The thrill of going to IBM Connect 2013

This year will be my first time actually attending IBM Connect. That in itself is exciting enough, but I am not just attending some great sessions, but I am a speaker as well. I've been doing sessions at several other events before, but this is something different completely!

The last month has been a very busy month, with mailing and socializing on all kinds of platforms with several people from IBM. From mails about the technical preparations to stern yet funny emails from my track manager Susan Bulloch, I've been in awe with the tight scheduling and organizing and information flow coming to me. There have been so many people assisting and answering questions so swiftly, it's amazing.

Ofcourse the thrill for me started when my session BP304 Become a Social Business: Leverage User Adoption Through Gamification was approved early december. That's when things really became hectic with creating the presentation, and filling in all sorts of forms and ofcourse scheduling flights and hotels.

I've been eager to see what other sessions would be listed. Now they are all known and I'm even more excited! You can check them out yourself, for example by downloading The totally unofficial and totally unsupported IBM Connect session database Mat Newman provided for us, which now is available in a mobile version too! There are some really great speakers and sessions on all kinds of topics. The topic I am speaking about (gamification) has some more interesting sessions:

• Growing a Smarter Workforce through Social Gaming
• Using Gamification to Ignite the Widespread Adoption of IBM Connections
• Social CMO: Engaging the Consumer
• The wednesday Keynote by Jane McGonigal

So if you are interested in the topic of gamification and adoption, go see any of these, or mine.

Today I joined a webinar about Vivastream. This is the tool used for IBM Connect 2013 which allows speakers and attendees to interact in a great way. I hope to speak to you there soon.  I will also get you involved before they start, on two BOF sessions I am doing:

• BOF106 Using Actvities to Manage Meetings (together with Marion Vrielink, Saxion University)
  Tuesday 6.30-7.30 pm in Macaw 2
• BOF108 Metrics That Matter. Insight to Employee Engagement
  Wednesday 7.00-8.00 am in Macaw 1

The Vivastream for Connect will allow us to do polls and contact each other  So you can expect to get some polls for the above mentioned BOF sessions! I invite you to join me in the interaction!