If last week, during my vacation in Barcelona, I was twittering quite a bit about the various issues I experienced throughout the whole week with some very poor performance on wireless connectivity throughout the couple of hotels I stayed in, as well as my mobile SIM card with Yoigo (Not to worry, I have got a couple of blog posts I need pruning first a bit more before I let them go out into my blogs, but I can surely guarantee you they will be fun! NOT!!!), this week things have changed completely. And for the better! I am enjoying a lovely, and pervasive, standard ADSL connection at the super fine Hyde Park Executive Apartments in London, where I am going to stay for about a week.

Yes, indeed, I am on the road again! What a year, eh? Incredibly hectic and exciting to say the least! I am just going to do a little bit of fast forwarding and ask you folks to hang in there for the various blog posts I will be sharing over the course of the next couple of weeks with some of the highlights from the amazing time I had while in Barcelona; like I said, one of my all time favourite cities in the world! And, specially detail some more about the wonderful people, and conversations we had!, I have met over the last few days.

But that will need to take a little break, because, like I have mentioned above, I am on the road again, this time to London, to get busy with a few things I wish I had the time to detail earlier on, if it weren’t for the appalling lack of connectivity over the last 10 days! Alas, it didn’t happen. (Sigh) Anyway, moving forward (For now…)

Yes, I am in London. Yes, I am still on holidays! , enjoying a few days catching up with one of my favourite, and most cosmopolitan, cities I have been to in my short life. Even though I have seen most of the city throughout the course of the years, it still amazes me how much it continues to change & thrive and give you that impression that you need to explore it again just to catch up since last time! In my case that would be 2005!

But that’s not the only reason why I am here. I am also here in London, because for the first time in a couple of years I have now finally managed to be able to make it to one of those Web 2.0 related events I always wanted to attend, but never quite managed to make it. Till this year…

I am talking about Unicom’s Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit that will kick off on October 1st, and for a couple of days, at MWB Victoria and where I will not only be attending as a regular attendee throughout the entire event, but also I will be speaking at one of the sessions on the first day.

You will be able to check out all of the details of this very interesting and engaging event, I am sure, if you get your hands on the event’s brochure or if you check out the Programme / Schedule. In there you would be able to read how folks I have been following for a while now, and whom I have got plenty of admiration and respect for, would be participating as well at the event. People like Euan Semple, Penny Edwards, Leisa Reichelt, Suw Charman-Anderson, Dominic Campbell and, of course, David Gurteen, who I have known, and have followed!, for many years now and with whom I am finally going to have a chance to meet up face to face! Oh, and the same would be happening with Euan!

Can you see where my excitement comes from? heh Well, it gets better!

As I have mentioned above already, I will be sharing the agenda / programme with such an amazing bunch of folks talking about, yes, you know it already, my favourite topic this year: Thinking Outside the Inbox! Although this time around with a slight tweak here and there of the speech itself. Here is an excerpt of what I will be covering during my session:

- "The changing nature of collaboration
- The role of communities in helping accelerate the adoption of social computing
- Enterprise social software what it is and why you should care about it.
- Practical examples of social software in the enterprise, its Web 2.0 characteristics and benefits vs. traditional collaboration tools"

I am not sure whether the sessions will be recorded or not, but it is my understanding the slide decks will be shared, although, they are almost identical to the ones I have been using all along. The pitch, though, will be different.

I am not sure whether I would be live con-blogging or tweeting (@elsuacon) the rest of the event, since it would pretty much depend on the connectivity we would have throughout, and so far my experiences haven’t been that good for multiple other conferences. We shall see how that goes! But needless to say that even if I cannot report about the conference live I will still be putting together some highlights after the event is done and I am capable of finding some free time!

Free time? Yes, not much this time around either! Because there is another good reason why I am here in London during the next few days and that is to participate on my first London Knowledge Cafe where both Unicom and David Gurteen have offered me the unique opportunity to expand further on why, how, since when I have been giving up on e-mail at work and also explain further how other folks can start doing the same thing I have been doing now for over 8 months! (No, I haven’t forgotten either the blog posts on the weekly progress reports about how things are going. Those are coming up, too! And stay tuned, because they are looking good!).

You would be able to read plenty more about it over at "Could you stop using e-mail?" and, as you can see, it is an open to everyone event, where I will try to be as provocative, enlightening and entertaining as I possibly could be, so that you can learn a few tricks on how you can free yourself up from e-mail at work. For good! Just like I have done!

Phew! And that would be it! That’s some of the stuff that’s happening this week, while I am in London, about to enjoy, I am sure, a brilliant time! Oh, oh, did I mention I am still on holidays till next week Monday, October 6th? Well, I may not be working, indeed, but you all know there is no way that social networking will stop and, specially, my favourite one, pure face to face social networking!

Thus, if you are around, or in town during those days, and would want to meet up for a drink or two, or food, get in touch! And we will surely meet up! It may be coming through as a packed up social agenda, so if you see I am not very active over here in the next few days it may well be that, once again, life has won that everlasting battle with work in striking a balance. And I will probably be spending the time doing something else than sitting in front of the computer …

And, of course, I will probably be using my Twitter ID to share some highlights along the way, as well as one other way to get in touch with folks, whenever I managed to be online, promising to be a good week for that this time around! About time, too!

See you around!

Tags: Unicom, Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Remote Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Personal Knowledge Sharing, Barcelona, Travelling, Holidays, Connectivity, Wireless Access, Yoigo, SIM, ADSL, Hyde Park Executive Apartments, London, UK, United Kingdom, Business Benefits, Business Value, Agenda,  Euan Semple, Penny Edwards, Leisa Reichelt, Suw Charman-Anderson, Dominic Campbell, David Gurteen, No E-mail, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Giving up E-mail, Twitter, Blogging, Metablogging, Con-blogging, Live Twittering, Live Tweeting, London Knowledge Cafe, Knowledge Cafe, Face to Face

As I am writing this particular blog post I am flying at 35,000 feet away from Gran Canaria and on my first day of a holiday I have been putting aside for a couple of years now. Yes, indeed, I am on my way to Barcelona, Spain!, one of my favourite cities in the world and one that although having been over here a few times already I just can’t get tired of it.

Call it all of the things and activities it has got to offer, or the friendly people, or that lovely cosmopolitan atmosphere that makes you feel like you are living in a very large metropolis, yet, very walkable at all times; call it all of the great places to enjoy some amazing Mediterranean cuisine, or the lively nightlife! Yes, all of that and so much more!

So this time around, as opposed to the last couple of years, where, for one reason or another, I just couldn’t make it, because of whatever the conflict or double booking, I had it booked up for quite a while and today is my first day of a wonderful holiday! I am sure! And I can’t wait! heh

Does that mean I will be stopping with my regular blogging activities for the next few days? Well, not sure. It will depend on how things go. I am going to be here for nine days, before I get to travel elsewhere again, and depending on timing and a few other things, which I am sure will come up to your mind, as I am writing this, I may be able to share the odd blog post here and there. But I don’t think I would be blogging on a daily basis, like I have been doing so far all this time.

Thus in a way, this holiday may also indicate a short break for me from my regular blogging activities, while I get to enjoy the city and its many attractions and, like I said, ponder a bit about a number of things and share the odd entry over here.

However, that doesn’t mean that my social networking activities are going to stop while I am on holidays heh On the contrary, they are going to become much more intense and fruitful as I am planning on doing plenty of my favourite social networking activity: meeting up with folks for a drink or two, or food, whatever may be the option and catch up with those folks who may be in town…

Like I said earlier on, I will be in Barcelona till the 29th of September. So if you would want to meet up for a drink or two, or grab a bite, give me a shout and we shall meet. When? Not sure, it will depend on both your schedule and my own heh, but I am sure we would be able to meet up! Without a doubt!

Oh, yes, I will be twittering, of course! There would be plenty of things to take note of and share with my various social networks. And, let’s face it, it will probably be as well the main option for me to get in touch with folks as I am not planning on staying still while in here! Thus although I am not planning on twittering far too much, like the usual twitterrhea I do far too often, expect to see a few updates here and there. Should be fun!

Well, we are about to start the landing routine, so I better cut it short over here for now … Hoping now that the weather will be just as gorgeous as back home! (And no, you don’t want to know how lovely it was heh)

(Fast forward a couple of hours later … landed safe and sound, in the hotel room. Now do another fast forward … a couple of days later, having enjoyed the lack of WiFi in the hotel I am staying in and the incredibly disappointing lack of support, coverage and responsibility for doing things right, like they say they do - Yes, Yoigo, ("Verdad verdadera", eh?) I am talking about you! - posting this blog entry a little bit later than expected and looking forward to some amazing time(s) … - Expect to have a much more disconnected time than ever before! W00t!)

Tags: Holidays, Barcelona, Spain, Work Life Balance, Life, Blogging, Metablogging, Twitter, Palau de la Musica Catalana, Photos, Flickr, Time Off, Wi-Fi Access, Yoigo, Lack of Customer Service, Yoigo Horrible Support, Yoigo Lack of Availability, Travelling

I was just about to share another blog post around the topic of the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin (Remember you can get a 35% discount by registering with this code: webeu08gr23 - Don’t miss it!), which, like I have mentioned yesterday, I will be really looking forward to attending it this time around, specially after going through, once again, the impressive list of speakers who will be there at the event and the diversity of the topics that will be covered! Yet, something refrained me from doing that. Instead, I am just going to share with you a short, incredibly powerful entry, that I am sure would make you smile quite a bit for how simple it is!

And all of that due to one of those wonderful instances where serendipity does its magic. One of those serendipitous knowledge discoveries that clearly show the power of social computing, and, in particular, social networks.

It all starts with a fellow IBM colleague, and a good friend, Larry Hawes (Don’t forget to check out his Twitter bio! Quite inspirational!), who tweeted the following snippet:

"Here’s a post on "selling" social software that is absolutely brilliant in its simplicity. A short, must read! http://tinyurl.com/3jyxfb"

Boy, who could resist such temptation, right? Of course, not! No-one would! So I went over and checked the link and to my surprise who do I find there? My other good friend Jon Mell, who just recently joined the forces of the incredibly smart, resourceful and talented Headshift gang (Congrats and massive kudos to both Jon & the Headshift crew, by the way!!). Jon eventually put together a blog post under "Social Software - The Basics" (Still can’t figure out how I missed it!) that, after reading it, I thought I doubt anyone would ever be able to put it all in such simple terms. Yes, indeed, social software with a K.I.S.S. at its best!

It is just *so* accurate as well and so much anti-definitions (And you folks know how I feel about putting together definitions for such concepts like Knowledge Management, Enterprise 2.0 or Social Computing, amongst many others! ;-)) that I am going to take the liberty of quoting it over here to help spread the message around, because if we would all think along those terms we would be making our lives so much easier! And for the better! Thus here it goes. Social Software - The Basics:

"Do you believe that there is business value in who you know as well as what you know?

Do you believe that a strong network of contacts can help you get things done and make things happen?

Would you like to help your employees get things done and make things happen?"

You would have to agree with me that it is just priceless, right? Well, hang in there; it gets better; check out his ending line to a brilliant post:

"If so, then the question is not why would you use social software, but why would you not?"

(hehe) *I know*, plenty of food for thought in there for us all to chew in as the weekend kicks in … Have a good one everyone!

Tags: Web 2.0 Expo, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Speakers, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Discounts, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe, Basics, K.I.S.S., KISS, Serendipity, Larry Hawes, Jon Mell, Headshift, Simplicity, Definitions, Food for Thought, Musings, Ponderings

As the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City continues to take place over the course of the next few hours and already producing some really good outcomes, I thought I would let folks know about something that I am really excited about. No, I am not in New York City for that event, although I wish I were (I would have been able to meet up plenty of really smart and talented folks in the Social Computing space, apart from catching up with a whole bunch of good friends, colleagues and thought leaders in this space). However, I surely am going to be at another Web 2.0 Expo. Yes, indeed, the one in Berlin!

That’s right! I am really excited about the whole thing. For the first time in a couple of years I will finally be able to make it to one of those events that I always wanted to go to: The Web 2.0 Expo and probably at one of the best locations, don’t you think so? Woohooo! Can’t wait!

Like I said above, I am incredibly excited to go there by the end of October and for multiple various reasons which I am going to detail over here trying to keep things short and sweet. Too much to talk about each of them, for sure! Perhaps I will be expanding further into multiple blog posts, but let’s see:

- I will be going to Berlin, arriving on October 19th, and I will not be alone. My entire team will be there as well as a whole bunch of fellow colleagues, and good friends, who have been helping us out driving the adoption of social software within IBM. Pretty excited about meeting them all up face to face and hang out together the entire week!

- I am certainly looking forward to being there after having gone through an agenda where it is going to be incredibly difficult to pick up which sessions to go to! Yes, indeed, they are that good! But I will expand further on that one. Too much to talk about in such a short time!

- And if the agenda is quite impressive, the list of speakers is just as worth while meeting up! I am looking forward to catching up with a whole bunch of people I have met throughout the years and who I still keep in touch with social software (Or course!), but also at the same time meet up with some others who I have started following lately, but haven’t had a chance to get in touch with just yet. This event would be the perfect opportunity for that!

- Oh, yes, I will also be speaking at the event, on October 23rd, and on the topic I am sure you are all familiar with hehe Oh, oh, and my boss’ boss will also be one of the speakers! Pretty excited about that, too! Remember, my entire team will be there! It would be the second time I would be able to see them in the last year! W00t!

- Of course, one of the items I will be really looking forward to would be the networking throughout the event! Let’s face it, folks! This is as good as it gets! One of the best, and perhaps most relevant, Web 2.0 events taking place in Europe this year! Everyone is going to be there! Will you? Let’s meet up!

- Finally, I am also pretty excited to share with everyone a little surprise, which I am sure some people may appreciate, specially if you want to be able to make it, but perhaps things just didn’t work out all right. I have just been given the opportunity to share with you folks, the faithful, and ever engaging, readership of this blog (I read and go through each of the comments you all drop & already working my way through sharing my two cents for each of them! Hang in there for just a little longer! I’ll eventually be coming around all of them!) a special discount with which you can register for the event and get 35% off the original fees!

Yes, that is right! If you would want to attend the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin and would want to get a lovely discount, go ahead and use this specific code: webeu08gr23 when you register for the event. And off it goes. My special thanks to everyone who is a regular reader / commenter on this blog and my token of gratitude for sticking around through thick & thin all along! Without you all folks this blog would probably have been something completely different! That’s for sure!

So, you see where all of this excitement was coming from, right? Yes, indeed, I surely am and I hope you would be, too! Specially if you manage to make it to the event of events in the Web 2.0 space! And if you would want to get together for a beer or two (With what a perfect timing, eh? heh), give  me a shout and we will meet up while in there! (I will be there from October 19th till the 24th!)

Oh oh, like I said, stay tuned, I still got another lovely surprise for one of you folks out there… But that will be put together in an upcoming blog post where I will be expanding further on some of the items I mentioned above!

Thus, are you ready? Will you be at the Web 2.0 Expo this year in Berlin? Get in touch & don’t forget to make use of the discount!

Tags: Web 2.0 Expo, web2ny, New York City, NYC, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Speakers, Agenda, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Registrations, Discounts, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe

Yes, indeed, we are baaaaack! That is right, folks! We are back again at it! Here we go with another podcasting episode from The Sweettt Show, Living on the Bountiful Net that my good friend, and fellow co-host, just shared over at The Sweettt Podcast - Episode 7 - Conversations as The Future of Conferences. And we back into the action! Here is a short excerpt from what Matt wrote in that blog post that I am sure that you would be able to relate to quite a bit, specially if you get to travel, quite often, to various different conference events all over the place, and not just restrictive to a single geography or country, for instance. So here is the text:

"In this episode, we really point out all the things that are wrong about the modern conference and presentation format. In our conclusion of our August 15th discussion, we contrast this old guard presentation style with a more refreshing approach in which the audience is a key contributor to the event. When people gather together within conferences, this is a knowledge sharing event, designed to maximize the sharing of insights and perspectives."

At first sight you may be pondering that what we are actually doing is talking about the "barcamp" concept. No, we are not talking about such concept. In fact, we are talking about how we feel regular conferences would need to do to move into the 21st century. Have a listen to the whole episode and you will see what we mean…

Matt already shared his show notes from this particular episode and you would be able to read them all over here. Now, it is my turn to give it a show and share with you folks what I got out of that episode and what I learn while recording it with Matt. Yes, we do get to learn a thing or two, as well! And even better when those new ah-ha moments kick in live, right there, right then, and you have got that sense of accomplishment very difficult to surpass heh (Yes, you can tell I am loving the show quite a bit thus far, eh?). Here we go!:

- Still musing on the superb presentation that Carl Frappaolo did on Knowledge Management 2.0 and how disruptive it was from the traditional breakout sessions you get to attend on a regular basis. Hang in there, we are not talking about barcamp events …
- I still think about it along the very same lines: "Main tent / Keynote sessions are a waste of time from a knowledge sharing point of view."
- With the huge amount of events on Enterprise 2.0 flourishing out there nowadays, we need to look for new models of delivering the message. Traditional events need to move into the 21st century and become much more engaging than what they are now!
- People at conference events appreciate quite a bit not being talked at… (Too true!)
- Two way conversations rule at conferences, why neglect them? What would it take to change the model of delivery. Webcast format(s) are just that, for the Web, not in front of real audiences, real people!
- One of the best keynote speaker sessions I have been to this year from the various events I attended, and which I thoroughly enjoyed for the innovative approach, was that one of Harriet Pearson, Chief Privacy Officer at IBM, at IBM’s Web 2.0 Summit, who got started with her session by asking whether the audience had any questions, way before she started talking on the topic of privacy!
- Now, that’s the way to engage with an audience as a keynote speaker and grab their attention from the very first moment! Oh, and check out Harriet’s Facebook profile to see what she is up to (It will surprise you!)
- Will upcoming conference events be up to the challenge? Will you be up to the challenge? heh
- Moving on … ahhh, the obsession of slides for every single conversation. Wonder what the world was like before slide decks took over?!?
- "Without your slides are you naked?"
- Wish people would start giving up on slides. For good. They are just a tool, NOT your message!
- [Check out Matt's show notes on this section... Couldn't have put it in much better words than those! W00t!]
- Dave Snowden gets a mention for being on of those rare folks who doesn’t use slides and gets away with it! Powerful! Wish more folks would follow his example …
- Lou Gerstner gets a mention as well as being on of those folks who doesn’t use slides either!
- [Too funny that in the course of about a month from now I will eventually be meeting up face to face both of them! -- Stay tuned for more updates coming up on that! :-D]
- Musing on how BIG people feel when they know they have got a bunch of slides behind them is probably as good as it gets on what needs fixing!
- We will probably cover this topic at another time, since there is so much more to talk about! But let’s move on …
- Brainstorming on the best way of engaging with the audience from The Sweettt Show. We have got the blogs where some folks have been commenting so far, but what would you want to use to engage with our tertulia and be part of the show! Share your insights with us! More than happy to accommodate … Remember, this is our - your tertulia!
- We will figure it out at some point, I am sure …
- Introducing the podcast at the end of the recorded episode?!?! My goodness! What’s going on with these guys?!?! Are they crazy? (Probably!)

And that would be it, folks, for this our 7th episode of The Sweettt Show on Conversations as The Future of Conferences. We hope you enjoyed it and get ready for the next one, because it is just around the corner! And it promises to be just as entertaining … we hope …

Oh, dear, I won’t let you go just yet … I nearly forgot to include as well in this blog post the Wordle (Thanks, Jonathan!) from this episode, so here you have it:

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Tertulia, Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg, Conversations, Conference Events, Enterprise2conf, Carl Frappaolo, Bountiful Net, Dialogue, Barcamp, Harriet Pearson, CPO, Chief Privacy Officer, IBM Web 2.0 Summit, Facebook, Presentations, PowerPoint Obsession, Dave Snowden, Lou Gerstner

I guess that most of the folks doing Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0 or Enterprise 2.0 would probably be rather busy this week chiming in and participating, rather attending physically or virtually, the Web 2.0 Expo that just got started in New York (Which promises to have a really interesting and engaging agenda, by the way, in case you may not have seen it yet!), but I just thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on something rather important and relevant that is taking place over the last couple of days and which I thought would be worth while noting down as well.

If you have been a long time reader from this blog you would remember how a little bit over a year ago I actually became an active member of the Social Media Today Collective group, just as it was getting things started and building up some more momentum around the Enterprise 2.0 & Social Computing spaces. I guess that time flies when you are having fun, because over the course of the last couple of days SMT is actually celebrating their first birthday / anniversary! Goodness! Yes, indeed, time flies when you are having fun!

I must say that during this time, it surely has been a great pleasure and a privilege to be part of such incredibly talented, energised and splendid group of thought leaders and bloggers, social media consultants, CIOs, CEOs, and a long etc., always wanting, and succeeding, in taking things into the next level! You cannot imagine the amount of stuff I have been learning throughout the course of the last few months exchanging information and knowledge and engaging in multiple conversations around the topic of social software and Enterprise 2.0, amongst many others with a good chunk of the regular and active members of the collective.

At the same time I have been having the unique opportunity to meet up face to face with a whole bunch of SMT members, including the co-founders Robin Carey and Jerry Bowles, and it probably wouldn’t be too fair to name them all, as I am sure I would be forgetting the odd name here and there! But either way, if there would be a collective rather representative of the Social Computing space within the corporate world nowadays, I am sure that the Social Media Today one would probably be ranking high up in the list! And rather high, to say the least!

You would probably remember how a couple of months back I was actually featured as an SMT blogger of the week (With SMT Blogger of the Week - Luis Suarez, the Blogger From Paradise) after having done a very enjoyable Skype interview with Jerry. So the least I could do this time around is to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each and everyone of the SMT members for helping pave the road around the adoption of social software within the Enterprise. I am sure without this collective being out there actively nurturing and engaging in multiple conversations that adoption would have probably been a lot slower than what it is today!

So from here, a BIG and special thanks! to everyone who is, or has been, a member of the SMT collective and another rather special Happy Anniversary wish, hoping there are going to be many many more years to come for us to enjoy some of where the hot action is taking place within the Social Networking space! Keep up the superb piece of work & keep leading the way SMTers! It’s been a great pleasure and look forward to many more thought-provoking and engaging dialogue!

Tags: Web 2.0 Expo, w2e, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Conversations, Dialogue, Social Media Today, SMT, Anniversary, Birthday, Thought Leaders, Robin Carey, Jerry Bowles