E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Networking – Part III

And to finish off this series of Enterprise 2.0 conference highlights from Boston on the topic of networking, here is Part III, last one I had planned to share over here in this blog on this topic, and which will be talking about my thoughts on the networking experience throughout the event itself. More than anything else as part of sharing my two cents on how the overall networking opportunities could be improved in future events. Yes, I know, you can’t get enough networking at these events, so the more we all try to fine tune them, the better, don’t you think?

If you take a look into the agenda from the conference itself, you will notice how packed it is for most of the days and already starting like really early in the morning, till late in the afternoon. Networking opportunities in between sessions are very minimal and this was one of the things that I missed from the event itself. In most cases there are about 15 minutes break in between sessions where folks could interact with one another and follow up conversations.

Well, 15 minutes to make a move to the next session, pack all of our "stuff", have a "nature" break, or enjoy some refreshments, talking to folks about the session we just attended or simply just catching up with them, are probably far too many activities for just 15 minutes in between speaker sessions. So in reality the networking opportunities throughout the conference were very much restricted, if you count lunch as an exception, to the end of the day and as part of the local gatherings from various other networking events.

Not ideal, if you ask me. Don’t you think? So what would I propose, you may be wondering, right? Well, to begin with, I would extend the in between sessions breaks to 30 minutes, minimum, which I do realise would mean that there would need to be a new parallel track of sessions to be added to the already existing one, but I don’t think that would be too much of an issue. If there are conflicts with multiple sessions there is always a chance that video recordings of each and everyone of them would be made available after the event. I mean, for a conference on Enterprise 2.0, I wouldn’t think this would be too difficult, right?

But look at the benefits. You would be allowing folks to engage with the speakers after their sessions to ask additional questions, have some conversations on the corridors catching up with people and discussing key learnings from the sessions attended thus far; a quick stop-over the refreshments area to grab a software drink and a quick bite and back to business; and all of that without having the stress of knowing you need to rush off, because you only have 15 minutes. Well, now with 30m. things would be much much easier for everyone. And those networking opportunities will certainly help conference attendees to build stronger connections amongst themselves by starting the dialogue throughout the day and carry it on during the evening events.

And all of that with breaks of just 30 minutes in between sessions. I would think it would be very doable for future events, and as such I submitted this very same feedback for future occasions hoping to be able to extend my networking opportunities not just to the evening events, which were all great, but throughout the whole day, which would be more engaging and bumping from one session to the other without time for a breather … What do you think?

And with that I am done with this series of blog posts on the Enterprise 2.0 conference networking activities that we all got to experience last week, where you can see that those face to face interactions are just as good as ever; and as such we should exploit them as much as we possibly can. Now, from here onwards, it will be the time for my next round of blog posts detailing the highlights of the sessions I attended and what I learned from each and everyone of them… Another interesting ride I hope you will enjoy reading about, just as much as I did attending them…

Tags: e2conf, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Boston, Conference Events, Events, Conferences, Highlights, Social Gatherings, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Connecting, Connections, Face to Face, Social Networks, Networking, Conversations, Logistics, Organising Conferences, Feedback, Networking Breaks

Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Networking – Part II

Continuing further with this series of blog posts gathering some more highlights from the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, here is Part II, related to networking, where I would like to cover some further thoughts on what that experience was like during the course of last week. And, now coming closer to the end of another week at work, I can certainly confirm that the main reason why I have been away from almost everything external has been the need to have a break from all of those amazing face to face conversations, pause, think about them, what I learn, apply that newly acquired knowledge and experience(s) and move on…

And it looks like I haven’t been the only one; while doing my usual Twitter catchup this morning (Specially under the #e2conf hash tag), I noticed how plenty of those folks who were at the same conference were having post-conference fatigue symptoms, hehe, looking for a much needed "break" to get things going as well. And while wondering why that may have happened, it hit me. Big time!

Like I was saying earlier on, this year the amount of local gatherings (Dinners, tweetups, parties, etc. etc.) has been tremendous! More than in previous years, by far! I started with Sunday evening having a lovely dinner with a bunch of my favourite people in the Enterprise 2.0 space (See this picture for more details); then Monday evening’s tweetup with Connie Bensen, Rachel Happe & Jim Storer (From The Community Roundtable) on communities (Amazing event! Although throughout the whole evening I didn’t even had a chance to meet up with Connie! Grrr, guess next time!); followed by Tuesday’s Dachis Group Boston TweeUp that David Armano has been sharing a bunch of pictures over here to then finish up with my own team dinner.

Wednesday’s highlights in the networking space were a lovely dinner invitation by the Dachis Group where I had one of the most amazing conversation on social software adoption (Beyond just the IT industry) with my good friend Susan Scrupski and two incredibly smart and talented 2.0 people:  Greg Matthews and Ben Foster (Who I got to know during those conversations which I thoroughly enjoyed!). To then finish off the evening with one of the major highlights of the entire week!:

Andy McAfee’s party!! There are a bunch of pictures from such special event all over the place, but I am going to let you go and check the Twitter stream from after the party, where the word warning keeps coming up constantly and reading through you will see why … Andy surely knows how to throw a party and it certainly was a privilege being part of it! Lots and lots of great fun, drinks and amazing conversations! I would have gone to Boston just for this one, I tell you! Many many thanks to Andy for being so gracious in offering his house for hosting one heck of a party that will be remembered for years! At least, I will! (Thanks ever so much, Andy!!)

By Thursday you can imagine what my entire body was like, right? You now know what I meant I spent a whole week sleep deprived, but privileged to be in the company of people who I have been admiring for a long while and have plenty of respect for in the area of Enterprise 2.0 and why I keep coming back to this conference. Last week was another proof! Oh, that very same Thursday evening had another night out with my team where we spent a good time having a lovely dinner, drinks and musing on what we learned from the event itself over the last few days enjoying a delightful bottle of port back at our hotel to finish off a superb week! (Thanks a lot, Josh, for that one!)

I am sure that by now you may be thinking that there have been perhaps a few too many networking events at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston, right? Well, maybe; these are the ones I went to myself, including the usual last few rounds of drinks at the local Irish pub inside the Westin hotel, but there were plenty of others, too! The clear thing about these kind of local gatherings is that no matter what, when, how, why, there is nothing that would ever possibly substitute the face to face physical interactions of bright minds talking passionately about what drives them on a daily basis. Nothing.

That’s still what drives me to keep going to these conference events over and over again and why I have always been saying that an event of this magnitude without networking is no longer the event of events! Glad Enterprise 2.0 in Boston still is …

(A big shout with a special thanks to all of those folks I have met throughout the week, from "my" usual and dear suspects, to the bunch of recently met folks, with whom I had a wonderful week of constant inspiration flowing through! I won’t name you all, since I am sure I won’t do you all justice by leaving the odd name out here and there, but you all know who you are! Thanks much for being who you are! Please don’t change …)

Tags: e2conf, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Boston, Conference Events, Events, Conferences, Highlights, TweetUps, Twitter, Party Time, Parties, Social Gatherings, Informal Meetups, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Connecting, Connections, Friendships, Relationships, Face to Face, Pictures, Photos, Flickr, Social Networks, Networking, Conversations, Twitter, Connie Bensen, Rachel Happe, Jim Storer, The Community Roundtable, Dachis Group, Susan Scrupski, ITSinsider, Greg Matthews, Ben Foster, Andy McAfee, Port, Josh Scribner, BlueIQ, Passion

Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Networking

A bunch of folks out there may have been wondering where I have been hiding in the last couple of days, after I came back from a wonderful week at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, since I haven’t been much online, hanging out in my usual external social software spaces. I am sure plenty of people were curious as to whether I would be sharing any further highlights (Other than the live tweeting I was able to do throughout various sessions) about the event itself, since a bunch of them are starting to flourish all over the place.

Well, fear not! I am back! Back into my usual regular blogging and slowly, but steadily, re-surfacing again in all external social software spaces where I usually hang out. It’s just the last couple of days I have been doing a massive catchup with everything that’s been happening at work, while I was away, but also, because I wanted to take some timeout and reflect on what I learned during the course of that week in Boston for Enterprise 2.0 and start drawing a mental picture of what I wanted to share as highlights and what not.

And I think I am ready! Ready to share with you folks my main highlights from what I flagged back then as the event of events, and still is! So much so that being away now for a couple of days from everything may have been a little bit as well to recover from that physical networking fatigue of just far too many people to talk to, but too little time all over the place and, in the end, not meeting up with enough of them. But let’s bring this one up in an upcoming entry …

For now though, I thought I would get things started with this upcoming series of blog posts by combining them with other things that have been happening and which I have also found a rather fascinating read from elsewhere and not related to the conference (That’s been part of the online catchup I have been doing so far as well…). So, hopefully, a combination of both highlights posts and the usual blogging will help get folks an idea of what’s been happening lately. And still keep up with the variety of topics so you won’t get bored in the process.

Thus you may be wondering why I am starting this series of articles with this one single highlight on Networking, right? Well, I think the answer is pretty obvious, but one of the major key highlights from the overall event was to be able to eventually meet up with a bunch of the incredibly smart talent that there is out there in the Enterprise 2.0 space and that I have had the pleasure, and honour, to hang out with in various social software spaces for a while now. To name them all it would not make good justice since I am sure I would be forgetting the odd name here and there, but I can certainly tell you this year’s Enterprise 2.0 conference has been one of the most networked events I have experienced to date!

One single event where my average sleeping time went from the usual 7 hours per day down to 4 per day and I still didn’t have enough hours in the day! One single event with the highest number of parties, TweetUps, dinner invitations, local gatherings, informal meetings that I can recall. Ever! Fantastic!!

Of course, I took some pictures, just like everyone else that was there. And one thing that I learned after the event is that my Nokia N95 is getting a bit too rusty and the quality of the pictures hasn’t been as good as I thought they would be. First time that happening. So I took tons of pictures, but most of them were far too dark, or with moving "targets", or just not good enough quality worth sharing. However, some others are, so I have placed them all in my Flickr account and here you have got a couple of them, so you can get an idea of what networking was like while at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston.

Then in another blog post I will share what that networking meant for me during the entire event as well as a couple of thoughts on how to improve it for the next year … Thus let’s get the ball rolling!

Ouchie! No comments on this one, right, Maggie?

(Goodness, I wish plenty of the other photos I took from the different parties and TweetUps I attended would have come out nicely… Alas they didn’t … double sigh … Although, on the other hand, seeing these perhaps it’s much better they didn’t come out after all that well anyway )

Tags: e2conf, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Boston, Conference Events, Events, Conferences, Highlights, TweetUps, Twitter, Party Time, Parties, Social Gatherings, Informal Meetups, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Connecting, Connections, Friendships, Relationships, Face to Face, Nokia, Nokia N95, N95, Pictures, Photos, Flickr, Maggie Fox, Luis Suarez, Dan McCall, Social Networks, Networking, Conversations