Knowledge Plaza Presentation from Knowledge and Content (KCUK) 2009

10 juillet 2009 | Auteur slgavin

Gregory Culpin and I had a great time at this year’s Knowledge and Content conference in London. We met the likes of Dave Snowden, Mark Gould and even bumped into an old Pfizer colleague who was on a panel speaking about the adoption of Web 2.0 tools behind the firewall.

As I’ve already posted on my personal blog, it’s sometimes a strange feeling being a vendor at these events. In the past I’ve attended both as a speaker and a delegate, so I know first hand how some vendors are percieved. We like to be very laid back, open, honest and not sales person like. We attend these things in dual capacity, to both raise product awareness and to contribute in discussions and get new insights from the speakers. It’s unfortunate that some vendors just go to these events with their sales hat on and push a message.

So here are my personal do’s and don’ts for presenting as a vendor at conferences:

Don’t;

invent new terms around your product i.e Knowledge Management 3.0 – it’s not credible
just talk to the audience and not converse – people get bored
only talk about your product – people are there to learn stuff so offer some insights into the industry at least
be arrogant – bold arrogant claims are often sneered at whether they are true or not, so if you do make them, back them up with customer references or comments

Do;

teach people stuff – as stated above, people are there to learn
discuss your wins and failures – transparency is great to get the audience on side
engage and encourage feedback and discussions
be flexible with the approach and style – be prepared to adapt
be seen as individuals and experts in a field – not just sales people from XYZ corp

Overall we received fantastic feedback from the presentation, including this from the conference coordinator.