Most of us get a lot out of blogging, micro-blogging, and various other collaboration platforms we engage in, but there really is no good substitute yet for getting together “in carbon” as they say. There are excellent opportunities coming up to do this over the next few months in the Enterprise 2.0 space.
The first conference worth mentioning is FAST’s second annual conference. The conference is next week in Orlando. Over 1000 attendees will swarm the Shingle Creek Resort to hear the latest on how Enterprise 2.0 is making its way into the enterprise. The conference is next week, so if you haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late. I hear from Francois Gossieaux that in addition to the sessions and keynotes, which would be enough reason to go, there are numerous satellite activities scheduled around the clock, including cocktail parties and various events. I will definitely be there. Most of the FAST Forward bloggers will be there, as well. The FAST blog has really contributed significantly to the discussion on Enterprise 2.0. It was prescient on FAST’s part to establish a thought leadership platform so early on. Now, soon to be a part of the Microsoft family, FAST is looking quite fashionable and forward-thinking. Last year’s event was a huge success. I expect similar results from this one.
If you’re in Europe, or want to consider a spring European get-away… You should check out the Enterprise 2.0 Summit to be held in on the CeBIT Fairground in Hannover, Germany in March. This conference looks really interesting to me, as I’ve been tracking with some of the discussions on the group’s Facebook group page.
The next conference in the e2.0 space is the second annual Enterprise 2.0 Conference which will again be held in Boston in June. CMP runs this conference and it is shaping up to be rich with content and attendee interest. I’m on the advisory board for this conference. We are discussing various keynotes and directions to take strategically with the theme. So much has transpired this year, it’s hard to narrow down the choices. I’m responsible for five different roundtable panels: enterprise mash-ups, social media, social computing platforms, micro-blogging and emergent platforms, and social networking. I’m making progress on gaining commitments from various leaders in the space and celeb bloggers who can moderate the panels. I’ll be posting more on this, as schedules firm up. Steve Wylie has initiated an interesting user-generated approach to general assembly sessions. Attendees can vote on the sessions they’re interested in. There is also a Facebook group for this conference too.
In early September, we’ll return once again to San Francisco for the 3rd annual Office 2.0 Conference. I’m responsible for the Enterprise 2.0 track, so I will be busy trying to bring you something new that you haven’t seen in the other conferences. This year, once again, my focus will be to highlight case studies and on-the-ground Enterprise 2.0 projects and trials in production. Much more on all this, as the year progresses. Ismael Ghalimi has been busy building his prototype device for this conference. You can track with Ismael’s progress on the IT|Redux blog.
There may be some e2.0-specific events I’ve left out between now and September, so please feel free to add them in the comments. Hope to see you in carbon, real soon.
Update: If you happen to be down under, Ross Dawson’s Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum to be held February 19 in Sydney looks well worth attending. Participants have started a blog that’s worth reading too.
This timetable, and the growing acceptance and implementation of E2.0 in the US makes me a little jealous. I hope to make Office 2.0, but at AU$4000-ish per trip (airfare, hotel and expenses) to the US, it’s a near-impossible commitment to make to attend more than one of these great conferences a year.
I would desperately love to make Boston, but neither of my proposals made it to the final round (although there are some very similar ones to mine in there), so to just come as an attendee is too expensive.
I’m regretting a little not being able to make FASTForward, but your invitation came too late for me to reorganise my commitments. Next year!