E2EF

Ross Dawson, Future Exploration Network: Interview

March 21, 2009 By Des Walsh

To wrap up from the various interviews with speakers and workshop facilitators I’ve been posting here from the recent Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, I’m pleased to be able to post this interview with the event’s instigator, impresario, convenor and chairman of proceedings, Ross Dawson, CEO of Future Exploration Network.

This interview was done just after the formalities concluded for the day.

At the event blog, Ross has reported in detail on coverage of the event. A few key posts are:

Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum – part 1

Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum – part 2

Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum – part 3

Several slide presentations from the day are embedded on the site and there are links to others.

There is also a post summarizing the Future Exploration Network report released on the day, Implementing Enterprise 2.0. I hope to get around to doing a review of the report here soon. My immediate reaction on a first, admittedly quick read was that this report will be a boon for many executives, consultants and others working in the Enterprise 2.0 space. I certainly intend to put my copy to good use!

Filed Under: Business, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Web 2.0 Tagged With: E2EF, Enterprise 2.0, Future Exploration Network, Ross Dawson, Sydney, Web 2.0

Stephen Collins, acidlabs.org: Interview

March 20, 2009 By Des Walsh

This interview with Stephen Collins, CEO of acidlabs.org, at the end of the day’s proceedings at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney on Feb 24 is like a good espresso – strong and short. It’s strong because of the clarity and focus of Steve’s observations. It’s short because the batteries on the Flip camera ran out!

I had thought of not posting it because it finishes rather abruptly. Then I decided that would be a waste of the valuable comments Steve provides on the state of the Enterprise 2.0 nation in Australia right now, drawing on the day’s presentations.

And it is a positive picture, for example in that, as Steve mentions, we now have some real case studies, with real stories of execution, from Australia. I concur: so good not to have to rely solely on overseas case studies to tell the story and help make the business case.

Steve comments approvingly that one of the key messages through the day was that getting Web 2.0 adopted effectively is “all about people’s problems long before it is about technology problems”.

Filed Under: Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Web 2.0 Tagged With: acidlabs, Australia, Canberra, E2EF, Enterprise 2.0, Stephen Collins, Web 2.0

Steven Noble, Forrester Research: Interview

March 19, 2009 By Des Walsh

One of the best things to happen last year for research on social media in my part of the world – i.e. Australasia and more broadly the Asia-Pacific – was the Forrester Research appointment of Steven Noble as a Senior Analyst. As well as being a very clear and disciplined thinker, Steve is a blogger – both as one of the worldwide group of bloggers, authoring his Elbow Grease blog at his former place of employ, Hill & Knowlton, and on a personal level where he blogged and blogs about his neighbourhood in Sydney’s once seriously tough and now rather more upmarket inner western suburb of Chippendale.

In this short interview at the end of the day’s formal phase at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum Steve opens by commenting that he thinks he is talking to HAL (so now my Flip camera has a new name).

In more serious vein he observes that a must-view item from the day’s proceedings is the slide deck from the presentation, Creating Business Value from Emerging Technologies, by David Backley, General Manager Applications Development and Maintenance at Westpac, one of Australia’s “Big Four” banks – the presentation was titled .

Steve says social media will “continue to boom across Asia”, but for different reasons in different markets, mentioning specifically India, Australia and China.

Some Web 2.0 related points Steve makes on China:

rapid urbanisation of the population
more people online in China than in the US (not new information, but worth the reminder)
40% of online adults in metropolitan China are content creators, publishing regularly
marketers are responding to that!

Filed Under: Business, China, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Social networking, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Asia Pacific, China, E2EF, Enterprise 2.0, Forrester Research, Steven Noble, Web 2.0

Jenny Williams, ideagarden: Interview

March 18, 2009 By Des Walsh

One of the several speakers I was pleased to be able to interview at the recent Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum was Jenny Williams, founder and Managing Partner of ideagarden.

With a most impressive record of achievement in marketing, especially from the digital and direct marketing perspectives, Jenny and her colleagues at ideagarden specialise in helping companies going through major transformation. They do this through education, facilitation and what they term collaborative strategic planning.

Jenny lists some key themes emerging from the day’s presentations around Enterprise 2.0:

openness
transparency
speed
using existing environments rather than building something new

Filed Under: Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Direct marketing, E2EF, Enterprise 2.0, ideagarden, Jenny Williams, Sydney, Web 2.0

Mick Liubinskas, Pollenizer: Interview

March 16, 2009 By Des Walsh

At Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum the other week, one of the people I wanted to interview on video was Mick Liubinskas of Pollenizer. We started, but a camera glitch put a stop to that. Instead I was able to interview Mick later via Skype audio, as below.

Online or offline, Mick Liubinskas is one of those people you are always glad to see. He is both visionary and very practical.

And he is part of the team at Pollenizer.

I find Pollenizer a very interesting company. Very basically, it combines the capabilities of a management team with an offshore (India) development team. But there is more to them than that. These are very savvy folks.

You’ll get a better idea of what they do and how they do it by having a browse around their website.

For those who want the bullet points, their “service summary” is as follows:

CxO level SWAT team;
Strategy, technology and marketing;
Planning with a strong execution focus;
Web and mobile;
Consumer and enterprise;
Part-time, full-time or project-based;
Fee, equity, performance-based or combination;
Idea, prototype, growing, seed, VC, existing business.

Here’s the interview with Mick, where we talk about a few items, including:

what Pollenizer is and does
how even in the current, economically challenging times, some companies will grow and thrive
some shared reflections on what we heard at E2EF.

If you think Mick and his team at Pollenizer just might be able to help you, call him. He really is as approachable – and as on the ball – as he sounds.