Live from the IAOC European Conference in Brussels
Thursday, June 15, 2006 at 14:24 Here they are, the first pictures from the IAOC European Conference in Brussels.
We have a good crowd here, perfect for smaller interactive groups and the room is filled with face to face discussions about.. online communications. This is the first day and it really looks good for tomorrow when we will have a panel debate about the future of new media and a presentation by Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz.
You can see more pictures on a Wetpaint wiki we are trying out for the occasion and hope to use in the future. More coverage about the conference will follow soon on the IAOC blog also.
PS: I'll be announcing an IBM première in about 45 minutes to the people here... it has to do with mash-ups and wikis but more on that later.
Philippe Borremans
The second day of the European IAOC conference went by in a flash... Although we had an early start the paper presentations seemed to fly by very quickly... but that's maybe me - I was posting pictures and making last time arrangements at the IBM Forum. (All pictures of the conference can be found on Flickr)
The Euroblog survey results presented by Philip Young brought up some interesting discussions on the difference in cultures when it comes to European blogging... Some cultures are more outspoken than others, some will not adopt new media as fast as others because of rigid and strictly defined corporate rules etc... An interesting research topic.
We also discussed the need for a professional framework to get more case studies of new media applied in business environments. In other words; how can we prove that a blog, a wiki, a podcast or the use of RSS really adds value and ROI to business communications. And this in terms C-level executives will understand.
The conference ended yesterday with Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz talking about the Read/Write Web... You can find their presentation (slides and the Skype recording) here.
Overall feedback was very positive with some areas of improvement. The mix of academic papers versus business presentations caused some confusion among certain attendees. Also the maybe overwhelming choice of topics to pick from (although everyone attended all sessions) is something we need to look into for the next one.
More comments and feedback will certainly be posted on the IAOC Blog by Don and Suzanne.
For me it was a real pleasure to see so much interactivity and to finally meet up in real with Don Dunnington and Suzanne Fitzgerald... We have been working together for almost 2 years now (since the start of the IAOC) but never really met.
Off now for some more work in the area of new media; next week I'll be teaching 40 information professionals over the course of 2 days in Geneva. Blogs and RSS workshops, they will get their hands dirty ;-)
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