If you're wondering why I'm not live-blogging, it's because I have an awful battery in my computer - it conks off in less than 30 minutes and is at 30% health. Not too great. What I'm doing however,... A one stop shop for Sumeet Moghe's thoughts about learning in the modern enterprise.

After enjoying another gorgeous summer weekend back at home, and while I am starting to prepare things for the next upcoming business trip to Boston, MA, to attend & present at Enterprise 2.0 conference event (#e2conf), as well as sharing a series of posts with highlights from the Social Business Forum event in Milan from last week, I thought I would get things started with another week @ work with that inspiring video entry I have been sharing over the last few weeks. This time around, probably, making it even more special than ever. And you will see what I mean in just a few minutes… Have you watched Amo La Vida? No? Well, if you haven’t, please *do* so today. I can guarantee you it will change your life for good! Yes, indeed, it’s that inspiring! Once again, my good friend David Gurteen keeps finding golden nuggets that are sure a treat for everyone’s lives. This time around he shared across a short video clip (A bit over 10 minutes long…), over at KarmTube, from filmmaker Nic Askew, which is a black-and-white interview with Julio Olalla. And where Julio comes to talk about a good bunch of things with such natural charm, delight and spontaneity that’s probably going to leave a mark in all of us difficult to erase, nor forget. It’s one of those video clips that will surely get you to shed a tear or two of pure joy filled with humanity, of what it is being a human being and behaving like one. Julio gets to talk about gratitude and why we need to get it back into our day lives by sharing one of those moving stories that will make you think for a long while. He gets to talk as well about wisdom and how much different it is from knowledge itself, about the lost art of conversation, about what real friendships are all about. His sense of touching & embracing life is remarkably inspirational and one that permeates wisdom throughout, as well as being far too difficult to describe it in a single sentence or two over here without having my fingers tremble at that failed attempt. I know for certain I wouldn’t do any justice to it, so I better leave it down to you folks to go and listen to it further with just one thought: "Amo La Vida": Video from KarmaTube (I told you… mind-blowing altogether, one of the most touching video interviews ever, that I can remember, to say the least, and what a wonderfully superb way of starting a new week, don’t you think?)

My favourite session until now at XP2010 has been the Agile Suitcase session by Martin Heider and Brend Schiffer. I don't think it created any ground-breaking insights, though it was an excellent,... A one stop shop for Sumeet Moghe's thoughts about learning in the modern enterprise.

As mentioned in previous blog posts, here I am, once again, putting together this particular series of articles detailing some of the various highlights from the recent Social Business Forum event held in Milan, Italy, on June 8th, that I attended and presented at. Now, I won’t be able to detail most of what happened during the event, since there were lots of things taking place all over, but I am hoping that these few notes would help folks get a glimpse of what it was like, what I learned during the event and what I thought were some of the best keynote and breakout sessions altogether. To kick things off, this blog entry will focus though on my overall impressions of the event itself and what I thought about the whole atmosphere altogether, and if I were to summarise it in a single sentence I would probably say that the #sbf11 event has just redefined, for me, the way conference events should be like. In a single word: Converse. That’s right! Over the last few years I have attended quite a few technical conferences and time and time again the main issue I keep bumping into is not having enough time to converse with fellow attendees to continue learning from one another. So whenever I am given the chance I go ahead and take it. I mean, what are the chances of meeting up the same group of smart, talented folks at another tech event like that one? Very minimal, to say the least! So I was very glad to see how the good folks over at OpenKnowledge took good care of the details and decided to give enough importance to the whole concept of entertaining conversations for those attending the event. For us, keynote and breakout guest speakers, it all started the previous evening, as we were all invited to an evening reception, where both the food and beverages, as well as the venue, were rather accommodating and inviting. Perhaps, too inviting! (I still remember very fondly that delightful white wine and the gorgeous food coming along with it!). The end result was, eventually, meeting up with folks who I have known for a long while and with whom it was fabulous to catch up with again, but, more interestingly, meet up new friends who share a common passion, like most of us, for Social Business and the Social Web. And that’s when it turned out to be rather interesting and exciting to get to know them a little bit better and find out that we are not all of that different altogether at all, regardless of the company we may work for, and have the perfect evening arranged to confirm that! How come very very few other conferences do that for guest speakers? There is probably nothing more accommodating than receiving a nice and warm welcome when you arrive in a foreign city to deliver a presentation the next day, I can tell you that! Even more, when a good number of the conversations I had provoked multiple follow-up ideas that shaped a few last minute changes in my own presentation incorporating a good number of new thoughts, ideas, and mind-blowing concepts that are still lingering in my mind… Priceless! Then we move on to the day of the event itself … Now, I *do* realise how the conference wi-fi was not there as pervasive as most folks would have expected from a technical event, for whatever the circumstances. And contrary to how I would usually react in previous occasions, it didn’t bother me this time around. At all. Ha! Yes, can you imagine me saying that after all of what I have said and written about in the last few years? Well, I came to the conclusion, and rather interesting ah-ha moment, that not having wi-fi allows you to talk more, face to face, with people who are right in front of you waiting to engage. Physical interactions are still irreplaceable. No doubt! I mean, conversing over the Social Web is just such a wonderful thing that we have all have gotten so accustomed to it that we have been rather spoiled altogether. Yet, there is nothing like talking to people and participating in conversations, right there, as they happen, and you get to interact with others. Well, the Social Business Forum event allowed for plenty of that and so much more! To the point where I came to the conclusion of not worrying about wi-fi at conferences any longer from there onwards. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t, let’s talk face to face and enjoy the ride! I bet it will be much more interesting and fruitful eventually,… At least, it was for me! The conference event took place at the Marriott Hotel in Milan, Italy, and, once again, I would have to confirm how important and critical it is to have the perfect venue for it. This hotel was just it! Absolutely wonderful! But not only because of the lodgings and the logistics, but also because of the superb catering service. This is one of my big pet peeves at conferences, how over time and as the years go by the quality of both food & drinks has deteriorated quite a bit to the point where it’s almost non-existent… And this is just such a missed opportunity. Now, I *do* realise it may well be just my Mediterranean / Latin side of things, but having the right catering service is not only going to be very beneficial for us all (Why would we need to give up on our own health and healthy habits, while attending events! Right?), but also for the overall conference. Having the right combination of food & drinks, both during lunch and breaks, is going to help people become more comfortable, more chatty, more at ease with the environment they are immersed in, to the point where they would engage much more in those already on-going conversations. Why not embrace it, like the #sbf11 folks did? I mean, as an example, I extended, on purpose, a good number of great conversations while I was enjoying that second, extra creamy, white coffee going beyond the senses! I guess what I am trying to say with all of this is the conclusion I came to towards the end of the event that perhaps it’s time for tech conferences to slow down a bit. And let us enjoy the pace of being humans again, while we talk to other fellow humans, face to face, without having to rush off to the next scheduled session. Now, I know that some of the breakout sessions hardly had any space to mix and mingle along the lines I described above, but overall I think the pace of the event, as well as lunch and coffee breaks were just right. And wish other conferences would take example and further notice and allow their attendees to see and witness the world slowing down a bit for a change. Somehow I feel we would all be much better off altogether! And come back for more! I surely will … Ok, by now I am sure you have realised how this blog post with some of the highlights on the event itself have got very little to do with both the content and the speakers. Yes, that’s right! I thought I would get things started talking about looking after the details of making a great event a superb one. And that’s exactly what I witnessed four years later after my first, back then, Enterprise 2.0 Forum in Italy. Emanuele Quitarelli, Rosario Sica and their wonderful entire team at OpenKnowledge hosted a fantastic event, even though it’s not their specialty! I wish others, whose entire specialty is that exact same one, would pick up on some of their ideas to help revolutionise the way we engage and participate in tech conference events. To me, eventually, it all felt like being part of a big family of good old & new friends, with a shared common passion around Social Business wanting to network, connect and converse with one another, learning from each other, without double agendas, second intentions or whatever other hidden purposes; just basically, conversing and sharing for the sake of wanting to learn more. And the fact that the evening of the event got a bunch of us together going out for dinner and a drink or two clearly indicates how most of the times it pays off being in good company, engaging in real conversations wanting to find out and learn plenty more about that person sitting right next to you, instead of trying to find a good excuse to go and grasp your mobile gadget to snoop around a way to make a move and leave that space. That’s not us; that should *not* be us; we need to start humanising conference events once again. Forget about big, impersonal, mass media driven events. They are just so passe. The Social Business Forum has just shown us, if anything, the way we all have got ahead of us… Hope other tech conferences would do the same… and take their lead… (Not to worry, on follow-up blog posts I will be cutting to the chase and focus plenty more on both content and keynote / breakout sessions… This one was just a little bit of an appetiser… hehe)

Apart from the sessions I've written exclusively about, here a quick synopsis of the other sessions I really liked. I'm going to be quick about it, so let me just jot down the high level notes from... A one stop shop for Sumeet Moghe's thoughts about learning in the modern enterprise.

Or so they say… I still remember my first day at the company, as if it were yesterday. January 20th 1997. There I was, standing by the main entrance door at the IBM site in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands, wondering whether I made the right decision to enter the IT world or whether I would be regretting it for life. There I was, a non-techie, English graduate, who still hates computers today, looking forward to start working for that computing giant that had continued to make history throughout decade after decade, not knowing how it would all work out eventually, or whether he would be able to stick around for a while… 14 years later, things haven’t changed much. The excitement and willingness to make a difference are still there, as if it were the first day. The aversion for everything related to IT is still there as well, however, the fondness and pride of being surrounded by a wonderful group of talented and very smart folks, as my work colleagues, are still very much there, too! And, if anything, it’s what has kept me going over the course of years. Like in almost any business, I am sure, the people who build and shape them! Happy 100th year anniversary IBM! Indeed, this year, and, in particular, this week (Today), IBM is celebrating its 100th year anniversary. 100 years of history in the making and still going rather strong. The only IT company in the whole world that’s been there for that long. The only IT business who has kept reinventing itself over the course of decades and still going strong. Rather strong! And as I get to reflect on this post on what that has meant for me over the years, I cannot imagine how someone like me has been able to stick around for over 14% of that lifetime achievement, when over 50% of today’s IBM population hasn’t been in the company for more than 5 years. Do I feel old? No, absolutely not! I just feel privileged! Privileged to have developed a career that has expanded for those 14 years doing what I love doing, i.e. my dream job; and still keep going at it. Back then I started working as a customer support representative for the mainframe, from there onwards I moved into training and education, to then further on start working around 2000 in the areas of Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Online Communities, Learning and the last few years around Social Computing. All of that expanding four different business units, three different countries, 5 different projects, hundreds of business trips, meeting thousands of very smart, interesting and insightful people (Both clients and fellow colleagues!) from whom I keep learning day in day out throughout all of that time. Not too bad for a dinosaur, archaic, computing based, rather strict business, don’t you think? Yes, indeed, I, too, doubt it would get better than that: privileged to have the flexibility to shape up not only my own career, but the company I have been working at for the last 14 years and going… I am not too sure how much longer I will be here, since you never know what may be happening tomorrow or the next day. You all know how it goes… What I do know though is that, regardless of whatever it may be happening, having worked for this company for that long has certainly meant a whole new world for me; it’s shaped tremendously this person you folks know today; it’s helped me age and grow both intellectually and mentally to be who I am today. From my younger years to the not so younger years anymore. In fact, I never thought I would be making it this far, since I am still very inclined towards my teaching and education background and I know that, at some point, I will be going back to my origins. However, for now, I’ll continue to rejoice, experience and live through the Centennial celebrations of that company that has given me the opportunity to shape up my role and contributions to the same. Something that I will always appreciate and treasure quite a bit, specially as we all keep humanising the corporate environment we work at with all of this Social Business stuff. That’s why today, and like almost every day, I will keep drinking a bit more of kool-aid, or, better, I will keep drinking our very own champagne, knowing that it’s always much much better to do it in good company, with those fellow colleagues who have moved on from being just my peers to become my good friends, my partners in crime, the ones I will keep treasuring for how they keep taking things into the next level when delighting their clients and the ones that I know, long after I am gone, will help me remember all of these years with plenty of fond memories. Yes, of course, there have been tough times throughout all of those 14 years, but one has come to realise that it’s those difficult times they ones that allow you to grow further, to become better at what you do, to continue making a difference, to be better for your customers and for those around you, to be just you, which, at the end of the day, is what really matters. And to that extent, I can only add plenty of words of gratitude and appreciation to this company, IBM, who has decided to employ me for that long and for allowing me to be part of that 100th year legacy that I will remember for what’s left of my life. Yes, I know that things could change, and they would eventually change, but they won’t be able to take away what I have learned, and lived, and experienced with my colleagues over the course of the last 14 years and still going. That’s mine. That’s ours, eventually. It’s our human experience that no-one can touch any longer. And to such extent, that’s the main reason why this year, in order to celebrate that 100th year anniversary I will be pledging over 100 hours of community service where I will be volunteering my time to help others in various different areas, although perhaps with that special focus on the Academia world, which is, basically, where I come from in the first place. It’s always good to go back to basics, I suppose. If you are a fellow IBMer, and if you are reading this blog post, I, too, hope you will be pledging some hours to those special projects you always wanted to work and contribute to, but didn’t find a good time to engage. Even if you are not an IBMer, you can still pledge some hours to contribute back to your own communities. Perhaps now it’s the time to go ahead and do it. And that way help prepare for the next 100 years… You and me won’t be there, for sure, but our legacy will. Regardless. Just like the folks on this wonderful video clip have witnessed over the course of the years… (Ever onward!, and on to the next 100 years, my dear IBM! May you keep growing and show the world what a sustainable and smarter planet business can do to make a difference for us all … and for this world altogether… THINK!)

Tips for Effective Presentations Over the last couple of days I've been training the new trainers at ThoughtWorks University. Those who know me will be aware that I'm extremely passionate when it... A one stop shop for Sumeet Moghe's thoughts about learning in the modern enterprise.

Continuing further with that series of blog posts detailing some of the major highlights for yours truly from the recent Social Business Forum conference event in Milan, Italy, I thought I would go ahead and share with you folks today the next installment where I would focus on the first part of the day, the one with all of the keynote speaker sessions, detailing some of the major key learnings and ah-ha moments I experienced throughout that morning. Then in later blog posts I will share some more thoughts on the various breakout sessions I attended and perhaps I will put together one final blog entry where I will link to the recordings of the presentations, once they are all made available. So, let’s get things going! How can I summarise an entire morning of inspiring keynotes in a single sentence or two. Let’s see… How about Social Business is not something entirely new, we already knew about it from before. Welcome to the 2.0 Awakening of Business! Yes, indeed! That would pretty much nail it, as far as I can see, for those couple keynote speaker sessions that kicked off the event to a great start! At first, we had Emanuele Scotti and Rosario Sica (From OpenKnowledge) who spent a few minutes going through a fancy and elegant Prezi presentation ("Social Business on the Shoulders of Giants") where they quoted a good number of great thinkers from our recent history, going as far back as Newton (Stayed tuned, because this reference will come up again!), sharing further insights which mimic, almost too close, plenty of the main thinking behind Social Business from all along, even for Social Computing and Enterprise 2.0. With a couple of those quotes as some of my own favourites. Like Fernando Flores’ "Trust is the main ingredient necessary for creating and sustaining a solid business relationship" or that other one from Rita Levi Montalcini: "Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them". That short session clearly highlighted how plenty of the same thinking that has been inspired and provoked for Social Business has got plenty of deeper roots, throughout the years, in how business used to run in the past, but that we seemed to have forgotten, or neglected, in the last few decades altogether. Great refreshing reminders that confirm how we may not be inventing anything new in here, maybe just an evolution, but perhaps going through that full awakening stage of reminding us all who we really are and what we do for business on a daily basis. Good stuff! Here’s the embedded Slideshare deck, so you can catch up with some of the remaining quotes they shared across: Social Business on the Shoulders of Giants - Emanuele Scotti & Rosario Sica View more videos from SocialBizForum Moving on into the next keynote session we had the great pleasure and true honour of having with us Bill Johnston, Director of Global Community at Dell, who under the very suggestive title "Paving the way to Social Business" did a fabulous job at describing how Dell has progressed from pretty much ignoring social media to become a full powerhouse leading the way in the consumer space in just over 3 to 4 years. I told him (half jokingly), at the end of the session, how much I enjoyed it, to the point that if it weren’t for the OS running in Dell machines I wouldn’t mind purchasing one myself just to experience their customer excellence! Indeed, the set of slides that Bill put together were amazingly insightful and very much spot on in helping define what are some of the main challenges and great opportunities for businesses with a common goal: delighting their clients. And he basically shared plenty of insights on how they go about it over at Dell. You can have a look into the slides over at Slideshare as well and I strongly recommend you spend a few minutes going through them, specially, check out slide #6 on a rather inspirational holistic approach towards networks of value, which I am sure is going to resonate, quite a bit, with those folks who advocate, very vehemently, where the final frontier for Social Business is at the end of the day. Or check slide #8: one of the most brutal slides you will see available out there and which describes, pretty nicely, how Dell came on board the whole social media bandwagon to be one of the industry leaders in this space at the moment. It’s a rather bold move to come out there and share stories like that one from that slide and how that evolution on wanting to become better will require an extra effort and lots of learning. Pretty much along the very same lines that we, over at IBM, experienced with Jams, back in the day. Just brilliant! The rest of the slides are pretty interesting detailing as well several of the Dell initiatives they have got in place, like SMaC (Social Media and Community Team), or the Social Media and Community University, which comes pretty close to the same beliefs behind our very own BlueIQ Adoption and Enablement Programme, IdeaStorm, etc. etc. Worth while looking into! Just as much as the part dedicated towards the holy grail of social media; of course, I am referring to figuring out the ROI of these social tools as well as some very interesting piece of advice on "Planning for Social Media & Community Engagement", where Bill shared plenty of good practices on how to get things started with plenty of pragmatic approaches and sound advice (Check slides #22 to #26). However, if I were to highlight the one favourite slide from his presentation that would be, without a doubt, slide #10 where Bill just mentioned how critical listening is for any social media strategy. In fact, to Dell it’s "The Heart of our Social Strategy". As it should be, for sure! That’s what we keep on insisting ourselves, social computing evangelists, as well that before you dive right in, check out what’s happening out there, listen to what people are saying, get to learn and absorb how they interact and from there onwards figure out and find a way that would suit not only you and your own needs, but those of your customers, which is what matters at the end of the day. And active listening is the perfect activity to get the ball rolling! Here you have got the embedded code of Bill’s great presentation, so you can quickly flip through the charts and get a glimpse of what you can look forward to whenever the recording of his keynote becomes available at a later time: Keynote from Social Business Forum 2011 View more presentations from Bill Johnston And, finally, the last one from the morning keynote speaker sessions. This time around with the rather provocative, but very insightful Andrew Gilboy, Oracle VP E2.0 EMEA, who covered "Social Business, it’s also about the Processes". And I do realise I am describing his session as rather thought-provoking and eye-opening from the perspective that anyone out there who may be involved with the whole concept of creativity and the arts, i.e. musicians, authors, play writers, filmmakers, etc. etc. must go through the first few slides (From slide #8 to #slide 20) to find out, in a very helpful manner, the state of their own industry and how if they continue to think along the lines of the 20th century business models they are bound to suffer quite a bit, if not disappear altogether! And all of that through a wonderful trip down the memory lane of the music industry in the last decade! A must-go-through, for sure! From there onwards, Andrew covered that important aspect of identifying new social business processes that would apply not only to the music industry, but to multiple other industries as well. Just loved his distinction of how those (social) business processes have been working out their magic for both "left" and "right brainers" (Slide #23) to present a rather interesting and immersive landscape that no business should ignore, nor neglect. Finally, another worth while paying attention section from his presentation was that part where he covered Opportunities and Threats with plenty of examples from other businesses who have already taken a potential threat and converted it into a huge opportunity, helping define the landscape of how business will be conducted in the near future. Really worth while having a look, if only to check out how those other businesses are becoming, and living, social. Here is the embedded code of Andrew’s slide deck, so you can have a look into it right away as well: Socialising the Enterprise: it’s also about the process - Andrew Gilboy View more presentations from SocialBizForum And that was it from me for now! As you can see, plenty of great food for thought on what it means to become a successful and sustainable social business with lots to digest and think through. But overall quite a line-up of rather relevant, interesting and inspiring keynote speakers who definitely helped set the stage for a good bunch of great conversations we all had throughout the day. But that would be the time for another blog post, where I can talk about the remaining sessions, as well as those other conversations on the side … Stay tuned for more to come!

You may remember that I had written a blog post about Microsoft's illustration styles that can help you create a consistent look and feel for your presentations and elearning courses. Unfortunately... A one stop shop for Sumeet Moghe's thoughts about learning in the modern enterprise.

Today is *the* day, indeed! Today marks the end of the first 100 years of the company that has employed me for the last 14 and still going strong. Today is IBM‘s 100th anniversary (Check #ibm100 on Twitter to see how folks are celebrating such massive achievement). So, to keep the celebrations going, I thought I would follow up a recent blog entry I wrote on this Centennial celebration by putting together this rather short one pointing folks to a couple of interesting resources worth while having a look at, just to check out how fellow IBMers are celebrating online, as well as offline, such remarkable milestone. I mean, how many folks do you know that have worked for an (IT) business that’s lasted for so long and still growing healthier, more and more, by the day? … 100 years later… I don’t know many of them, to be honest, which is why today, specially, I have got a stronger sense of pride and privilege for sticking around throughout all of this time. Yes, I know, lots of kool-aid coming along, folks, so I will try to keep it short and straight to the point. Let’s get started, of course, with the IBM100 Web site, a dedicated space for everyone to dive into some of the major inflection points in IBM’s history, and probably that of the world’s, too! Happy 100th Year, My Dear IBM! I am sure you may have seen, or noticed, how a whole bunch of articles are coming along detailing what some of the main achievements have been for IBM in those past 100 years. My good friends, and fellow colleagues, Ed Brill and Andy Piper, amongst several others, have put together rather insightful blog posts as well that detail, a little bit, the richness of the interactions and experiences they, too, have lived over an extensive period of time. Worth while reading, for sure. I know as well how plenty of folks all over the place were commenting on why the "main" IBM Twitter account was dormant for a little while; well, as you may have seen already, the wild duck is out and about, once again, and that account is now active big time celebrating as well such a special date as today’s. Go ahead and start following it, if you would want to be in the know of what’s happening out there in the IBM world. Now, I can imagine you may be wondering about the intriguing "wild ducks" mention I just did on the above paragraph, right? Well, not to worry; it’s the title on another one of those brilliantly inspiring video clips that has been released, just recently, to celebrate IBM’s Centennial, along with the 100×100 or the "They Were There" ones. At the same time there is a new book out there, that I just can’t wait to get my hands on the Kindle version, that describes pretty much that lifetime of success and innovation around IBM, including as well the tough times that always allow one to redefine and grow further on your own core beliefs, under the title "Making the World Work Better" with this lovely and inspirational legend: "The Ideas that Shaped a Century and a Company". Perhaps I couldn’t even have put it in better words than @ibm‘s bio has just done: "By becoming a very different company from what we were just a few years ago, we have become much more like the company IBM has been for most of its history" Ok, I know that this blog entry may just be bordering on the über-kool-aid effect, but I *do* hope you can understand where I am coming from; today’s IBM 100th anniversary is quite a remarkable event that cannot just go by un-noticed. Either way, I will probably talk a little bit later on in time about the Memorabilia that I just got myself a couple of weeks back and that I’m enjoying quite a bit so far and that you could also go ahead and enjoy! For now, though, you may want to go ahead and download the .PDF IBM Centennial Essay and embark yourself on what promises to be quite an interesting read. Or you may want to go ahead and dive into the Celebration of Service Day and pledge some hours to help your local communities and favourite NGOs. Thousands of IBMers have already pledged over 2.5 million hours, and counting! Yes, I know, there will be always something out there for everyone to go ahead and enjoy further while celebrating IBM’s Centennial. And as I am reaching now the end of this blog post, I thought what a better way of doing that than making the connection with that, recently released, IBM Centennial Film under the heading "Wild Ducks - Celebrating 100 years of Visionary Clients", which is just so remarkably inspirational and beautiful that would make for a wonderful mid-afternoon coffee break of 15 minutes of pure gold, seeing how some IBM customers prove what Smarter Planet has been aiming at for the last few years: a better, smarter world, where sustainable growth, and good health, of both our businesses and societies will help shape the next 100 years! Happy 100th Anniversary, my dear IBM! ("You can make wild ducks tame, but you can never make tame ducks wild again" - Thomas Watson Jr.)