Quick Thought On IDC Web2.0 Conference & Silly Question Asked
June 24, 2008 – 4:32 pm | by Daryl TayJust got back from the IDC Web2.0 Conference today (thanks to Debbie and Joyes for granting me access!) and have some immediate thoughts before I go into detail about the various topics discussed.
Main thought: People need to do more research before coming for these conferences.
I estimate about 200 people in the room, and when the room was asked who used feeds (RSS), less than 30 people raised their hand.
Now I’m not judging, but I think if companies are going to spend $240 to send people for a three hour conference, they need to be able to absorb what is going on and follow the discussions. If only 30 people understand feeds, how many would understand the rest of the topics today? Wikis? Co-creation of content? Social networking? User-generated content? I have my doubts. I think companies owe it to themselves to do a little bit of research before going, so that they can truly engage in the discussion.
The thing is there was some good content at the conference. One speaker mentioned it’s not necessary to be front and centre of the content-creation, just a curator. And I wonder how many people got the reference.
Edit: Maybe next time after a conference I should walk up to people randomly and ask “So what do you think the takeaways are for your business?” and see what answers I get.
Finally, a question was asked towards the end of the day: “Is there research to show that using IM and Facebook increases productivity? And are some professions more suited than others to using social media in education. For example, would it be applicable to medicine?”. A muted groan rippled through the room.
Firstly, obviously there is no research to show that. The people who question the benefits of IM, Twitter and Facebook are those who are not on it or don’t understand it or are suspicious and un-trusting of their employees to be on these applications. Do you think people aren’t using the office phone for non-productive uses? Or the office email? Or the office printer?
The reason why this question comes up, to me, is because companies want to see this instant gratification. Are you using Facebook to generate a sales lead or close a sale? No? Waste of time. But it doesn’t work that way. Facebook, Twitter and IM take time to produce results. I spend a lot of time in the office on Facebook. I joke that it’s “research”, but finding out how people use Facebook and interact is very important. If you don’t know how your consumer is using their tools, how can you ever hope to be relevant?
Will there be employees who abuse this trust and throw sheep or superpoke friends at work? Sure. But I don’t feel that’s a reason to shut down access, because to me, the benefits outweigh the cons. Let’s keep this all in perspective. It’s the people that abuse the tool. Not that there’s anything inherently “wrong” about the tool.
Secondly, what a crazy question! Can the medical profession use social media? Of course! I honestly and truly question why this person was at this conference at all. The whole morning people were talking about interaction and content sharing and co-creation and wikis and transferring ideas and collaboration via Google Docs.
You mean you don’t see how medical knowledge can be pooled together, developed and refined via these tools? Or did you seriously mean doing away with practical surgery sessions and teach it via social media? Which is absolutely ridiculous too.
It is people like that, that are holding social media (and your company) back from advancing. The new consumers are not going to be convinced by an advertisement in the newspaper. If it’s not timely and relevant, forget it. If your business is not showing and interest in discovering how the new consumers think and behave, you might not be around in 10 years when they graduate and choose to spend their disposable income with a company who does.
Tags: close sales, co-creation of content, curator of content, facebook, facebook and productivity, facebook at work, feedburner, feeds, generate sales lead, generation y, google reader, grand copthorne waterfront, IDC web2.0 conference, new consumer, rss, Singapore, social media conference, social media singapore, social networking, twitter, user generated content, wikis
10 Responses to “Quick Thought On IDC Web2.0 Conference & Silly Question Asked”
By Jo on Jun 24, 2008 | Reply
Good points: I like timely and relevant.
With respect to weird conferences, I never fail to be amazed at the time and money that is wasted in business. I am afraid anyone claiming that managers are there to make us efficient and effective makes themselves into a laughing stock.
The flip side is that that the ‘punters’ keep coming. Maybe we should be more ‘timely and relevant’ and run meetings that are more clearly focused at various groups.
I think social media will help a lot in this regard!
By Daryl Tay on Jun 24, 2008 | Reply
@Jo: Thank you for the feedback. Now that you mention it, conventions and conferences for managers might be like Facebook to Gen Y! A nice distraction from work!
I have to agree with you about timely and relevant. Laser-focused conferences are better than the shotgun approach. When people in different verticals see specific examples relevant to them, it’ll be much more convincing and compelling.
By Tania on Jun 24, 2008 | Reply
Sometimes I think conference producers should have a snap poll or quick 3-point checklist on the event signup page that helps potential attendees assess if it’s really right for them. I’ve attended, moderated and presented at a few of these where it’s pretty obvious some corps just have training budget to spend and are throwing it at anything that’s “in”…like the new media bandwagon now. Although sometimes I don’t blame less savvy attendees…maybe they’re just lost and looking for whatever they can to help them learn.
By byzantin3 on Jun 24, 2008 | Reply
Hi Daryl,
Thanks for the sharing. Recently I’ve been trying to do some research regarding the gender difference with respect to the use of the internet. One finding stood out prominently. Health and medical information was one of the most requested content online by women(quite highly requested by men too). And interestingly, some reports showed that women trust these sources online more than their doctors or family members. Most of them research, and discuss about their condition online even before approaching a GP.
So IMO, the question that was being brought out during the conference was not at all “stupid” or “crazy”. The asker probably didn’t know that the web has become such an important medium for sharing medical information, discussions and experiences. The numbers are still growing.
jO
By Jonathan Wong on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
I heard from my marketing manager that the reason why my company stopped sponsoring/attending the IDC event was that the crowd was generally not very savvy and informed. This, plus the inertia to not want to budge makes them poor prospects from our perspective.
You will generally get “better” attendees during the annual KM Asia events held in November.
If you feel frustrated just observing and listening to these people at the event, imagine how we must feel, as social software vendors!
These are the kind of folks we need to meet with and convince every single day that instant messaging is actually a productivity tool, and not a time waster! Don’t even talk about Facebook and social networking. Twitter? What’s that? A bird?
By weekee on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
I like to share a different perspective. While it maybe surprising that the audience appears clueless, it nevertheless reflect valuable insights.
This is after all a change for most organization and it is inevitable that people need more justification to change.
I think we need to be more supportive rather than simply thinking that they are clueless. It is not simply an adoption of technology for businesses. It is a change in belief, work culture, etc and it is not easy to take this step.
I think there is already an improvement. It used to be denial that such technology plays a role in business. To me, the questions seem like they are now willing to explore and all they are looking for is some form of assurance and information to help them push the initiatives within the organization.
I think we should not look at it as a we vs them problem. Rather we learn to look from their perspective and perhaps we can gain valuable insights too.
Just some thoughts.
By Daryl Tay on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
@Tania: Yes I’d imagine you’d have much more experience at this than I do! I’m not blaming the lack of knowledge per se, but I’m coming from the angle that “Look. You’re going to throw your training budget at this, why don’t you at least read up a couple of wiki pages or ask the youngest person in your office some questions before coming?”. At least that way it won’t be a complete waste of money.
@Jo: Yes I suppose that’s the very charitable view. I don’t disagree that he was stuck in the “old” way of thinking. I just think 2008 is too late to be stuck!
@Jonathan: Oh that is a fantastic point. I had thought a couple of things about Yahoo!’s sponsorship, and your comment really helped me formulate some thoughts about them.
@Weekee: Hmm maybe I sounded a little bit more aggressive than I meant to in the post. I’m not “against” them. Believe me I am nothing short of delighted that so many companies are showing interest in this growing trend. I just would like to see more “Yes we’re doing it. It doesn’t matter if we don’t understand it 100%, but we’re doing it”. I think local managers tend to be very cautious and want to be certain they’re getting it right, by that time it will just simply be too late. I would LOVE to talk to execs about what they could do, for FREE. As long as they’re open and sincere.
By weekee on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
@daryl i guess it is not just about been cautious but also the increasingly need for them to be accountable.
It is not hard to find interesting stories about how company are successful in their social media effort. But to be willing to put one head out and say that it will definitely make a measurable positive impact to the business is not an easy task.
Furthermore, from a strategy perspective, social media (no doubt important) could be just one small piece of the overall bigger picture.
Just some thoughts
By Daryl Tay on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
@weekee: One thing that bugs me about that “accountability” and results, is that traditional advertising has never been THAT accountable either. I’ll give you an example. Holding a blogger outreach programme and reaching out to people and offering a unique URL to track the interest and conversation rates is definitely MUCH more measurable than buying a busstop ad. Sure, you can quantify impressions, but does that really mean anything in this day and age? Just ’cause 20k people walk past that ad, doesn’t mean they even register it. I think companies really need to re-think that mindset. And finally, i agree with you about social media being a small part of the pie. Everything else (especially the product and content) has to be rock solid, before social media comes into play, or else it will just be ridiculed by the blogosphere.