Ideas for SCIP 2010 - While 2009 is Fresh in Our Minds

[Claudia Clayton]

While we're still thinking about SCIP 2009, do members have some good ideas to propose for 2010?

What worked, what didn't? What speakers would you like to see again? Were there topics you didn't see that you'd like to be addressed next year?

Should we have tracks outside of standard CI topics? What should these consist of, and do you have recommendations?

Are there format or scheduling recommendations? Do we have enough marketing and sponsorship opportunities? How can we attract more experienced CI professionals to attend?

Or do you have other questions you think we should address?

Overall, this was a great conference, but I always hear ideas at the time, and it might be a good idea to capture them soon ... before they slip away.

[Arik Johnson]

Great idea Claudia - three things really jumped out at me:

First, can we get something... I dunno... Smaller or at least more portable to help plan which sessions to attend?! Heaven forfend a PDF that I could surf from the phone... Even something hybrid online I could use to plan which sessions I'm going to in advance and (gasp!) PRINT before even arriving at the conference that has directions to the room(s) last minute updates. I know it's always a struggle to choose (for me anyhow) and rather arbitrary deciding which session to attend at the last minute and there are tools available that allow conference attendees and producers to put together a virtual agenda online the week prior that could help people decide in advance rather than at the last minute which sessions to participate in. This would also yield valuable quantitative preference data for market research on topics that persistantly draw large interest for future conference planning.

Second, there absolutely needs to be an online audience version of the conference that SCIP can monetize - without it, despite having a fantastic conference program, the risk to the society of people simply not attending is too great in an era of infinite connectedness. If there needs be any evidence that attendees themselves are finding grassroots ways to mash this together, simply see the Twitter hashtag SCIP09 and you'll see that people are banding together to get that job done as best we can. Were there a $50 or $100 virtual attendee option available, I'm guessing people would latch on far beyond the typical SCIP member profile and grow the profession's scope in the process.

Finally, active dialogs have matured from an experiment into a true format alterantive that engages the audience in co-creating a session that really means a lot to people. More interactivity like this would be welcome as (I think) small interest group work, like Martha Matteo's CTI group, and the China forum - how can micro-audiences like these be satisfied? I think it's a matter of planning and execution - not technological acumen. The scarce resource that draws people to value the face-to-face meeting is the ability to lock into interests they share with others - simply furnishing a way for people to do this more efficiently can be a substantial advantage in conference planning going forward.

Great conference once again everybody! My best wishes to August and his committee in the year to come!

- Arik

PS - thanks for note you sent me earlier Claudia ;-)

[Max Nelson]

Why do Active Interlogues (interactive dialogues) need to be be sporadic or so infrequent? If they are going to be engaging sessions that mean alot to folks on issues of relevance that need to be addressed, discussed, managed, and resolved... then should they not be ongoing and regular? Would this not help create community as well as possible solutions and implementations?

Can't we take advantage of online document sharing and audio and video webconferencing tools to develop a series of focused Active Interlogues with associated archival documents for sharing?

Just a thought.

Max Nelson

[Arik Johnson]

That's a neat idea Max - in other words, what are the persistent macro-issues facing us collectively that we could build persistent conversations about going forward and then sync a taxonomy of those issues with online discussion fora to keep engagement moving forward independent of the meeting.

As a counterpoint to that idea however, the law of unintended consequences actually produces many happy surprises that could never be decisively structured or planned for but rather emerge unexpectedly with really rich and improved experiences. For example, Craig Fleisher and I did the CI2020 AD on Friday morning postulating what CI might look like a decade from now and we found ourselves collectively rethinking the whole CI value proposition in the process... now, that wasn't necessarily what we were planning on discussing, but I think everyone who was there would agree it needed talking about and produced many happy (and surprising) returns.

- Arik

[Donna Hawryliw]

Arik,

I was unable to attend your session, but would love to know the findings. Were there any plans to post any of the key "a-has" from the session anywhere?

-Donna

[Arik Johnson]

Glad you asked Donna - as a matter of fact, I just rolled my "Chicago briefcase" into my office to start unpacking to sketch up a trip report this week - including the notes taken during the AD, which I'll post verbatim as a blog entry here (I'll send it to you) all by themselves, and then an interpretation in the trip report itself.

... by the end of the week ... I hope ;-)

[Eliana Benjumeda]

Nice discussion Claudia and good ideas Arik.

I will repeat what I said before in another group of this forum:

- More time for networking (not at the same time of the sessions, please!)
- No so many sessions at the same time (as Arik said, it is very difficult to choose)
- More flexible registration
- Longer time to visit the exhibition hall (it is a shame to run through it trying to figure out in which booth to stop without having time to talk about their news or conference offers. And I can never visit them all)

I enjoyed the conference anyway. But I wish it would have lasted twice as it did, so I could have enjoyed it even better.

See you soon.
Eliana.

[August Jackson]

Eliana,

Thanks so much for the thoughtful post. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you would like to see in more flexible registration?

Cheers.

[Eliana Benjumeda]

August,

By flexible registration I mean either a late open desk for people arriving in late flights or from other continents or a way to do it previously online, so after checking that we have paid our fees we would receive an authorization and our own badge that we could print before our trip . I arrived after 6 pm to the registration desk in Chicago and it was too late to get my bagde so I was not allowed to enter the exhibition hall. Some other people had the same problem. Just an idea.

Regards,
Eliana.

[August Jackson]

Thanks, Claudia, for taking the initiative to post this forum topic here on Ning. Also thanks to all who have and will make their suggestions for SCIP 2010 based on lessons learned and things observed from past SCIP conferences. The SCIP conference really is a unique annual event for those who practice CI or consider themselves CI professionals, and it's a community exercise to make it the best we can. It really does take a whole year to put the conference together, so now is the time to debrief and have just this type of dialog.

I'm happy to see that some of the observations and suggestions here touch on some themes that are near and dear to my own heart:
More on-line throughout the year and for SCIP members that are not able to attend the conference in person
Addressing the session schedule
Networking (on-line and in person)
More time on the exhibit floor and also more opportunities for the exhibitors to effectively interact with attendees

Please keep your thoughts and observations coming. Feel free to post them here or e-mail me directly at august(at)augustjackson(dot)net.

[Rob Duncan]

Hi Claudia,

Thanks for starting this discussion - it's a great idea to capture the ideas while they are fresh. I would be interested in seeing a whole track or even an overall conference theme that related to social media, social networking, and emerging trends in collaborative and competitive intelligence. I also found that there were too many concurrent sessions at any given time. I was lucky that both my sessions were well attended, but it was nerve-wracking seeing all the talent that we were competing with in any given time slot!! Cheers.. Rob

[Claudia Clayton]

There are some great ideas here, and I am sure the leaders of the next conference will use some of them. One takeaway I got was that the Education Committee should pay heed to the suggestion of continuing Active Dialogs by webinar. That's a great idea, and we're looking for other ways to use webinars and develop online learning to reach a wider audience. Being able to tap into these could be a members only privilege for the purpose of driving up member benefit value.

As Arik points out, there are ideas we can take from other conferences such as allowing attendees to plan their experience with a virtual agenda/calendar which can be portable.

Finding a way to allow folks to access portions of the conference remotely with a return on any investment could at least be EXPLORED for next year by members of the Program Commitee. Budget issues always seem to stand in the way of this, but I am betting in this day and age we could work it out.

Frankly, the idea of other focused forums around the conference could even be a revenue generator - or a perk for early registration or for members only. Run them during the day before while the workshops are going on.

And I would like to see a non-CI track on the program for next year. Maybe that would attract people from more line positions who want to use CI, people who are more experienced and don't need to the same topics, and CI personnel who want to learn about other areas where CI can be applied.

Thanks for commenting everyone! Hope we get even more ideas ...

[Avner Barnea]

Unfortunetly I was unable t participate in the conference. wouls like to propose the following ideas for the 2010 confernce: 1. CI education with a strong emphasize on teaching CI in the academy.
2. The interrelations between CI and business strategy.
These two issues are not only actual for me as I'm lecturing on CI in two MBA programs in Israel but also as they are significant if we want to make CI more relevant through academic recognition and more influential in the daily life of corporations.
Avner