The Value of Conference Content
For many years I’ve written and podcasted about IBM’s major worldwide collaboration event each year, formerly called Lotusphere and renamed in recent years as IBM Connect. I’ve even been the member of organised teams that have live-blogged keynotes and other key sessions.
Why have I spent so much time and energy sharing content from these events?
- I realise the value of the insight shared in these sessions, and how powerful it is for all customers and partners, not just for those able to track at a specific time to a specific place.
- I also recognise what a positive impact great content has for potential customers. The knowledge that there are vendor consultants, analysts and partners willing and able to share detailed best practices, case studies of their own use, take part in panel discussions comparing and contrasting approaches and so, is a massive win for those currently evaluating platforms and vendor selection.
So I’ve always passionately argued that the content from these global and regional conferences should be shared openly and widely – not just the decks themselves, but also audio and (preferably) video recordings. Some vendors have done this effectively for a number of years – Apple’s WWDC videos and mobile app springs to mind – whereas others have struggled to even share decks efficiently, let alone record all sessions.
JiveWorld17
Therefore it is one of the joys of the way that the Jive Software organisation approaches the JiveWorld conference that they show real determination to share the insight delivered in the keynotes and breakout sessions with the entirety of the customer base, whether or not those individuals could attend the conference in Las Vegas.
Even better, that effort extends beyond just the presentation files themselves to a willingness to allocate funds and resource to recording not just the main tent sessions but also all the breakouts. As I mentioned above, this is incredibly rare for worldwide tech conferences, particularly those run by organisations the size of Jive (~600 people).
For JiveWorld17, the team has gone further than ever before by sharing the presentations and videos publicly – previously they’ve been shared in an exclusive customer space within the JiveWorks community, whereas for 2017 all the decks and videos are in an area that can be reached without even needing a login…
They are a fantastic resource for all Jive customers and partners (that goes without saying, right?), but now can be shared more widely.
So what’s covered?
Topics such as measurement, community management, driving user adoption and executive engagement are of universal value to all those working with ESNs and external communities. Add in the fact that many of the sessions were lead by hugely respected thought-leaders in the space, and I think readers will owe it to themselves to review the sessions listed.
The full list of summit, breakout and bootcamp session resources is available on the JiveWorks page, so you’ll have to go there to see those.
However, I wanted to pull out some personal highlights:
- Building the Business Case to Defend and Grow Your Program, Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable.
- How Analytics and AI-Enhanced Apps Help Us Become More Effective Employees, Alan Lepofsky of Constellation Research.
- Creating collaboration through company culture, Mark Mazza and Dan Thomas of Lloyds Banking Group.
Amongst many other great sessions, these three really stood out as examples of well presented sessions delivering top-notch content.
Whatever your organisation’s choice of technology, I do recommend you check out the JiveWorld17 sessions. There’s so many fantastic nuggets of expertise, experience and best practice shared there, it would be a desperate shame to miss out.
Lastly, kudos to Iain and all the team at Jive for creating such a great agenda, and then recording and sharing the presentations for all to consume. Thanks to them.
