Category Archives: Conferences

I ♥ Reposting

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

I want more submissions for Launch Pad so I am straight up reposting this from the Enterprise 2.0 blog. Know an enterprise 2.0 or social business vendor that likes free publicity and speaking on stages at conferences? Keep reading . . .

*************

Taking a moment to celebrate and recognize the innovation taking place within the Enterprise 2.0 marketplace is important, but rather simple. Doing it in three minutes is indubitably more challenging .

Launch Pad is a fun, free contest that awards vendors in the collaboration space with an opportunity to present live at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference. The competition is not limited to startups – all companies are encouraged to participate. The only requirement is that you showcase something new.

What do you mean by new?

We want to hear about a new product, a new partnership, a new feature — anything your company is proud to boast about in 2011. The announcement doesn’t need to take place live at the event (although we like that too); if it’s happened within the calendar year, it counts.

Sounds easy enough. How do I enter?

Craft 140 perfect characters and Twitter pitch to #e2conflp before April 11, 2011. That’s it.

Suspiciously simple – what gives?

Granted, there are a couple more hoops to jump through. The Jury will select the 8 best submissions, and those 8 companies will create 3 minute videos. After the community votes on the vids, the 4 with the most votes go on to demo live at Enterprise 2.0 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA on June 22, 2011.

Anything else I should know?

Full rules and key dates are all explained on the site. We’re switching things up slightly this year and adding a new twist to the contest: Launch Pad is officially on a diet and shaving down main stage demo time to three minutes a piece.

Jeez.

Yeah, sorry about that. Please remember to include the hashtag: #e2conflp (so we know you want to enter), and if you have any questions, just holler at me. Look forward to seeing your submissions!

*************

TL;DR Tweet to #e2conflp before April 11 to enter to win demo time at Enterprise 2.0 Boston.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Conferences

Tagged , , ,

The UN of Launch Pad

Posted on June 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

Sometimes I really dig my job.

A couple weeks back at Enterprise 2.0 Boston, I chaired the Launch Pad program. This was my third time coordinating this contest and the process is getting a little smoother and I’m feeling more confident each time I have another experience under my belt.

Regardless of any on-stage brain farts I exhibit or how many times I say “um,” the satisfaction gleamed from seeing this contest from start to finish always comes down to the people I have the opportunity to work with.

This year the Final Four came from across the globe. Alex Moore of Baydin came from Melrose, MA. Tilman Eberle flew in from Zurich. Leonardo Varella-Cid joined us from Lisbon. And lastly, Daniel Kim from MindQuilt hopped a plane  from Germany into Boston. These four gentleman were incredibly enthusiastic about their 5 minute keynote demo, and it was great to see them form bonds over the shared Launch Pad experience from the moment we did our first sound check walk through.

Weeks later there are still emails flying back and forth with invitations extended to host their fellow finalists in their native country. It feels awesome to play a role in uniting them. And a big thank you to these four for making my job way more fun.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conferences

Tagged , , , ,

#e2conf Walks for Children’s Hospital Boston

Posted on June 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’m reposting this piece I wrote from the Enterprise 2.0 blog yesterday…

Just a mere weekend away from Enterprise 2.0 Boston 2010, the E2 team is heads down, focused on last minute details, and very excited about the show next week. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work and we can’t wait to see the finished product in action.

Believe it or not, we’re now in our 6th year in Boston.  The event has made significant strides and we expect Boston 2010 to seriously rock – some highlights include:

  • a stellar keynote lineup
  • tons of exhibitors on the show floor
  • 100 members of the media ready to cover the event
  • deep dive workshops on Monday
  • and don’t forget, our Attendee Party, sponsored by IBM, is on aBOAT

Despite all of these awesome highlights, the thing I’m most excited about this year is our involvement with NSTAR’s Walk for Children’s Hospital Boston.

Enterprise 2.0 Boston has chosen Children’s Hospital Boston as the event’s official nonprofit beneficiary for 2010. Children’s Hospital Boston, an internationally renowned center for medical research and treatment, is one of the only pediatric hospitals nationwide that focuses on pairing world-class research with clinical resources to treat and cure children. UBM TechWeb, Enterprise 2.0 and its parent company United Business Media, are exceptionally proud to support this organization and the wonderful work it is doing in and around the Boston area.

Myself and a few colleagues will be walking and we encourage you to contribute; you can sponsor us or make an in-kind donation onsite at the event. Each donation makes a difference as every small action compounds to create a significant impact.

More info on the charity and Children’s Hospital can be found here.  See you next week!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conferences

Tagged , , , ,

Conference Warrior Princess

Posted on May 2, 2010 | 2 Comments

‘Tis the season. For conferences.

Flowers are in bloom, winter feels like a distant memory, and suddenly my calendar looks like a bad game of Tetris (must add though that I really love Tetris).

I’m going for 3 in 3 consecutive weeks – having attended Cloud Computing Expo in New York at the Javits, Interop Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, and last but not least – Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco at the Moscone. Phew. Just typing this list exhausts me.

Having attended many conferences in my life, here is a list of items I’ve come to realize are essential in making a conference successful / bearable / enjoyable for yourself:

  1. Breath Mints: better than gum, because no one likes talking to someone that looks like they are chewing a cud.
  2. Comfortable Shoes: no they are not the sexiest, but even your comfortable shoes will cause your dogs to bark if you’re on your feet for 16 hours.
  3. Hydrate: two parts hyrdogen, one part oxygen.
  4. Charge Your Devices at Night: there’s nothing worse than running out of juice when you need your phone / machine / pager to work for you
  5. Business Cards: lots of ‘em. You think you have enough? Throw in 50 more. Seriously.

Fun Fact: Xena was played by Lucy Lawless in the Xena TV series. I want my last name to be Lawless.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in cloud computing, Conferences, Social Web, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , ,

Return of the Dino

Posted on April 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

I served as the Chairperson for the Launch Pad contest at Cloud Connect back in March 2010 in Santa Clara. Our Final Four had a chance to demo live on the keynote – check the vid!

Ellen – I’m soooo sorry I called you Gary. I really have no excuse – please accept my apology?

Also fun to note that apparently my favorite word is “um.” Really need to get that Toastmasters class on the calendar.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in cloud computing, Conferences

Tagged , , , ,

Sass & Claberation in Cloud

Posted on April 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

I had a strategy meeting earlier this week to discuss Evening in the Cloud – a program at Enterprise 2.0 Boston on June 14, 2010. My colleague’s 9 and 10 year old sons joined us for the meeting as they’re out of school on spring break. We asked them to take notes from the meeting and I have to share….

I love seeing this because it makes me take my job less seriously. I talk about Sass all day!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conferences, Corporate Culture

Tagged , , , ,

Push Ups, Dinos & Launch Pad: Take II

Posted on March 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’m the Cloud Connect Launch Pad Chairperson, and the competition is coming to a head quite soon. I have multiple competing emotions when it comes down to the main event. Working towards a moment in time – only to have that time arrive upon you rather suddenly – has a way of snapping you into focus and scaring the crap out of you.

That being said, I’m really looking forward to presenting this contest on Wednesday. March 17, 2010 on the keynote stage at Cloud Connect down at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

The contest began on Twitter. All developers, large and small, were invited to enter their application. There was no entry fee.  We opened our doors with a simple bar for entry – Tweeting to the Cloud Connect Launch Pad Twitter handle #cc_lp.

With the help of my Jurors, we vetted the submissions and narrowed them down to our favorite 8. We then asked the Cloud Connect community to vote on their favorite tool, and the Final Four earned their right to present on the main stage, as well as earn other cool prizes.

The last Launch Pad contest I chaired was at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in San Francisco in November 2009. To prepare before getting up to present, I did push ups backstage with my buddy Justin to relieve some of the nervous tension that built up in my body. Hopefully it won’t come down to that this time…

And I’m bring the dino back.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conferences

Tagged , , , , ,

Increasing the Likelihood of Fission

Posted on February 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

I’m delighted with a recent invitation to moderate a panel on Social Media Revolution in the Workplace on February 24, 2010 down in Mountain View at Google.  The event runs from 6 to 9 pm PST and is hosted by the IIT Madras Alumni Association of America (abbreviated as IITMAANA, pronounced as eye-eye-tee-maa-na).

Did you know that one of the definitions of ‘moderator‘ is (in physics) a substance, such as water or graphite, that is used in a nuclear reactor to decrease the speed of fast neutrons and increase the likelihood of fission?

IITMAANA’s goal is to gather together friends and alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and promote charitable, educational events for their community. I’m intrigued to see what the IITM community’s level of understanding is of social computing in the enterprise. I have a feeling that this panel discussion will be geared more towards the workplace shift we’ve been experiencing and the consequential change in moving towards people-centric vs. data-centric tools, the broad advantages of collaborative technologies, and we’ll address questions pertaining to obstacles to adoption. I don’t think this will be a very technical discussion that will discuss with granularity the specific tools from the vendors my panelists represent. However, I could be entirely off the mark. I’ll just need to take an audience pulse up front and let the conversation flow (although I hope there is some controversy – no one likes a panel where everyone nods their heads and agrees with everyone else’s opinion). 

I’ll be joined by:

  • Anshu Sharma – Sr. Director (Force.com Product Management), Salesforce
  • Greg D’Alesandre - Product Manager (Google Wave), Google
  • Oliver Marks - Founding Partner, Sovos Group 
  • Raju Vegesna – Evangelist, Zoho 
  • Christopher Morace – Sr. Vice President of Products, Jive Software
  • Ross Mayfield – Co-Founder, Socialtext

Here’s a bit more detail on the event: 

The way we work is changing rapidly, offering an enormous competitive advantage to those who embrace the new tools that enable agile and simplified information exchange and collaboration to distributed workforces and networks of partners and customers.

Collaborative technologies liberate the workforce from the constraints of legacy communication and productivity tools like email. It provides business managers with access to the right information at the right time through a web of inter-connected applications, services and devices. Collaboration allows the collective intelligence of many to bubble up to the surface, translating to a competitive advantage in the form of increased innovation and productivity.

In this panel we chat with industry experts and vendors to explore topics such as:

  • Who is driving the adoption of collaborative tools?
  • What are the biggest barriers to adoption and how does one prove the business value /   ROI around social computing?
  • How does one be a better evangelist with their organization?

If you’re in the Bay Area, come down and hang at Google with me, this stellar lineup of panelists and the eye-eye-tee-maa-na. Looking forward to the discussion.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Conferences, That Damn Word Again - Community

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Email is Annoying

Posted on January 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

My boss asked some of us sales folks to put together a story, a tale from the field, or a little preso to share with our fellow colleague at a recent Sales Summit.

Email is friggin’ annoying. It can really bury you and hinder your sales process. Unfortunately it’s the preferred method of communication for many of my clients in the business technology market.

My little contribution was this Ignite style preso entitled ‘How to Make Email Less Annoying: A Tiny Guide to Outlook Best Practices for Sales People.’

Spoiler alert: Like all good Ignite talks, there’s a picture of a cute cat in it (and a bald Britney Spears!). Enjoy!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conferences, Corporate Culture

Tagged , , , , , ,

How to Properly Mug Someone

Posted on December 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

Just had the cool experience of being interviewed by Kaitlin Pike, the Web 2.0 Expo Community Manager. She asked some pointed questions about my Ignite presentation and I wanted to share an excerpt (my favorite part):

In response to her experience, Paige created “A New Way to Mug” for robbers to follow:

  1. State the other person’s behavior: “She has a laptop, and she’s just walking around with it.”
  2. State your emotional response: “That pisses me off. I want that laptop.”
  3. State choices to the other person as a result of your emotional response: “If you don’t give me that laptop I’m going to get violent.”

Although the example for these three steps involves muggers, Paige believes they should be applied much more broadly. “This can be used in any situation requiring negotiation,” she said.

For instance, imagine your boss gives you a deadline for a project you know needs more time. 1) State the other person’s behavior: “The boss has given me a deadline that isn’t realistic if we want a quality product.” 2) State how that makes you feel. “This makes me anxious.” 3) State choices to the other person as a result of your emotional response. “Boss, I am anxious this deadline as it stands will force us to cut back on important features. If you give me 4 more days I can deliver a much higher quality product.”

The important thing to remember, Paige said, is that the person cannot “make” you feel anything—your response to your boss could have been ambivalence; “It’s not my fault the product will suck. Oh well.”

Paige did not make the mugger feel angry—that was simply her response to Paige’s behavior.  When in a negotiation or conflict, say things such as “While you were doing this, this is how I felt.” People aren’t mind readers, and if you want to resolve issues with them you need to be straightforward with your feelings and what you want out of the discussion.

Thanks Kaitlin, for not asking if you minded if you unzip your pants, and for making me sound smart :)

Full interview can be found here.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Conferences

Tagged , , , ,