in Zurich. Collaboration and sharing of information are part of their daily business. As frequent speakers at user group events, international conferences or Belsoft events, their specialists regularly share their know-how.

Longana (Bronze Sponsor) succeed in one of the most complicated tasks you face – ensuring that your company has the correct licenses. Not only that, but they do so in a way that is both flexible and secure for you. They help with everything from purchasing the actual licenses to ensuring that the license portfolio and its management is agreement-compliant. Longana is also one of the Nordic Region’s largest reseller of IBM software. Altogether, partnership with Longana will mean correct licenses for your company, and optimized use of them.

We truly owe a lot to these companies above for their support of Social Connections, and we can’t wait to see their sessions, demos and announcements at the event next month!

16/102014

Announcing the venue for the Social Connections VII Gala Reception

News gala, reception, soccnx, social, stockholm, vii by Wannes Rams

The event’s gala reception takes place on the evening of Thursday 13th November, between 7:30pm and 10:30pm.

The team know that we have a lot of live up to when it comes to our gala receptions – a castle in Wales, the historic Guinness factory in Dublin, overlooking the lake in Zürich, and then that majestic view (and fireworks) in Prague! However, after much searching, we think we have found one of the very best venues in Stockholm for this event’s evening gathering…

We are truly delighted to announce that we be hosting the gala reception at Fotografiska – the world-renown photography museum:

It all began in 1940 when the court photographer Sundgren presented a proposal for a photographic museum in Sweden. The Magazine Photo spoke with museum directors and photographers who showed interest and enthusiasm. Although the idea of a permanent home for photography was discussed back and forth, nothing happened until 70 years later when the doors to Fotografiska finally opened in Stadsgårdskajen in Stockholm.

The initiators and founders of Fotografiska are brothers Jan and Per Broman who both have a long history working in the photography industry. To assist them they have a dedicated group of coworkers with expertise within various fields.

This incredible location is on the water’s edge, with views across Stockholm:

Fotografiska is housed in a former industrial Art Nouveau style building dating back to 1906. Designed by Ferdinand Boberg, the building was used for the customs control of goods and is listed as a building of cultural interest. The original brick facade of the beautiful customs building is intact, while the interior has been renovated to house the museum. The city of Stockholm has funded the 250 million crown restoration costs. Today, the entire 5,500 square meter space is filled with photographs and exhibitions from around the world.

The evening will begin with welcome drinks, before an optional tour of the museum’s finest exhibits:

Exhibitions are the foundation of Fotografiska. Our ambition is to exhibit world-renowned photographers, many who have never been shown in Sweden, as well as those who are not yet established. Since our grand opening, May 20th 2010, we have shown legends like Annie Leibovitz, David LaChapelle and Nick Brandt and introduced new photographers like Helena Blomqvist, Klara Kallstrom and Johan Wik.

We believe photography is an art form with a bright future that grows increasingly important for us humans. In addition to being a place where humans meet, we find inspiration, peace and strength from it.

This will be followed by a three course meal designed by the museum’s chef, Paul Svensson:

Our kitchen pride themselves on the same excellent quality and standard as the rest of the museum. Our aim is to create experiences for all the senses – where tastes, fragrances, our choice of raw materials and the surrounding environment combine as part of a well-considered whole.

Down at Fotografiska’s kitchen, our ambitions are just as high as in the rest of the building. Our goal is to create experiences that will appeal to all the senses, where the tastes, fragrances, choice of raw ingredients and the ambient environment all contribute to a carefully considered total concept.

Our philosophy is rooted in Swedish culinary traditions, however we dare to differ and are happy to go beyond national borders to seek inspiration.

We are convinced that you have the same high demands on what is served as we do. That is why it goes without saying that the starting-point for our menus is the change of seasons. This means that we try to avoid unnecessary transportation and use organic products as far as possible. We work together with carefully chosen suppliers and our preference is always for Swedish raw ingredients.

Paul Svensson, one of Sweden’s most celebrated chefs, is closely involved in our activities as a source of culinary inspiration and a concept developer.

There’s something very special about sharing a meal together, so with plenty of opportunities for networking and enjoying each others’ company, we believe this will be a wonderful way to cement the relationships made or continued at the event!

The Social Connections team have no doubt that this will one of our best gala receptions yet. So if you haven’t already registered for the event (and the reception), please do so now!

15/102014

Varför delta på Social Connections VII?

News event, soccnx, swedish by Lars Samuelsson

Har du redan IBM Connections? Kom och träffa ledande experter, få tips och idéer för hur ni kan utveckla ert användande.

Om du har planer på att implementera IBM Connections, eller för den delen någon form av social mjukvara så är det här platsen att besöka! Du kanske inte ens siktar mot IBMs lösning? Kom ändå! Det är mycket att tänka på vilken lösning ni än väljer. Och vi alla älskar att utbyta idéer och tips påmhur man bäst lyckas med sin implementation, i sann social anda.

Om inte annat, kom för våra talare! Louis Richardson, en av IBMs mest underhållande historieberättare (ja, hans titel är storyteller) kommer tala under temat ”What were you thinking?”. Ett nytt sätt att se på en affärssituation, att försöka betrakta den från ett ”utifrånperspektiv” och analysera ”Hur tänkte jag här, egentligen?”.

Luis Suarez, föredetta IBM-are och en ren veteran i Social Connections-sammanhang kommer hålla två presentationer. En betitlad ”A day in the life of a knowledge (web) worker” och centrerar runt Connections har förändrat, inte bara ditt sätt att arbeta, men också ditt sätt att interagera med andra.

Den andra sessionen centreras runt de nya strukturer som skapas i och med sociala nätverk, fenomenet wierarchy förklaras och möjligheterna till mer demokratiska, inkluderande och på alla sätt ihopkopplade arbetsplatser.

Mike Roche från IBM Irland, kommer att prata om och önska feedback på deras idéer om Connections och Docs och det som kommer framöver. Det blir en liten titt bakom kulisserna i IBMs labb.

I övrigt så har vi föreläsningar om det mesta, från molnet och övergripande tankespår kring sociala nätverk, till utveckling och administrationssessioner där ni kan lära er det mesta om det mest detaljerade.

Om ni inte sett hela startfältet så ta genast och surfa över till vårt program och hitta just det som intresserar dig.

Vill också trycka på att ni är där direkt från början på torsdagen, detta då förmiddagen kommer innehålla en session enbart på svenska för just er!

Vi ser fram emot att välkomna er till Stockholm i november, och ha en riktigt trevlig konferens tillsammans.

Anmäl dig här

08/102014

Social Connections VII – You pick the session!

News soccnx, soccnxvii, stockholm by Wannes Rams

At Social Connections VII in Stockholm, we’ve reserved a session topic to be chosen by YOU! We need your vote and majority will win. The session will kick off on Friday afternoon at 4:ooPM in the main tent.

The choices of session topics are:

Ask IBM: This is your chance to ask our panel of IBMers about anything! Want to know when they might release the next version? Want to know what they were thinking about some decision? We’ll have an open discussion answering any audience questions.

PTI (Pardon the Interruption): A panel of 3 speakers will have a lively, fast paced discussion on 12 to 14 IBM Connections and Social Business topics. There will be 3 minutes for each topic with 60 seconds for each speaker to answer.

Ask the Experts: This is your chance to ask a panel of experts anything! Want to know how to solve a technical issue you are having? Need some advise on an adoption problem you can get past? We’ll have an open discussion answering any audience questions.

06/102014

New event, new country, new city, new site!

News site, soccnx by Wannes Rams

As you’ll surely have heard by now, the IBM Connections user group, Social Connections, meets again in November – our 7th major event in just 40 months!

Having so far met in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, we’re off to Stockholm, Sweden. Once again, our gallant team of volunteers has assembled a fantastic agenda of IBM and community speakers, spectacular social events, and the usual stimulating opportunities for networking and knowledge-sharing. In short, with just 38 days to go until the event kicks off on 13th November, we are stoked about the event – we truly believe it will be one of our best ever.

Given the above, and spurred on by some very valid constructive feedback from our community members, the Social Connections team felt it was more than time to refresh our slightly tired old web presence! Whilst the content was good, the look, feel and usability certainly left something to be desired.

However, a mundane ‘lick of paint’ job was not enough for Wannes and Martin, so they took a flaming torch to the old site and out of the embers has risen the very beautiful and much more usable new site you can see in the screenshot on this post. With details of our speakers, event schedule, links to register, plenty of information on the practicalities of attending, latest news, and much more besides, we hope that this site will showcase our event even better than before.

So, if you haven’t checked out Social Connections before now, or are late to considering attending the next event, there is no time like the present!

If you have feedback, or would like to report any issues, do let us know via a comment on this post… We’d love to know what you think!

05/102014

Announcing the keynote speakers for Social Connections VII!

News keynote, soccnx, soccnxvii, speaker, stockholm by Wannes Rams

Maybe you’ve already checked out our agenda and seen the hints…? Either way, we are thrilled to officially announce that we’ll have three keynote speakers at Social Connections VII! All three keynote speakers are Social Connections veterans and we are honored to have them back to speak again.

First up…Louis Richardson. I don’t exaggerate when I say that Louis is one of the premier story tellers of the social business story. Although he is from IBM, the message is always unbiased and about how to work smarter using social. Louis rarely even mentions a product as he speaks. One of my favorite presentations from Louis is ‘Have you lost your mind‘.

Second…we have Mike Roche. Mike is the Chief Technologist at IBM Ireland and works directly with development of IBM Connections. Interestingly enough, Mike was one of the of the speakers at the first Social Connections event ever in 2011. Mike will be sure to bring us the latest news of what IBM has planned for IBM Connections.

And last but not least, we have Luis Suarez. An independent social business trusted advisor, who is leading the charge to work out loud as a charter member of Change Agents Worldwide. Luis is a passionate evangelist who speaks from his heart. He delivered one of the top sessions at Social Connections VI in Prague, ‘From Adaptation to Engagement‘.

If you have never seen these three guys speak, you are in for a real treat! And if you have see them, don’t worry…they will be delivering new and exciting presentations not previously seen at any Social Connections event!

So, if you haven’t already…go register now for Social Connections VII and we’ll see you in Stockholm on November 13th and 14th!

19/092014

Social Connections VI – so how did we rate?

News sessions, soccnx, soccnx soccnxvi prague, socialconnections, Speakers, survey, wrapup by Wannes Rams

While the team is working super hard to get Social Connections VII ready to roll, it is time to take a last look back at the previous event.

Social Connections VI in Prague was a great conference, many have written about it already, but it is time for some facts based on the feedback we received through the surveys.

As a starter I want to thank all of you that took the time to fill out the survey, your feedback is very important for us as we try to improve the conference at every occurrence to provide an even better experience.

One of the most important statistics for us as organisers is if you would recommend this conference to someone else and if you want to return to the next one.

A whopping 91% would consider attending the next conference, 100% would recommend to someone else. That is just fantastic.

Here are the most interesting results on the conference organisation in general.

85% found the venue (Hotel Ambassador) good to excellent
We hit a sweet spot on our online registration system with a 98% satisfaction rate
Agenda and location information received 98% as well
And the overall organisation received 93%

Some of the comments left in the surveys turn out to be very useful. Here are some of the enhancements we are considering or implementing based on your feedback:

We intend to print a map of the venue to include in the welcome pack as we had some comments on rooms that were difficult to find.
We are revamping the website as we write this.
We are discussing the possibility to have some longer sessions for some of the deep technical content.

So what about the feedback on the sessions and the speakers? I agree that food is important, and I like a 10 Gb wifi connection but in the end we want great content and ditto speakers (session links go to their recordings on Vimeo):

Our opening session scored a 92% satisfaction rate which is pretty impressive.

In the main venue, the top sessions were:

For the Administration track, our top performers received scores of

The Case/Sponsor track had the following top ratings:

And last but not least on the Development track:

We’re truly thrilled by these excellent ratings, and they’re much deserved by our exceptional speakers that travel such distances and give us so much time to attend the events.

As ever, the team will be trying hard to do even better at the Stockholm event. The agenda is shaping up incredibly well, and will be published next week.

In the meantime, if you want to take in some exceptional Social Business content, you know where to come!