Social Customer Service - new Podcast

As a UC Expert, I gladly participate in the regular podcasts run by UCStrategies. I can't think of a better forum where you can hear from so many analysts and consultants at one time, and this should be part of your regular diet to stay current in the UC space.

Our current topic was social customer service, and this time around we were joined by Karina Howell of Interactive Intelligence. As you may know, ININ is at the forefront of trying new things, so it was great to counter our voices with a vendor that is in the trenches figuring out how to make social media part of the contact center experience.

Not surprisingly, Blair Pleasant moderated the podcast, and we all had our say, both feeding off of Karina's insights as well as sharing best practices across the business space. The podcast has been posted now to the UCS portal, along with a transcript, so you have two ways to take in the content. Whatever format you choose, we'd love to hear your thoughts, as well as suggestions for new topics you'd like to see us discuss.

Interactions 2014 - PureCloud, Millennials, Boulders, Football and the SIPtones!

As conferences go in the collab/communications space, Interactions 2014 is right up there. I stayed til Wednesday afternoon, and wish I could have been there til the end. During that time, though, I saw plenty to confirm that Interactive Intelligence is living up to their tagline for being Deliberately Innovative.

I'm just going to share some high level takeaways here, and will likely drill down further on some themes next week elsewhere. There's a lot to like about ININ, and not much to dislike. Maybe I could rag on about the weather we had, but otherwise, this company has a pretty good handle on its destiny.

I have a lot of notes, but am not going to do a data dump here. I'll do my best to distill my thoughts into 2 basic takeaways.

1. Great growth story.

This is always easier to tell with a public company, and we saw lots of metrics to validate their performance. ININ would be a great target for a company with deep pockets looking to become an overnight force in the contact center space, but Don Brown is a very sharp guy. He's got a good thing going in Indy, including an I-could-work-here-forever culture that's pretty rare these days. Anyhow, it's great to hear about a company in this space with no debt, nice profits, strong margins, $105 million in the bank, and a 25% revenue CAGR since 2010.

That aside, their rapid growth for cloud-based deployments is hurting their stock price - but over time, this will even out. It's pretty clear that those who migrate to the cloud intelligently will be the winners, and ININ is definitely on the leading edge here. Problem is that you trade the up-front revenue from a premise-based sale to the annuity model of smaller but ongoing payments from customers. That's going to result in a smaller CAGR, but a more viable future. Wall Street doesn't quite follow this logic since they live quarter to quarter. Have faith, folks - I'll take this scenario over most any of their competitors, public or private. Is the recent dip a good time to buy ININ? I'm not a financial analyst, but it looks that way to me.

2. PureCloud is a big bet, but with a big upside.

This was the "big news" of the conference, and if you've been following the online coverage, you'll know by now what this is about. Basically, Don Brown looked at Amazon Web Services, and said, hey, why don't we use that model for the contact center? I think he's exactly right, and while I'm not a Web guru, I understand the basic concept of ELB - elastic load balancing. As Don explained, if this works so well for Netflix - which it does - imagine what it could do for ININ. From what I know, AWS is tops at being scalable and economical, and there's really no benefit for ININ to do this in-house.

Like any mid-tier player trying to beat the top tier guys, you have to have the right solution to win the Tier 1 business, and PureCloud gives them a great shot at doing so. More importantly, ININ understands how the cloud is changing everything - the business value of physical infrastructure and solutions/applications is going in different directions. Anyone can partner with AWS, but nobody quite has the contact center tools that ININ does. Once the end customer is ready for the cloud, they really don't care whether the data centers are ININ's or AWS's - they just want it to work and deliver on the product promise.

Another "aha" for PureCloud is that it's not a contact center solution. It's a cloud solution with a contact center module, but also does social media, directory, telephony, UC and add-ons like document management and WFM. Clearly, many of their customers are interested in doing more than contact center with ININ, and PureCloud is a great delivery platform to support a more complete offering. It's not a big leap now to see how ININ can truly go head-to-head with Cisco, Avaya, Unify, et al - how's that for stirring the pot?

Downside? Well, for contact center, PureCloud isn't much different from CaaS in terms of features. The architecture, however, is very different, and this will take some explaining. Pushing CaaS customers further into the cloud may be a hard sell - both for end customers and their channel partners. We heard how only 10% of the cloud business is through channels, but that level is now rising. Still, they have a lot of work to do to find the right channel partners and get them up to speed. This also means cannibalizing some CaaS business, so there's a bit of risk there. Two other factors to consider - one is how well the broader market will view ININ as a partner for applications other than contact center. Second is the AWS relationship, which is essential for PureCloud's ultimate success.

Lots more to say, but we all have jobs and can't read blogs all day! I'll leave you with a few more quick thoughts along with these photos.

CMO/overall host Joe Staples setting/taking the stage. He provided some great data points showing just how much impact social media has on how we communicate and what that means for customer service. They get social, and the PureCloud demos nicely showed how it can make agents more effective. Joe also made similar cases for the impact of mobility and the cloud - and how ININ has factored these not just into current offerings, but also for what's coming - which we later saw during the red-hot technologies segment.

We also heard from keynoter Jay Baer, a very engaging digital marketing star, who shared lots of cool data points/factoids that jived with Joe's themes. One killer takeaway - "if your company sucks, social media isn't your biggest problem." Yup. Companies that shy away from social because they're afraid of getting photo-bombed, etc. aren't thinking this through. As we heard often, the upside of social will be greater than the downside - presuming you do things at least half-right. Apologies -Jay was so much fun to watch, I forgot to take his picture.

CEO Don Brown - he sure sets the tone for ININ's casual culture, but also one that's very open. No big egos here, and their execs are always accessible to us.

What a treat - Aron Ralston. I didn't know his name until Tuesday, but you know the movie - Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Well, that's him - prosthetic arm and all. Kinda tenuous connection to the contact center, but he did a credible job trying. Just an incredible story, and you should just go see the movie. He tells it with a lot of emotion and it sure kept the 2,000 or so in the audience damned still - not too much Facebooking going on then. Inspirational talks don't get much better than this, and for me, the main takeaway is that you have to learn to confront the boulders that trap you in life - learn to embrace them and not push them away. Hard to do - cost him his arm - but it gave him the right mindset to survive an otherwise certain death sentence deep in a valley that nobody ever stumbles across. Wow.

Wednesday morning was another highlight - a panel of Millennials, moderated by Joe Staples. Great idea - get some 20 somethings to talk directly to us about how they engage with technology and what customer service means to them. Biggest surprise - to hear about how little they use email - it's all about text and chat with them. Totally different communication regime, and yes, they live with their mobile devices 24/7. And yes, they shop online - a lot - almost no point in going to a store any more. I really don't understand why/how people buy things like shoes online, but hey, if the price is right...

The "All American Tailgate Party" at Lucas Oil Stadium. Well, the crowd was a bit sparse, but how often do you get to do this?

Or this? The fun for me was here later on Tuesday night. This is at the Slippery Noodle, Indy's top blues bar, and the SIPtones are in fine form. Left to right - Wayne Sos on bass, Stephen Leaden on drums, Rick Hathaway on saxes, and Mike Moszynski on guitar. 

I guested on a few songs - mostly keyboard, but also guitar, and it was all good. More photos will emerge soon, and hopefully some video - stay tuned.

Google Hangout - Future of the Contact Center, Feb. 27

It's so rare that I get involved in local events, and go figure, when it happens, we're doing a Google Hangout. Well, it's snowing pretty good today, so just as well to stay in!

Whatever, I'm just happy to be here, and Toronto-based Fonolo is hosting another analyst roundtable next Thursday at 2pm ET. Not only is it good to see a local vendor bringing much-needed innovation to the contact center space, but also that they're making use of the new tools.

For events like this, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Google Hangouts, and if you're in tune with what works for Millennials, don't be surprised to see this become a standard contact center option before long.

Fonolo's President, Shai Berger is leading the roundtable, and joining us will be fellow analysts Blair Pleasant, Dan Miller, and Keith Dawson. Should be fun, and in the open-ended spirit of all things Google, the roundtable will go as long as folks care to hang out.

Here's the link with full details and the registration form - hope to see you there!

VON – 5 Years Later – the Day the Music Died?

Telecom was a late career move for me, so I don’t have the pedigree of people who cut their teeth on Lucent, Nortel, RBOCs, DSL, dial-up, etc. However, even I know that back then Cisco was a router company intruding on the PBX space, VoIP was a four-letter word that pretty much ruined AT&T, Nokia and Motorola ruled the cell phone market, RIM absolutely owned mobile email for business, Skype was a nonsense word and nobody even thought about Apple being a comms player.

The world sure is different now, and even a few years seems like a lifetime in a space that changes constantly. That’s actually been good for a latecomer like me, as I’ve already seen a few market cycles come and go, and with that, even I have some perspective. Memories can be short, and I’m certainly at a point where it’s easier to forget what just happened than to remember. For the younger crowd, it’s more about being in a constant state of overstimulation from the Web and all the screens that rule our digital lives. Most of it is noise to me and if you don’t have ADD, it’s like there’s something wrong with you. The machines are winning folks, but I’ll save that rant for another time.

Back to memory. Remember VON? Voice on the Net – Jeff Pulver and his once sprawling empire built around the disruption that came with VoIP? I’d like to say “of course you do”, but maybe not. Well, it was five years ago this week that VON crashed and was abruptly shuttered by the investors. Wow. Five years – soooo much has changed since then, and it’s hard to fathom now just how important VON was and how vital the community around it was.

There really was nothing like it, and I’ll be the first to say that Jeff almost single-handedly created a community that did far more than just attend conferences. I should add that he and everyone else in the VoIP space did this before we had social media, and we made it work just fine. More bluntly, I would say we didn’t need social media, and given today’s sensibilities, I’m not sure it would have been as effective if we had it. In my view, there’s a big difference between building a community and sharing a community – social media is great for the latter, but not so much for the former.

Jeff brought a passion that helped define VoIP from the dozens of startups he supported, right up to the FCC, whose policies determined which players would thrive or be doomed. Nobody had more fingers in the VoIP pie than Jeff, and through Pulvermedia he played all the angles, some better than others. Success is a funny thing, and there was no middle ground with VON – it was either the best thing that ever happened in VoIP or a necessary evil.

I’m in the former camp, and was a consultant briefly to Pulvermedia, so I had a pretty grounded view on how those times unfolded.  I’ll bet many of my readers are nodding and smiling now, as we all had fond memories of VON’s heyday.  Unless you were close to the realities of the conference business, it was a huge shock to hear the news back in 2008, which left a bad taste for many that I’m sure still lingers. Well, business is business and it’s often been said that Jeff is the only person who actually made money in VoIP, and even in today’s market that’s largely true.

Of course, Jeff knew this, and as quickly as he jumped into VoIP he jumped out. Actually, he did this earlier and came back, but when he left for good, it kind of signaled the end of a particular time. Jeff definitely had the VoIP mojo and he knew how to use it. Many of you have followed Jeff’s ventures since then, and while he seems happily ensconced in the social media world, it’s not the same on a few levels. He’s a smaller fish in a bigger sea, and the dynamics are quite different. Ironically – or perhaps presciently, social media has ended up having an impact on the conference business itself. Like everything else social media touches, the sharing experience ends up becoming more important than the community building experience, and people have fewer reasons to attend these events in person.

VON’s energy around VoIP was pretty special, and if you were there I’m sure you’d agree we don’t have anything comparable now. StartupCamp and for a time, eComm might be the closest things, but on a much smaller scale. Love him or not, looking back on VON’s demise in 2008 is a reminder of a time when the business was more fun. We all knew there was a great future of possibility ahead, and it was ours to shape – and a lot of you out there did just that.

Would this have happened without VON? Probably, but I’m sure you wouldn’t have wanted it any differently. I wasn’t around at the dawn of rock and roll, but for me VON’s demise was like the day the music died (if you need that explained, you’re probably way too young even for VON – just Google it – I know you know how to do that). Maybe more apt was Woodstock (ditto), which was the apex of the rock scene and youth culture, and after that it went downhill pretty fast. The music simply became a business, and was not nearly as fun or adventurous.

VoIP sure is getting like that, and it’s almost futile today to fight the bigs – Apple, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, etc. Today it’s really their world and we just live in it. Of course VoIP has now been supplanted by newer technologies, and others are on the way. They’ll all find their place in the IP communications pantheon, but the path just won’t be as much fun. The cloud is cool, but as Jeff says, “you can’t outsource fun”, and if you want to follow in his footsteps, you’d better not forget that. VON is gone, but I hope that spirit never goes away. Thanks Jeff!

Social Networking for Business - is it Just Social?

Here's a topic I'm sure your business is struggling with these days. If not, either nobody there uses social media - highly unlikely - or you've simply banned it outright - bad idea. Or, you've figured it out and have a healthy balance for both work and play use - but that's not the norm quite yet.

Wherever you're at on that spectrum, I think you'll enjoy my latest article for TMC's Internet Telephony magazine. This is part of my monthly column titled Rethinking Communications, and is now running in both the print and digital editions for March 2013. Here's the link to the article, and if you like to get your media in print form, let the folks at TMCnet know, and they'll be happy to add you to their mailing list.

Next stop - LA and Cisco

Tough finding time to blog this week. Was at two events last week, and Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. All of a sudden it's Friday, new business keeps coming my way, and my plate is very full. Some of this will soon be public, including an upcoming webinar I'll likely be posting about later today.

Next week, I'll be in Los Angeles for Cisco's Collaboration Summit. This has turned into a solid secondary event in the shadow of C-Scape, and I've been fortunate to attend the last few iterations. It's very timely for anyone in the UC space, and as usual, there are always interesting things happening in the market.

This week is no exception - Polycom re-launched/re-branded their entire business (sure hope it pays off!), Siemens just had a lengthy analyst webinar announcing all of their strides to gain share - and re-brand as well, plus a firehose of news/updates across this space from last week's ITExpo.

Aside from all this buzz from the competition, there's talk of John Chambers stepping down at some point, so  next week should be very engaging. It's never status quo with Cisco, and I'll do my best to blog and tweet as things unfold.

Enterprise Social Software Trends - UCStrategies Podcast

Busy week here on many fronts. This week's UCStrategies podcast built on two news items for major players - Microsoft acquiring Yammer, and Cisco rebranding its Quad platform. Both play into the ever expanding/confusing zone where social media and business communications intersect, and within the UCS group, Blair Pleasant has had a strong focus here.

Blair did a great job putting this podcast together, and we did our best to elevate the conversation above the din of social media, and into the more sophisticated realm of "enterprise social software". When the business world comes up with its own language to describe something we're already using, you know there's money to be made and empires to be lost. That's exactly what's driving the news from Cisco and MSFT, and we came at the topic from our usual wide range of perspectives.

We had a very lively discussion, and if you're wondering whether social media will have a legit home in the world of UC, this is what you should do after reading my post. The podcast - and transcript - was just posted to the UCS site, so click here to give it a listen and/or read, and by all means, join the conversation. After all, we're talking about social media here!

Social Media and Contact Centers - Getting Your Brand Back

This is a topic I've been keen to explore for a while, and the time has come. I've been writing an ongoing series about the impact of social media in the contact center space on the Exony site, and my latest focus is on steps companies can take to get control of their brand back.

Social media sure cuts both ways, and it's a mistake to think that once people - customers, ex-customers, prospects, competitors, grumpy people, yahoos, etc. - start using the tools to say whatever they want, that you hand over your brand to them. That's marketing suicide, and in my current post, I address the issues and explore some ways companies can use the same tools to offset all of this out-of-control activity. Everyone has an opinion on the Web - don't get me started on that one - but that doesn't make everyone right - and companies have a voice too.

Enough - you get the idea, and if this topic is keeping you up at night, please give my post a read, and hopefully you'll sleep better. Better yet, give me a call and I'll try to help you save the day for your company!

UCStrategies Views on Social Media in the Enterprise

Things are quite skewed for me with the Smart Grid Summit a week away, plus a few new projects to pay the bills. Blogging and tweeting is sporadic at best, but am doing what I can.

Last week's UCStrategies podcast was on a topic we're all trying to figure out - managing social media in the workplace. We had lots of perspectives on this one, and you're free to join in. You can listen to the podcast here, as well as read the transcript, and share your own comments on the posting.

I've Joined the Twitterati

As the Brits used to chide the Yanks about always showing up late for the war, I've taken a small, but social step into Twitterland. I have no desire to broadcast my day to day - or minute to minute - happenings, nor do I care to hear about anyone else's.

However... I do concede that a lot of interesting and timely information flows this way now, so it's pretty hard to ignore. It sure makes blogging seem painfully slow and tedious, but that's not going to sway me. I'm a writer at heart, and for anyone like me, this 140 character thing isn't very interesting. However, it's efficient, and a great way to get a quick scan about what's going on out there.

Even after just a few days using it, I can see how easily addictive tweeting can be, and how quickly it has changed people's behaviors. That's the scary part, but it also tells me that it serves a need, and the business models will soon follow. We just can't seem to get and stay connected fast enough, but am not really sure to what end. The more our lives and interactions become virtual, the easier it will be to forget there's a real world going on right in front of us. And if you're not ADD yet, a steady diet of this stuff will absolutely get you there.

Enough cave-man talk - back to work. And, yes, feel free to follow me now on Twitter. I don't have 10,000 followers yet, so it's relatively lonely, but am sure that will change in time - and chances are pretty good I'll want to follow you. See you there!

How Bloggers and Analysts use Social Media

This week's UC Strategies podcast was about how we're using social media. The "we" in this case pertains to the UC Strategies group, of which I'm a part. For the most part, we're independent analysts/consultants with a focus on Unified Communications, and to varying degrees, we all make use of these tools.

We touched on a few themes here, starting with the tools themselves, especially how some are using Twitter on a regular basis. Since we more or less work on our own, we found these tools quite helpful for staying in touch, doing research and keeping on top of breaking news. I'm still new to Twitter - so call me a laggard on this one - but I am starting to see its value, so look to see more tweets from me soon.

Another theme was about where social media fits in the Unified Communications schema, and how it's becoming part of the business communications landscape. I'm not sure there's a way to monetize this, but we talked about some examples where social media is becoming integrated into the fabric of UC. Pretty interesting topic, and I hope you'll give us a listen. You can access the podcast here, and while you're at it, please spend some time exploring the portal.

Calysto White Paper - Social Media and PR

Calysto is one of the PR firms I've been close to in this space since I began covering it in 2001. They've got a solid track record and do a great job updating us on the comings and goings of the industry through their client e-letter PR Vibes.

They just launched a white paper about the role social media can play in today's marketing and PR programs, and I wanted to help create some awareness about it. I reviewed this early on, and now it's a public document, which you can download from their website.

PR firms, especially indies, aren't known for their own thought leadership, and this is a pretty good example of an agency being proactive and sharing some best practices with the market. Social media is a huge unknown for everyone, and we all feel compelled to use it one way or another. PR firms and their clients all struggle with this, and nobody is ever quite sure about what tactics to use or how much to spend. However, PR firms are increasingly expected to know how to handle this space, and I'm sure it's one of the big questions companies have when hiring an agency.

So, it's great to see Calysto doing something about this and outlining their thinking on how social media can be incorporated into PR programs. Is this a pitch for business? Well, sure it is, and after reading this paper, you'll know exactly what kinds of programs and capabilities Calysto has to offer.

I'm ok with that, because I think most people will come away with some new ideas and answers to some basic questions they have about the value and impact social media can have on their business. A lot of you may be very immersed in social media, but I can guarantee you that a lot of people are not, and for that audience in particular, this white paper will serve a useful purpose.

Kudos to Laura Borgstede and her team, and I'm glad to see PR companies doing things like this. I know it's an important focus for Calysto, so hopefully this will be the beginning of something good that will help us all make sense of how social media and PR can best work together.

SocComm - right for the times?

I haven't seen much blog coverage of Jeff's SocComm event yesterday, but don't let that fool you. Jeff's been heavily focused on social media for a while now, and it looks like he's building an engaged community around his ideas and passions - much like he did with VON.

I don't often post about events I'm not attending, but I've been blogging a lot lately about current conferences, and given the circles I travel in, it's hard not follow Jeff 3.0, even if at a distance.

Not having attended, I can only reflect what I'm picking up from others, and the basic vibe is pretty strong. It was a small, fairly localized event, but that's just fine, especially in this economy. It's more about the caliber of people you attract and the energy the event helps create. Looks to me like Jeff succeeded pretty nicely on these fronts.

Of course, Jeff will give you his take in his recent posts, which include lots of photos. Pretty bare-bones event, but you have to look beyond that to what people were talking about. I'm sure the discussions were lively, and with this being such a Wild West space, there really aren't any rules. Everyone is in discovery mode - it's not about making money right now.

One of my long-time industry buddies is Ari Rabban, and his company Phone.com was a sponsor, so he was there (he was also on one of my panels at the IT Expo last week). So far, he's only posted about what SocComm is about, but not the experience itself. Am sure that will change very soon.

Back to my opening comment. The lack of blog coverage doesn't mean people weren't following SocComm with interest. You're just looking in the wrong places. SocComm is about social media/communications/networking, etc. Blogging is so 2008 in that world - it's all about microblogging now, so Twitter is the place to go. As much as I'm keen on this new world, I'm most definitely not into Twitter, Phweet, etc. Sorry.

Anyhow, for a much richer, more real-time take on SocComm - overall, or moment-by-moment - just click on over to the Twitter Buzz page on the SocComm site. Duh. How hard was that? Based on a quick scan, I'd say that at least for this crowd, SocComm sure looks right for the times. Is Jeff on to his next big thing now? We'll just have to see where he goes from here.

SocComm is Tomorrow

Thought I'd put out a last call for SocComm, Jeff Pulver's social media event, taking place tomorrow in his native NYC. Since moving on from VON, Jeff has forged a new event, and if my travels were taking me to NYC tomorrow, I would attend in a heartbeat. I'm sure it will be interesting - everything with Jeff is always interesting - so I'll have to keep tabs online as best I can.

The best place to start, of course, is Jeff's blog, where this morning's post has the most current agenda. From there, you can also explore the SocComm website, and if you're one of Jeff's several thousand friends, you check out more on his Facebook page.

Good luck Jeff - am sure it will be a very social experience!

As a quick aside, I was actually hoping to see Jeff this week, as Toronto was on the tour list for his social media breakfasts. Unfortunately, as I went to register this morning for the Feb. 12 Toronto date, I see it's been cancelled. Ugh. Oh well - another time, Jeff...

Cisco C-Scape 2008 - Day 2

Well, Day 2 is done, and so is C-Scape 2008. I really enjoyed attending, and feel lucky to be part of the scaled down group that was there in person. The overall content was quite good, and Cisco really seems to be trying hard to stay close to the analysts and listen to our thoughts on their direction.

As mentioned yesterday, a lot of the focus was on how Cisco is transforming itself into a "next generation" company (am still not sure what that term means any more) rather than how they're going to change the world around them. That said, their new tag line makes it pretty clear that's the end game - "Cisco - Best in the world. Best for the world." Got that? A bit of a throwback to GM in the 1950's, but you get the idea. If all this technology carries the day, it will be Cisco's world, and we'll just be living in it. Hey, they've got $27 billion in the bank and a lot of desperate companies at their feet, so anything is possible, right?

Am being a bit facetious here, and Cisco is being every bit as careful and pragamatic as the rest of us. I found many of the sessions down to earth, and Cisco seems very conscious of getting their house in order and focused on helping their customers leverage IT to get themselves through both good times and bad. Day 2 continued the mix of sunny keynotes and hands-on breakouts about their various business lines.

What strikes me overall is the breadth of their market coverage. Having recently been at Avaya's analyst event, it was interesting to see them talk about scaling down their business focus from some 27 lines of business to 3. Cisco was talking about managing 26 priorities - i.e. growth opportunities - so they're certainly not putting all their eggs in one basket. I highly doubt many analysts in the room - if any - can possibly be up to speed on all 26 priorities, which makes Cisco a difficult company to fully understand. Maybe it's that way by design, but listening to their top execs, you come away thinking there really is a grand plan here, and it's all under control. Sure hope so.





I'll leave you with a few photos from today...

Rob Lloyd talking about Cisco 3.0 and what this means for how they will transform the relationships they have with their customers. Pretty forward-thinking ideas here, and if executed well, will serve as best practices for others to follow.




Art Hair, CTO of Disney - very interesting presentation about the realities of making movies in the digital age and how important networks are to the process. Never thought about film-making this way, and Disney really is a great showcase for Cisco in the sense that film is the most collaborative of all art forms, and collaboration is Cisco's driving mantra now.




Charles Stucki updating us during the Telepresence breakout. Did you know that Cisco is doing over 4,000 meetings a week using Telepresence? That's got to be adding up to some serious savings in travel costs.




The best for last - final session was an open-ended Q&A/fireside chat with John Chambers. I think he enjoyed this as much as we did.





Technorati tags: Cisco C-Scape 2008, Jon Arnold

Podcast - Socialcast - Social Media in the Enterprise

I'm an occasional contributor to Business Trends Quarterly, and they recently invited me to do a podcast on social media in the enterprise. My guest was Tim Young, the Founder and CEO of Socialcast, an interesting company in this emerging space.

We had a pretty long chat, and covered things like what Enterprise 2.0 is starting to look like, and the role that tools like social media are playing. Tim is somewhat of a pioneer in the space and talks about what companies like Socialcast are doing to help enterprises harness the potential of social media and actually get their money's worth along the way.

The podcast is quite long - about 42 minutes - so you might want to download it to your iPod and listen to it on the go. I've got two ways for you to access the file. One way is to pick up the link from my website. Just look for the Socialcast podcast on the Media Citings section of the site.

Another way is to download it directly from the BTQ website, but you have to register first to get it. If you like podcasts from a wide range of thought leaders, it's worthwhile since there's so much good content there. To find my podcast, you need to go the Web Events section of the BTQ site, then scroll down - quite a ways down actually - to Web 2.0 podcasts. It's the last topic listed there, and once you're at Web 2.0, it won't be hard to find the link, along with my photo.

Either way, I hope you give it a listen, and would love to hear your feedback.


Technorati tags: Business Trends Quarterly, Jon Arnold, Socialcast, social media, Enterprise 2.0

eComm 2009 - Call for Speakers

As things develop with eComm 2009, I'll be posting, as will others on the Advisory Board who blog. Last week was tough on blogging for me, and I didn't get a chance to get the word out about the Call for Speakers.

We've been steadily reviewing submissions throughout the week, and they continue to come in. A handful are quite good, some are pretty good, and some are off the mark. It all comes with the territory, and our job is to pick the best of the bunch and make them all fit into an overall program.

There's a lot of interest to present at eComm, both from previous speakers, and loads of people just coming around to it who want to be part of the conference. We'll do our best to give fair consideration to all entries, but the roster will likely be set in the next week or two. So, if you're interested, you'd better get a move on, and follow the procedure here.

And if you just want to stay up to date with eComm, visit the website, and check out the blog for news.


Technorati tags: eComm, Lee Dryburgh, Jon Arnold

Is Jeff Back? Call for Speakers - Social Media Event

Very interesting post from Jeff Pulver on Friday. I'm not alone wondering about what Jeff is planning next, especially now that the VON brand has officially changed hands.

It's also interesting that I've got two posts today about calls for speakers. No sure what to make of that.

Anyone following Jeff knows he moved on from VoIP some time ago, and even a casual read of his blog shows that his focus is mostly in social media and video. However, Friday's post is the first public statement I've seen about any type of conference and event beyond Jeff's ongoing series of social media breakfasts.

As you'll see from Jeff's post, this is a modest one-day event, but it's definitely got all the makings of a mini-conference - a call for speakers, registration for attendees, and yes, an appeal for sponsors - and helpers to organize it. Part of the event will be broadcast live from the PulverTV studio, which tells me that he'll be staging this from the Pulver.com office in Melville.

It's hard to know what to make of this, but I know Jeff is passionate about social media, and the topics he's addressing are important - and need community-building. And given all Jeff has been through this year, you have to tip your hat to him for getting back up and into something he knows how to do - build communities.

I'm not really connected to his circle these days, so it's hard to know how well this will be received. We'll just have to watch for news on his blog.

Interested? Jeff would love to hear from you!


Technorati tags: social media, Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold

New Article - Social Media in the Enterprise

I'm an occasional contributor to Business Trends Quarterly, and recently wrote an article for them on the impact social media is having in the enterprise. It's a sprawling topic, with no easy answers, and hopefully you'll find my article a good starting point for futher exploration. I'm hoping to continue this theme with BTQ in upcoming issues.

The article has now been posted to their website, and you can read it here. Let me know what you think.

Technorati tags: Business Trends Quarterly, Jon Arnold, social media

Toronto Tech Week - Highlights

Toronto Tech Week has been running all week, but yesterday was my only chance to attend. From what I saw, the content was quite good, and there's certainly no shortage of people here in Toronto who know what's going on with Web 2.0 and digital media trends.

Nothing much here on communications technologies, but that's to be expected. The closest was the session I moderated - mobile marketing. We had a pretty full room, and an engaged audience, which is my litmus test for a good session. The panelists did a great job touching on a lot of issues and I think everyone went away happy.

Overall, most of the sessions were oriented around Web 2.0 and social networking, with a lot of focus on what this means for marketers and advertisers. Pretty fascinating stuff, and while a bit removed from my everyday focus, it definitely has implications for my work.

Hats off to Dave Forde and his team for putting this together, and it sounds like TTW will become a regular event now, which is great news. I'm looking forward to coming back next time around.




Internet 2010 session...




Mobile gaming session - Dave Forde, far right...




Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, Toronto Tech Week, Dave Forde