It is an exciting time to be working in community management. Why? Because while the role has been around for a while, it is getting a lot more attention lately and it is becoming a strategic differentiator for executives and companies that do it well. Another positive trend is that there is growing recognition that software is necessary but not sufficient in order to move toward a new enterprise information management paradigm, which is fundamentally what socially mediated information does. This new ‘social’ software must be combined with a community management approach to effectively increase how quickly and effectively information is distributed and consumed whether for internal collaboration purposes or external support and marketing needs.
This year, for the first time, the Enterprise 2.0 conference will feature a Community Development and Management track. The Enterprise 2.0 conference has been at the forefront of bringing together the leading thinkers in the social software market and has been a great event for hearing how a wide variety of organizations are implementing the tools. Over the years, more and more business managers and executives have been coming to hear about how to operationalize social within their organizations. The conference has hosted workshops and sessions to address this audience but it is really exciting to have an entire track dedicated to this topic. I have been working with Ted Hopton of UBM to create a track that we hope will provide a comprehensive look at community management, both for those just starting to think about their community management approach and those with some experience under their belt.
We have put together an agenda that mixes session formats to include time to hear experts and detailed case studies as well as sessions intended to be highly interactive. We are kicking things off with a discussion with Mark Yolton from SAP to elaborate on their community journey and how their initial support forums evolved into a new strategic approach for the entire organization. That will be followed by tracks covering the fundamentals of community and then we will dig in to some specific areas of particular importance in community management – engagement, measurement, building support, governance, and collaboration. We’ll end the track by looking ahead and discussing what’s next with some of the most experienced community executives in the market.
We have three days of sessions packed with an impressive speaker list, all of who are experienced community management practitioners and well known in the field:
- The Story of Community Building at SAP – Fireside chat with Mark Yolton, SVP of SAP Community Network
- Communities 101: Planning and Executing Award Winning Communities a presentation by Bill Johnston, Head of Global Community, Dell
- Community Managers: Why You Need Them and What Do They Do? Mini-presentations by Claire Flanagan, Director, KM and Enterprise Social Collaboration Strategy, CSC; Megan Murray, Community Manager, Project Coordinator, Booz Allen Hamilton; and Erica Kuhl, Community Manager at Salesforce.com
- 101 Ways to Engage: Confessions of Community Organizers a panel discussion led by Nahum Gershon, Senior Principal Scientist, MITRE
- Data-Driven Community Management a presentation by Ted Hopton, Wiki Community Manager, UBM
- In the Flow: Patterns of Observable Work a joint presentation by Brian Tullis, Director, Information Services and Joe Crumpler, IS Manager, Aerospace PMO of Alcoa Fastening Systems
- Getting to “Aha” – Inspiring Change in the Way People Communicate a panel discussion led by Robin Harper including Guy Martin, Community Management & Strategic Consultant at CollabNet; Michael Pace, Director of Customer Support, Constant Contact; Giovanni Rodriguez, CMO at BroadVision; and Deborah Schultz, Partner, Altimeter Group.
- Governing Social Collaboration for the Enterprise a joint presentation by Laura Melchionne, Director, Cisco.com Governance and Operations and Harbrinder Kang, Sr. Director Collaboration Technologies, Cisco Systems
- Emerging Challenges for Community Managers a panel discussion I will lead including Erin Liman, Director, Social Business Innovation, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group, SAP; Eran Barak, VP, Global Head of Community Strategy, Thomson Reuters; Len Devanna, Director of Digital Strategy, EMC; and Ted Hopton, Wiki Community Manager, UBM
If you are looking for a way to ramp up and dig in, we hope you will join us – Enterprise 2.0 runs November 8-11 in Santa Clara, CA. You can register for the conference here.
