Upcoming events & the IBM Champions program

My blog has been really quiet the last few months for which my apologies. It’s one of those times where I simply don’t have time to blog nor the topics to blog about. But as there were a few things noteworthy lately I figured it’s time to do an update blog now.

IBM Champions:

Yep, the elections came and went and this year a whopping 650 Champions across 6 business Areas were elected to be honored and taken up into the IBM Champion program, 155 of them in the Collaboration & Talent solutions area.

The IBM Champions program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence.

I’ve been an IBM Champion since the start of the program back in 2011 and feel honored to be selected once more. Over the years being a champion has helped me become more outspoken about the work I do and to connect with many others in our area of expertise. People I respect highly. I look forward continuing to do that the coming year! Thank you to all who have taken the trouble to nominate me.

Event Season:

As every year there seems to be a peak of events coming up in the next few months and so far I’ve been confirmed to go to at least three:

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor ibm think logoFirst of all I will be attending Think in Las Vegas on March 19-22. I’m really excited about the new setup which is taking out the individual events for all the different brands and combining them into one new big event. A great opportunity to learn from all what other IBM brands have to offer, as well as an opportunity to mix and mingle with people from different technological areas. panagenda will be a sponsor again so come visit our booth (752)!

For those arriving early: There will be a community day event on the Sunday in the MGM where I will also be speaking so if you are interested in how to engage and inspire users please join me in MGM room 104 on Sunday at 10:15

Social Now lettering On May 16th & 17th I will be visiting Lisbon for the SocialNow conference. A conference completely focused on social tools, adoption and digital transformation. I’ve been to this conference before and really love the setup of having short sessions with large breaks for direct interaction and discussion between the audience and the speakers. I’m honored to be asked to be part of the consultants panel and to present on social analytics and how they can help drive digital transformation.

 Last but by no means least I will be attending Engage in Rotterdam May 22-23. With Rotterdam being only 20min from my house this will practically be a home-game and I can’t wait! As usual Engage has a fantastic location (a luxury cruise ship!) and is shaping up to becoming one of the biggest user group events held in The Netherlands for IBM Collaborative and analytics software.

So if you are planning on attending any of these please feel free to contact me as I would love to connect!

Other conferences…

The above conferences only represent a part of what there is to do in the IBM collaboration area this spring and early summer and there are many more. SNoUG on April 18th in Zurich, Switzerland, Social Connections on April 26-27 in Philadelphia, USADNUG on June 20-21 in Darmstadt, Germany and CollabSphere 2018 in Ann Arbor,MI, USA to name a few. All of these are worth visiting so check them if you are interested in learning more about IBM social, collaborative and analytics portfolio’s.