soccnx

Now IBM Connect is over and everyone is eagerly awaiting the upcoming IBM Connections 4.5 release, the preparations for Social Connections V are in full swing. With a fantastic location in beautiful Zurich and already a good number of people signed up from over all over it promises to be a great event. Our last event in Amsterdam was maxed out with over 200 registrations and had people attending from over 16 different countries and we are expecting a similar turnout for Zurich in June!

Talks are already underway with keynote speakers and the first abstracts have been submitted but with over 20 slots to fill there is always room for more so the call for abstracts for Soccnx V is now open for all sessions proposals.  As always we aim to get the best of the best in terms of innovation and quality when it comes to sessions and speakers. To get an impression of our agendas in the past take a look at our agenda for Social Connections IV in Amsterdam last November.

But… does that mean we only accept well known and established speakers? No! Social Connections is a user group event for IBM Connections. A relatively new area of expertise for a lot of people which in itself means we see a lot of new blood coming into the community. We love to encourage new and upcoming speakers so if you feel you have something to contribute then don’t hesitate to submit.

The rules are simple. Each session slot is 30min and needs to be given in English and there are four categories for which you can submit:

•  Management: How do you make your business social? Implementation strategies, best practices, how to build a business case and any other topic that can help organizations plan and implement their own social Business environment.

• Administration & Infrastructure: How to do it? What do you need to set up and maintain a good IBM Connections environment? Installation, setting-up, security, integration and anything else that you need to know to administrate a stable environment.

• Development: How do you develop for IBM Connections? Building plug-ins, widgets or doing customizations and integration. Anything related to extending the IBM Connections platform.

• Case Studies: Why did you chose IBM Connections and what has it brought your organization? Got anything to share about your implementation experiences, the reasons why Social Business is enhancing your business potential or streamlining the processes then we would love to hear! Thinking about social business is one thing. To get a first-hand story from an organization that has actually done it or is doing it can be a real eye-opener.

So don’t hesitate and submit if you feel you have what it takes to deliver a session at Social Connections and be a part of this growing community of IBM Connections users. We look forward to hearing  from you!

As you’ll have no doubt heard, Social Connections IV in Amsterdam at the tail end of 2012 was a massive success… Almost 200 attendees, three tracks of amazing speakers and sessions, speed-sponsoring, evening reception by the canal and much more.

Never a team to rest on our laurels, we’re already putting the finishing touches to our plans for 2013. Once again, we’ll have two events during the year, one in the Summer and another in November.

We are delighted to announce that Social Connections V will take place in mainland Europe in June, most likely Friday 21st or Friday 28th June. Yes, that’s a little vague, but there are a few loose ends to tie up before we can give out the specifics. Our plan is to announce the confirmed details during the next week, before IBM Connect, so only a few days to wait!

You may be thinking, what happened to New York? We still plan to make it to the USA sometime soon, but it turns out that suitable venues near to that city are both very scarce and extremely expensive! We’re looking at other alternatives and will release plans as soon as we have them.

In the meantime, the team are inviting sponsors to signal their interest in being involved in Social Connections V. If you have an IBM Connections- or Social Business-related product or service and you’d like to exhibit at the event, please get in touch with the team ASAP – we can send you the details.

In the meantime, the Social Connections team (Simon, Sharon, Femke, Jon and Stuart) will all be at IBM Connect at the end of the month.  Look out for the Social Connections black shirts (particularly on Tuesday morning), and make sure you stop us and say hello!

We are pleased to announce the keynote speaker for Social Connections IV will be Chris Crummey.

Chris is the World Wide Executive Director of Sales for IBM’s Social Business and Exceptional Web Experience solutions with in IBM Software Group. He leads a global team of thought leaders in the areas of Social Business & Exceptional Web Experience, and represents some of the fastest growing and most profitable segments of IBM’s software business.

Other IBM speakers include : Jim Battle – Director Social Software and Luis Suarez – Knowledge Manager, Community Builder & Social Computing Evangelist

Next week we will start to finalise the agenda and we will be announcing some of the fantastic community speakers and sessions.

There is just one day left to submit your abstracts .. do please do get them into us by midnight GMT Thursday 4th of October, the team are looking forward to looking through them.

It is just 10 weeks until the fourth Social Connections Event and the countdown is on for abstract submissions.

The call for abstracts closes on Thursday 4th of October – that is just under two weeks away. We have already had some fantasic sessions proposed in all three tracks – we are looking for more, the three tracks are:

• Admin, Infrastructure & Dev- covering Admin, Development, Technical and Best practises
• Management – covering User adoption. Business practises and Management
• Case studies – covering case studies and user success stories

All session slots are 30 minutes and are to be given in English, to submit an abstract, first please ensure you are registered  to attend the event.

Next head over the the abstracts page – Write a brief abstract on the subject you would like to speak on, fill in speaker bio and contact information and ensure it is submitted by COB on Thursday 4th of October.

Speakers will be contacted week commencing Monday 8th of October, with a preliminary agenda to be publish Friday 11th October.

Don’t be put off if you have never spoken at a conference before, speaking at a user group is a great way to start. We’d welcome sessions from Lotusphere veterans and never-spoken-before newcomers alike, and if you have a Connections customer story to tell then you’ll be pushed to the head of the queue!

The team are looking forward to hearing from you 🙂

Social Connections IV in Amsterdam is ramping up to be a great event. Sign-up is going great and we’ve already got some great abstracts for sessions in. But we want more. We want the best possible line up for each of the tracks we are setting up and therefore we are looking for YOU.

Are you a customer with a great IBM Connections customer story to share?, Can you explain to others how to develop widgets or add-ins? or explain how it all works and how to best maintain it?, Do you have any other story that is relevant to IBM Connections? or have something to say about how to implement Social Business? Then this is the time to submit your abstract.

The tracks are:

•  Management: How do you make your business social? Implementation strategies, best practices, business cases and any other topic that can help organizations plan and implement their own social Business environment.

• Administration: How to do it? What do you need to set up and maintain a good IBM Connections environment? Installation, setting-up, security, integration and anything else that you need to know to administrate a stable environment.

• Development: How do you developing for IBM Connections? Building plug-ins, widgets or doing customizations and integration. Anything related to extending the IBM Connections platform.

•  Customer Cases: Why did you chose IBM Connections and what has it brought your organization? Got anything to share about your implementation experiences, the reasons why Social Business is enhancing your business potential or streamlining the processes then we would love to hear! Thinking about social business is one thing. To get a first-hand story from an organization that has actually done it or is doing it can be a real eye-opener. So don’t hesitate and submit!

All session slots are 30 minutes and have to be given in English.

Social Connections is a real user group and therefore open to everyone. Not sure yet but think you’ve got something to say? Then don’t hesitate to contact us. We can help you determine if your topic is suitable and answer questions if you have them.  All sessions will be evaluated and we will select a comprehensible program from that.

We want to make this a great event and for that we want to offer the best possible sessions. So don’t hesitate and submit!