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

How to Get in Touch for the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin – Join the CrowdVine Network!

A few minutes after I created the blog post where I was sharing with the readership of this blog the opportunity to win a complementary pass code for the event, I had a couple of folks interacting with me through e-mail and Instant Messaging asking me what would be the best way for them to reach out to me, if not using e-mail (You see? I am slowly, but steadily, winning the battle! heh), since they all knew I am about to go into another business trip I will detail some more shortly and that would end just before I head to Berlin next Sunday!

I mentioned it to them, through those interactions, what would be the best way of getting in touch and I thought I would spend a couple of minutes over here as well. I suppose it would become rather handy, specially, since I am sensing it is going to be a pretty hectic week, once again, and may not have enough time to get in touch with folks before I am in Berlin.

So, back to those e-mails and IMs conversations, I mentioned to them that the main tool I am planning to make use of would be one that the Web 2.0 Expo folks have put together as well, which is The Web 2.0 Expo CrowdVine space, and which is starting to look really really nice! This particular group space is where most of us, attendees, will be hanging out to connect with other folks, to reach out to all those who we would like to meet up and to indicate those folks who we are a big fan of! Pretty neat!

Of course, there will be still plenty of other interactions in that particular group space, but mainly I think it would be rather interesting to see how we would be able to connect through it. I have already got a profile (Yes, yet again, another one!) in there, where you would be able to find out what I will be up to and who I am planning to meet up and hang out with. At the same time there are a number of conversations which are flourishing already and which would be worth while contributing to as well. We shall see how time allows for me to chime in as well!

At the same time, of course, there is a blog for the conference, a Facebook Fan page, a FriendFeed room, a Twitter handle to follow up for updates and, like usual, the blogosphere in its full force with plenty of insights going around all over the place already! You can start subscribing to the different channels! Plenty of choice this time around!

I, too, would be blogging about the event, but most probably after the event itself, as highlights posts, from the sessions I will be attending and will be sharing some additional thoughts on folks I will be meeting up with, and for the most part, of course, I will be on Twitter, doing my usual live tweeting, over @elsuacon.

As you would be able to see, plenty of choices and opportunities to get a flavour of what the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin would be like, but I can certainly tell you one thing, not matter how much great content gets shared across the board, what would be the killer event or happening for me would eventually be the usual suspect, the networking with fellow colleagues (Did you know that almost my entire team is going to be there! As well as some of the most well known IBM Social Software evangelists who I have the great pleasure of hanging out with for the last few years?), as well as social media consultants, some of the other players in the field, amongst many other thought leaders in the space of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0.

I am sensing that networking while at the event is probably going to prevent me from being online as much as I would have probably liked and that can only mean one thing: the most powerful form of social networking (i.e. the face to face contact!) will have won the battle once again! And I just can’t wait for that to happen, because I am sure it would get us all exposed to plenty of excitement: new (But also already known) connections, new conversations, perhaps even new personal business relationships, you name it! I guess it would be up to each and everyone of us to put the limits! heh

Are you ready?

I surely am! And you know where you can find me! Mixing and mingling with the crowd!

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, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe, web2expoeu, web2expoeu08, w2eb, CrowdVine, Social Networks, Networking, Face to Face, Conversations, Dialogue, Connections, Relationships, Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter, Blogging, Blogs, Blogosphere, Metablogging, Live Tweeting, Highlights

Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin and My Chance to Say Thank You!

For a good number of weeks, you would remember how I have been mentioning how, with all of this travelling going around all over the place, I am starting to find less and less time to comment back further on the lovely input that regular readers of this blog have been leaving behind as comments. I still read them all, each and everyone of them!, but over time I am finding it increasingly more difficult to capture additional thoughts, do some more research, come up with some worth while commentary and share it with you folks. And it is starting to hit me. Don’t despair, though, I am working on it, and for sure, I know that I would eventually get there. Back in full force commenting on some of the brilliant stuff you have been sharing all along!

In fact, believe it or not, I am already using some of your input as part of conversations I have been having live, i.e. face to face, with folks I have met at the various events I have been going to all along. Yet, still can’t find a way to feed that input as follow up comments into the original conversations. But not to worry, we will eventually get there. I am certain of that.

However, for now, I just thought I would share with you folks my two cents worth of this blog post, as a token of eternal gratitude for hanging out there, still reading some of these entries and adding your thoughts that in most cases have increased the quality of the original post(s). You all know how I feel about the readership of this blog. Without it, I am sure things would have been completely different, if non-existent. So the fact that I now have got a chance to say "Thanks!" is an opportunity I am not going to let it go, just like that!

Thus, just to reward all of those folks who have stuck around through thick and thin, here is my chance to share that token of gratitude. I have just been provided with a complimentary pass code for the Web 2.0 Expo (Where you know I will be attending & speaking at the event) and that basically means that one of you could be making it to the event for free! Yes, indeed, for FREE!

That’s right, I have got a complimentary pass code for one of you to make it to Berlin and enjoy what promises one of those Web 2.0 events difficult to forget during 2008! And, like I couldn’t have done it any other way, I will be more than happy to hand over that  code to the first person who leaves a comment on this blog post, claiming it! Thus if you wanted to go to the event, but didn’t know how you were going to be able to make it, this may be your chance.

Just leave a comment on this post, indicating your interest to attend and the pass is yours! And since it is just a single pass, the only rule applied over here for this would be first come, first served! So, hurry up, get in touch, grab the code and I will be seeing you in Berlin! And who knows, we may be able to share a drink or two, or food, if you would want to get together! Give me a shout along the way, if you would want to do that!

For now, time to wrap up this blog post, get the pass code ready, and anxiously awaiting for the first commenter to come through to hand over that code! Like I said, it is the least I could do for the readers of this blog. I just wish I could hand more than code, because all of you deserve that and so much more for still dropping by day in day out and commenting on the blog and making it a better place than whatever it was intended to be in the first place!

Thanks ever so much for that! And let’s get the show started! Who is going to Berlin with me?!?

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, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Discounts, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe, web2expoeu, web2expoeu08, w2eb, Free Pass, Complimentary Pass Code

Giving up on Work e-mail – Status Reports from Week 31 through to Week 35

After a superb business trip to Mechelen, Belgium, last week where not only did I have a great time, but also learned quite a bit!, it is now time to get back into the swing of things at work. Well, not really! Friday was the day of a massive catchup with everything and, like I was mentioning in Twitter, it was the first time in over five years that I spent it talking more on the phone than through online interactions! Goodness! I almost forgot how fast & easy it is to catch up while you talk, as opposed to when you write! I should be doing that much more often, for sure!

Anyway, you would expect I would be having time to get things back in order with my regular blogging and other work related activities, right? Humm, not likely! I am already preparing, during the course of today, for another business trip I will be doing this week, once again. Leaving tomorrow and going to Madrid to participate in a very special event which I will be blogging about shortly. Stay tuned, because it is going to be quite an interesting one!

For now, though, I think I will go with this blog post where I will try to catch up with those weekly progress reports I have been sharing all along since I started giving up on e-mail at work and which I have been neglecting for a little bit due to the holidays to both Barcelona and London, then the business trip to Mechelen and a week here and there. So I thought I share with you folks what has happened during those weeks.

To start with, I will not be commenting on other interesting links I have bumped into or the conference events I have been to during all of this time, since I will be blogging about them separately and I would also want to keep this blog post on the short side. So, what I will do, without much further ado is to share with you folks the actual progress reports and I will comment, right afterwards, with a couple of thoughts for each of them, so you can get a glimpse of what’s been happening all around. Thus, let’s get started!

As you would be able to see, lots of things have happened during the last few weeks, while I have been preparing for my vacation, during my vacation, on the first business trip after the vacation and so forth! To get things going, it looks like I hit my new challenge twice in that period of time! Yes, that is right! On my new challenge, I proposed to keep that incoming number of e-mails even lower, 20 or less! And to my amazement, since I didn’t expect it to happen so soon, there have been two times that I have done it, as you can see on those weekly reports. One with a hit of 20 and another one, the one I am incredibly excited about, which is 13 e-mails! Yes, that’s right! 13 e-mails in a single week!!! That’s exactly what I am looking forward to with this second part of the challenge of giving up on e-mail at work!

Too bad that after I came back, and while I was in Mechelen, Belgium, that count went sky high, with one of the highest from the entire nine months I have been doing this! But not to worry, it is all an exception, from what I can see. That really high count of e-mails was eventually due to three different factors:

- InnovationJam 2008: I managed to put together and share a number of different ideas, despite the poor conditions regarding my connectivity during that time, and a couple of them picked up a nice momentum, which developed in several private 1:1 conversations, too! I am trying to put together some of the thoughts exchanged throughout the Jam conversations so that you folks can have a look at some of the amazing stuff that happened throughout!

- Calendaring & Scheduling: This is something I have blogged about already in the past, and it is probably the number #1 issue that still keeps me making use of e-mail at odd weeks, like week 35, for instance. Two days in that week registered really high peaks of incoming e-mails, because I was discussing with a few folks the final logistics for a couple of events I will be attending from here till end of the year! If calendaring and scheduling is an issue, imagine it even worse when people send you e-mail after e-mail to finalise details that could have been done in a very simple, yet very effective manner: a phone call! (Or through Activities!). I need to work more on this one, before it kills me. Or, worse, something else that is starting to take some shape and which would need some further thinking before I share it across. We shall see.

- 1:1 conversations: As more and more folks realise how I still use e-mail for 1:1 conversations of a confidential / sensitive nature, sometimes I do get a few of these, yes!, they come in batches!, of folks wanting to detail stuff in a personal private conversation. And like I have been saying all along, more than happy to accommodate those coming through e-mail. The rest will be going OUTSIDE the Inbox!

Thus there you go. In a single blog post the weekly progress reports from the five weeks I haven’t been able to detail before, due to vacation preparations, the time away on holidays, and the business trip to Mechelen. Oh, and there was something else that sparked two very nasty blog posts while I was on the road, but, not to worry, I will not be sharing them over here. Far too negative! I will be putting together a rather softer one on the topic, which has surely influenced as well some of the high numbers on concrete days. Here is a hint on what it will be about: connectivity or, better said, the lack of!

But that will be the subject for another blog post. For now, time to leave things here. Hope you enjoy the massive catch up on all of those progress reports from the last few weeks and off to the next blog post that will contain a lovely surprise for those faithful readers that despite my somewhat irregular blogging activities, they still keep up with this blog eventually. Hang in there, lovely surprise coming up for you shortly!

Tags: IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, e-mail, email, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Innovation, Productivity, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Re-purposing E-mail, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Shape Your Future, Travelling, Business Trips, Mechelen, Belgium, Madrid, Spain, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Twitter, Shapeyourfuture, Social Innovation, InnovationJam 2008, IJam08, IJam 2008, InnovationJam, Calendaring & Scheduling, Calendaring, Scheduling, Confidentiality, Sensitive