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  • Home
  • News
  • Agenda
  • Speakers
    • Speakers
    • Submit an abstract
    • Writing an Abstract
    • Writing a Bio
    • Information for speakers
  • Sponsors
    • Our Sponsors
    • Become a sponsor
  • Event Info
    • Venue
    • Floor plan and sponsor layout
    • Mobile app
    • Hotels
    • Social Dinner
    • Travel
    • Sightseeing
  • About us
    • About us
    • Resources
    • Our team
    • FAQ
    • Our previous sponsors
    • Logo & Graphics
    • Privacy Policy
    • Previous events
      • Online Conferences
      • LetsConnect Munich 15
      • Social Connections 14 Berlin
      • Social Connections 12 Vienna
      • Social Connections 13 Philadelphia
      • Social Connections 11 Chicago
      • Social Connections 10 Toronto
      • Social Connections 9 Stuttgart
      • Social Connections 8 Boston
      • Social Connections 7 Stockholm
      • Social Connections 6 Prague

schedule

aarti_borkar featured
13/042018

IBM ICS Collaboration strategy for the Future of Work

News ibm, ibmcnx, ics, keynote, philadelphia, schedule, sessions, soccnx, speaker by Wannes Rams

Come to Social Connections, and more specifically to the keynote of IBM’s Vice President, Offering Management and Design, Watson Talent and Collaboration, Aarti Borkar to learn about the strategic vision from IBM on the Future of work.

Learn how IBM will combine the different parts of the portfolio to create a unified toolset to take on the challenges companies face today and tomorrow.

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mrpink
23/032017

Think Pink, Connections Pink comes to Social Connections Chicago!

News agenda, Chicago, connections, ibm, ibmcnx, ics, pink, schedule, sessions, soccnx, socialconnections, speaker, Speakers by Wannes Rams

We are announcing our first session!

We are proud to present Mr. Pink Jason Gary as a speaker at Social Connections. Jason will tell us all about the future of IBM Connections which we know as Connections Pink.

Those of you who attended IBM Connect remember the excitement and vibe in his session where the room was so full we all had to stand in the back and along the walls.

We can’t wait to hear more from Jason on the latest updates regarding Pink since IBM Connect.

Jason will be speaking with Baan Slavens. Baan is Senior Offering Manager for IBM Connections.  Baan focuses on  understanding the collaboration market and the future direction for collaboration for IBM Connections.  She is also the Offering Manager for IBM Connection Mobile and the lead for the strategic direction of all the mobile applications in IBM Collaborations.

Check out the full description of this session here.

More to come! This is only the first of many great sessions we have lined up for you. Stay tuned for more information.

 

Register for the conference through our website, and note that we are accepting abstracts until end of the month if you are interested in speaking.

 

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keep-calm-and-submit-your-abstract-featured
05/022015

10 days…

News abstracts, schedule, sessions, soccnx by Wannes Rams

Submit your abstract!It is just 10 days until the Social Connections 8 call for abstracts slides ever so tightly shut.

Yes, you have just ten short days in which to submit your great ideas for sessions at the upcoming IBM Social Business user group, which takes place in Boston on 16th and 17th April.  We’re looking to select 20-30 really tip-top sessions to fill out our provisional event schedule – we’ve had some really super abstracts so far (thanks go to everyone that has submitted) but we’d really love more!

For the first time at Social Connections, we will be offering a selection of session durations:

  • 15 minutes – solely for Spotlight sessions (see below)
  • 30 minutes – the standard session length, used for ~75% of our session slots. You will increase your chance of being selected by opting for this session length
  • 60 minutes – for in-depth technical sessions, where it is difficult to get to grips with the content in 30 minutes

We are inviting sessions in the following tracks:

  • Administration – sessions relating to administering Social Business platforms. It could be the design and build of infrastructure, upgrading, managing users, migrating to the cloud, integration with other services or platforms etc. Sessions relating to cloud, hybrid or on-premise infrastructures are welcome! (30-minute and 60-minute slots)
  • Case Study – sessions focused on telling the story of existing Social Business projects. We love case studies! And the more honest the better! Ideally these sessions should feature at least one speaker from the company that uses the platform, but they could be accompanied by a vendor or partner. (30-minute slots only)
  • Development – how and why to develop for these services. We’d love you to share your tips, techniques and experience of developing solutions or applications, where you might hit issues, and how you overcome them. (30-minute and 60-minute slots)
  • Future of Work – new for this conference, sessions in this track should explore topics around the area of improving the productivity of individuals and organisations through the use of social technologies. (30-minute slots only)
  • Management – sessions that take a higher-level view of the issues, challenges and opportunities that surface when deploying social platforms. (30-minute slots)
  • Spotlight – also new for Social Connections 8, this track is designed to give new (or experienced) speakers the chance to present a short session on a topic of their choice. Think of it as being akin to TED talks, but within the framework of Social Connections. You can choose to use a presentation deck or not, to prepare earnestly or to speak from the heart, the choice is yours. What we’re after is insight, interest and passion – the rest is up to you! (15-minute slots only)
  • Sponsor – for those organisations that are sponsoring the event at Gold level or above, there is the option to submit a Sponsor session for the conference. (30-minute slots only)

The theme for the conference is ‘Beyond the Enterprise‘, so you may wish to give some thought to how your topic relates to this. You can take it any way you like, e.g. bridging internal and external communities, working with partners, making Social Business relevant to small organisations, creating non-work-related social communities, and so on.  It’s not mandatory for the abstract to relate to the theme, but obviously it would be even better if it did.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is Sunday 15th February 2015, so you need to get your proverbial skates on!

Some advice that might help:

  • If you’re an experienced speaker and want to submit your session that you presented at IBM ConnectED, or will present at InterConnect, Engage or ICS UG, then we’d be happy to accept it. We’d just advise that you might tweak it to suit the session lengths described above. Also, we do try to have a really interactive atmosphere at Social Connections, so make sure you leave some space for questions and feedback from the audience.
  • Keep Calm & submit your abstract!If you’re new to speaking at events such as user groups and conferences, please don’t let that put you off! We all have to start somewhere, and we’d love to support you make your debut at Social Connections 8! You might want to consider submitting for the Spotlight track mentioned above, which would give you an informal 15-minute slot to cover your case-study, concept, solution or idea. If you need longer, but feel unsure about delivering a session alone, please reach out to the Social Connections team – either one of us would be delighted to assist or co-present, or else we can recommend another speaker that might be ideal for your session.
  • We’re always very keen to receive submissions for the case-study track, so please give some thought to whether you can tell your own organisation’s story regarding adoption of Social Business technologies. Typically case study sessions get really high ratings from attendees, as well as comments that suggest how useful they’ve been in assisting their own organisation’s journey.
  • Please consider submitting multiple abstracts for different topics and tracks. The selection team will be trying to create a balanced and informative schedule for the two days of the conference, therefore we may (for example) have a surplus of great management sessions, where a quality administration abstract would have been selected.
  • Submit ASAP! We’ve already highlighted a number of speakers on our site and will be selecting a few key sessions throughout the remaining few days of the process to list on our site. If you have a great idea for a session, get it to us right away…

So, ten days and counting! Hope to read your abstract(s) very soon!

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14/042014

Social Connections VI agenda announced!

News agenda, event, ibmcnx, schedule, soccnx by Wannes Rams

Prague-BannerColor-Final

Today, we are proud to announce the agenda for the upcoming Social Connections VI event in Prague on 16th and 17th of June.

Featuring a record 44 sessions over two days, we think this is more than likely the most comprehensive IBM Connections-focused event ever. In fact, the team received so many awesome session abstracts, we had to schedule a fourth room to allow us to accept more sessions than we otherwise could. Even then, we were forced to turn down a few that we’d have loved to see ourselves so we send our commiserations and apologies to those that submitted sessions and were not selected…

Here’s a high-level overview of the schedule for the event:

Monday 16th June:

Selected Highlights
09:30 Registration Opens
10:00 – 12:00 Optional Jumpstart: Introduction to Social Business (in Czech)
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch, meet the Sponsors and networking
14:00 – 14:30 Opening General Session
14:30 – 15:15 Keynote: IBM Connections “Next” is Here – Why It Matters! (Luis Benitez, IBM)
15:15 – 15:45 Leveraging Global CEMEX: a reinforced Global Networks Model to move from “Good” to “Great” (Luis Garza, CEMEX)
15:45 – 16:15 Break
16:15 – 17:00 Keynote: The IBM Social Mail Roadmap (HP Dalen, IBM)
17:00 – 17:30 Social Business Adoption in 5 easy steps (Alan Hamilton, IBM)
17:45 – 18:30 Speed Sponsoring
19:30 – 23:00 Evening Reception

Tuesday 17th June:

Selected Highlights
09:00 – 09:45 Keynote: IBM – Understanding the journey of becoming a Social Business (Chris Crummey, IBM)
09:50 – 10:55 Breakout sessions (4 rooms, 8 sessions)
10:55 – 11:20 Break
11:20 – 12:25 Breakout sessions (4 rooms, 8 sessions)
12:25 – 13:15 Lunch, meet the Sponsors and networking
13:15 – 15:05 Breakout sessions (4 rooms, 12 sessions)
15:05 – 15:20 Break
15:20 – 15:55 Breakout sessions (4 rooms, 4 sessions)
15:55 – 16:40 Pardon the Interruption (panel session)
16:45 – 17:30 Keynote: The Future of Work – Towards the Networked Enterprise (Luis Suarez, elsua S.L.)
17:30 – 17:45 Closing General Session

The idea is that those travelling from further afield can arrive on the Monday morning for a social lunch before the event formally kicks off at 14:00.

For attendees that are more local, there is a jumpstart session in the local language on the Monday morning, providing an introduction to Social Business for those that are new to this enhanced way of working.

We conclude the first day’s agenda with Speed Sponsoring and then an exclusive evening reception for all attendees (more details to come very soon!).

We are honoured to have four tremendous keynote speakers (Luis Benitez, HP Dalen, Chris Crummey and Luis Suarez) on the agenda spread over the two days – we’ll be highlighting each of their topics over the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, we kick off with Chris’ keynote, then go into a pretty intensive set of breakout sessions.

As before, the majority of the sessions at Social Connections VI will be just 30 minutes long, so we put the onus on our speakers to be fast-paced, concise, focused and most of all, exciting!  Why 30 minutes? The team love the TED-style of short sessions delivered by passionate and opinionated experts – we think it makes for a more interesting event.  With 8 breakout slots on the agenda, the shorter sessions also give each attendee a change to pick and chose a mix of sessions that works for them – we have tracks that cover management, case studies, administration and development so there should be something for everyone.

The day concludes at 17:45 so again, those travelling can hopefully get home on the Tuesday evening if they wish.  Of course, if anyone wants to make the event part of a longer, more relaxed stay in Prague, we won’t be surprised at all!  In fact, we have a special Social Connections ‘Tag It On‘ workshop taking place on Wednesday 18th June at the same venue.  Look out for more news later today…

For the first time, we have a full online agenda for this event allowing each attendee to create their own customised schedule which can be exported to their calendar.  It has a mobile UI option and a printable view, as well as listing all our speakers too.

So, two (or more) days in beautiful Prague, over 40 great sessions, brilliant IBM and community speakers, many IBM Champions, great opportunities for networking and social engagement, and much more besides.  Social Connections VI will be a super event, and thanks to our sponsors, it will be absolutely free to attend!

What are you waiting for? Register now!

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