I attended the 140 Characters, Exploring The State of Now conference in LA last week. It was a "non-techie" type of conference and for that reason alone it was a very different experience, yet very relevant to Avaya and the Future of Communications.
You may ask, why would someone from Avaya R&D attend a conference like this? Two reasons; my interest in social media as a new and highly popular mode of communication, and my passion for integrating social media with Avaya business communications systems that are in use in businesses today. I was invited to be a member of the Tuesday panel discussion that discussed Google Wave and the Future of Communications. Social media is part of that future!
UPDATE since initial posting: The 15 min. video of the panel discussion is now available. One clarification. Jeff Pulver had asked me what the typical lifecycle of a product is in our industry. I answered 7 years with the start to end of life when customers would start replacing with new product in mind. He meant from start to delivery. I have since clarified that interval is 12- 18 mos. It is worth noting that with devices like smartphones churning so fast due to new capabilities and new hardware, they have consumer space lifecycles of 1 -2 years. Lifecycles for devices in the business and enterprise industry are being pressured downward as well.
The conference itself was set up in the famous Kodak theater. It was very well organized by @JeffPulver, @JeffHayzlett and many more staff. Kudos to all involved in running the event. I particularly enjoyed the timekeeper use of the Oscar "music" to keep each session on time.
My main take-away from all the sessions and people I met is that social media is used across all forms of business and all walks and interests in life. I really enjoyed the diversity of the people I met and hearing about what they do compared to technology focused conferences. Social media truly is "the state of now" for news, opinions, reviews, forming and sharing in communities of interest - you name it. I'll repeat what I said on the panel; no it is not a fad. The key challenge is to figure out how to effectively integrate and manage it along with all other forms of communication. There were a few vendors there, Avaya included, discussing products and tools starting to aim at that very challenge.
There were many PR and marketing type firms discussing how businesses need to pay attention to and use social media to promote and monitor their brand, and respond to their customers. The examples were great and compelling. Given the "state of now", any business that doesn't believe they need to pay attention to the social media revolution may be in for a very rude awakening. Businesses need to be looking for communication systems that embrace and facilitate the use of this new media. Avaya is providing solutions to support enterprise communications for the social media revolution.
Many other discussions centered around how social media creates and fosters communities of interest of all kinds; celebrities, sports, hobbies, media shows, moms, illness, homelessness, specific expertise, and all kinds of business branding and customer service examples. Many panelists described how social media is complimenting rather than replacing the other forms of media (voice, radio, TV, news services etc).
There was one very "entertaining" session I feel the need to single out because it struck so close to what I write about. The speaker demonstrated, with crowd participation, a radical real time concept: a PHONE call. It's as real time as you can get and yet we seem to be drifting further and further from high touch communications. Food for thought, have we done so almost to the point of rudeness?.
I look at social media, and communications in general, from both the individual and business needs perspective. I call it people-centric communication. Look here and here for some thoughts on what that could be. How do you feel about social media and it's impact on your communication style and needs? I definitely got some insights into this from my attendance at this conference and the people I discussed it with.
In summary, this conference focused on people and communities and how social media really fosters connecting. It is supposed to be "social" after all. The social media players and tools will change but the "state of now" real time communication mode is here to stay. At Avaya we're embracing this new media and enabling/integrating it into our Unified Communications solutions. This week at Voicecon, Dr. Alan Baratz presented some of the Avaya vision to re-invent the desktop phone. Stay tuned!
Posted 3 Nov 2009 at 03:30 PM
Comments
Often we forget the little guy, the SMB, in our discussions of the comings and goings of the Internet marketing industry. Sure there are times like this when a report surfaces talking about their issues and concerns but, for the most part, we like to talk about big brands and how they do the Internet marketing thing well or not so well.
Posted 7 Jan 2010 at 05:55 AMSmall business
With Facebook and Twitter being among the leaders of the Social networks, marketing as a small business is being transformed..
Respondents according to the Vertical Response survey appear to need some differentiation with the use of SE marketing and Social media Marketing
www.onlineuniversalwork.com
Posted 23 Jan 2010 at 04:21 AM