soccnx

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!

01/092014

Social Connections VII: Calling for abstracts – last call!

News abstracts, deadline, soccnx, stockholm, submit, vii by Lars Samuelsson

Hey everyone!

We’ve reached September! Where did the summer go? (Or indeed, the winter for those from the Southern Hemisphere).

What we’ve also reached is the final stretch for submitting your abstract for Social Connections VII!

We know that we said that the deadline was last week, and we got a lot of great ones in, to make that date (great job by the way!)

However, we do realize that when we started planning and announcing this, most of you were on vacation, hopefully enjoying life! Therefore we have decided to give you all a few extra days to top it off.

Now we hope that you who barely got your head out of your inbox for the first weeks of work will sit down and think “Hmmm, I really would like to go to Stockholm and share my wisdom on how to avoid getting stuck in the inbox by using social software, in the middle of November”.

We can’t wait to see what kind of stories you want to share with the rest of us, but whatever it is, please observe the new deadline of September 7th. Come on and hit us with your best shot! And yes, the fact that Pat Benatar started playing in your head right about now is a gift from us. 😉

Are you up for it? We sure are!

Tick…tock…tick…tock

It’s the final countdown! To use a quote from a famous swedish band. Musical references all around!

Have a nice one, and see you all in Stockholm in November!

21/082014

Social Connections VII: Looking for speakers, submit your abstracts now!!

News abstracts, sessions, soccnx, Speakers, stockholm by Wannes Rams

Do you want to speak at the number one European (and soon US) social conference? I know I want to, let me give you some reasons to submit an abstract…

We have 5 different tracks to make sure everyone can find sessions that fit their interest.
- We are looking for some high technical sessions in our Development and Infrastructure tracks to make sure all geeks (like me) get their subscribed dose.
- In our Case study track we are looking for some real world stories that show the true value of the products
- We are also looking for sessions that can convince CIOs, CEOs, … to actually invest in the products we all love in our Management track
- And last but not least, we would like some of our sponsors to showcase the real value of their products in the Sponsors track
I have been told Stockholm is an amazing city. So if you are tired of the hot weather in the region you live in, join us to experience some real wintertimes! 🙂 You can find an introduction to Stockholm here.
It is a great conference to speak at and of course you can watch all the other great sessions. I have spoken at two Social Connections in the past and it was a great experience.
Join the exclusive VIP reception on Friday evening

So are you up for it yet? Of course we are looking for some experienced speakers, but we are also looking for some hidden gems. People that have an interesting story to tell, but might not realise this yet themselves. so if you haven’t spoken at a conference yet, but you feel like this is your moment, go for it. All sessions will be 30 minutes, so you only really need 20 or so slides, plus a story to tell!

To get an idea of sessions at our past conference, have a look at the Prague agenda and the recorded sessions.

We are expecting your abstracts before 31/8 via this link. We can’t wait to hear from you!

20/082014

Have you registered for Social Connections VII yet?

News soccnx by Lars Samuelsson

Welcome back!

We hope that you have had a wonderful summer and that you feel energized to continue your social journey!

Our big question now is of course – Have you registered yet? We want to see you in Stockholm in november for Social Connections VII.

Why, you ask?

Well, it’s the event to brighten you up when the darkness of autumn is encapsulating everything else. You get to meet the best people when it comes to social business adaption, in a warm and friendly environment.

But Stockholm? In november? That doesn’t sound very warm!

Sure, you might need to bring a warm coat for the trips outside, but it’s what happens at 7A Odenplan that will keep your mind heated for a long time to come.

There will be speakers to entertain your every need, from a management view to tell you how you should do to actually evolve your business. Down to the technical level with development and config files and everything in between. Just look at some of the videos from our previous events and the lineups we’ve had!

Still not convinced?

Think about the other attendees, they might be or have been in the same place on the social business journey as you are right now. They might be on the verge of jumping into SmartCloud or are seasoned veterans who have been using Connections since before it was cool!

But previous events have been free? Now you’re charging a fee!

Yes, it’s true that the previous events have been free. However, we saw in Prague that people reserved tickets and didn’t show. That is the downside of giving away free tickets. And it makes us a little bit sad when we know that others would have wanted those seats instead! That’s why we’re asking for a comittment from you, to help us continue in creating this great event for us all!

One thing you can be certain of is that you will go home with a lot of ideas, information and a big smile on your face, after a productive and hopefully enjoyable two days in what the local government dubs “The capital of Scandinavia” (Sorry Oslo and Copenhagen)

So what on earth are you waiting for? Register now!

11/082014

Watch Colleen Burns at Social Connections VI: ‘Who Gives a Clout? Three Reasons Social Eminence is Critical to Your Business’

News adoption, clout, community, connections, event, ibmcnx, ics, influencer, prague, soccnx, vi, video by Wannes Rams

For the first time at Social Connections VI, we recorded every single session in glorious HD video – opening and closing sessions, keynotes, breakouts and even our ‘Pardon the Interruption’ panel. This was a huge (and expensive) undertaking but one that we think will be massively valuable in terms of increasing the volume of IBM Connections information and education available to the community.

Next to be highlighted is a session from our Management track delivered by Colleen Burns. Colleen is Influencer Engagement Program Manager at IBM.

Her session brief was as follows:

Your mom may have been wrong – in the right crowd, popularity IS everything. Well, popularity combined with expertise and influence. Increasing your social eminence can mean the difference between successful selling and missed opportunities. Is your company tapping into this valuable resource? Learn how companies like IBM are measuring social eminence and using it to influence buyers, customers and industry thinking – PLUS learn tips on how to increase your own.

Here’s the session – it’s in full HD and clocks in at 21 minutes, so make it full screen and enjoy!

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/102960939[/vimeo]

Who Gives a Clout? Three Reasons Social Eminence is Critical to Your Business, Colleen Burns from the Social Connections VI channel, by Social Connections.

All the main stage sessions from the both days of Social Connections VI are now available on the event channel, and the remainder of the sessions will be published over the next few weeks (that’s the downside of HD-quality recordings – they take a while to upload!).

08/082014

Watch Simon Vaughan at Social Connections VI: ‘Social Software adoption – Moving from ROI to ROB (Reworking of Behaviour!)’

News adoption, community, connections, event, ibmcnx, ics, oic, prague, soccnx, vi, video by Wannes Rams

Next to be highlighted is a session from our Case Study track delivered by Simon Vaughan. Simon consults for OiC, is a founder member of Social Connections and is an IBM Champion.

His session brief was as follows:

So you have spent time evaluating a Social platform for your organisation, the final phase is to get business sign off to proceed. In order to get sign off, you are asked to show what ROI your company will achieve from implementing a Social platform…

This session will give you some real life examples that have been used to help get final sign off for proposals. Once over the line, this session will also be of value to organisations who have adopted IBM Connections and want to hear about some innovative use cases they could utilise in their environment. Based on the highly successful ‘Social patterns / Use cases’, Business Value Assessment models used by IBM and the ‘Social Software adoption wheel’, you will be provided with some real life examples of why ROI is important BUT why the real benefit from your Connections implementation will be to helping drive cultural change within the organisation and implementing ROB (Reworking of Behaviour!).

Here’s the session – it’s in full HD and clocks in at 29 minutes, so make it full screen and enjoy!

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/102907776[/vimeo]

Social Software adoption – Moving from ROI to ROB (Reworking of Behaviour!), Simon Vaughan from the Social Connections VI channel, by Social Connections.

All the main tent sessions from the first day of Social Connections VI are now available on the event channel, and the remainder of the sessions will be published over the next few weeks (that’s the downside of HD-quality recordings – they take a while to upload!).

07/082014

Watch Chris Crummey at Social Connections VI: ‘Understanding the journey of becoming a Social Business’

News community, connections, event, ibmchampions, ibmcnx, ics, inotes, oliheinz, prague, soccnx, vi, video by Lars Samuelsson

Next to be highlighted is a session from our Management track delivered by Chris Crummey of IBM. Chris is the Executive Director of Sales For Social Business at IBM. With 25 years as an IBMer, he will be able to provide a LOB perspective on the value of a culture of a “Social Business”.

His session brief was as follows:

This session will focus on the the major milestones and journey of IBM as a “Social Business. We will present a combination of “Day in the Life” examples followed by an overview of the major milestones achieved by IBM. This session will focus on the process, culture, and IT programs designed to successfully deploy an “Social Business.”

Here’s the session – it’s in full HD and clocking in at over 45 minutes, so make it full screen and enjoy!

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/102117447[/vimeo]

Understanding the journey of becoming a Social Business, Chris Crummey from the Social Connections VI channel, by Social Connections.