Scott Gavin

The Enterprise 2.0 Conference is just round the corner and I think this year is going to be very interesting from a number of perspectives.  In particular I’m very keen on seeing how the downturn is affecting;

* the number or E2.0 projects underway
* the way people are looking at ROI in light of the financial pressures
* how vendors are positioning themselves against very tight corporate budgets

The number of companies currently running collaboration and KM2.0 initiatives is definitely down on last year, there’s no question of that.  However on the flip side people’s radars are more finely tuned for identifying potential projects when budget restrictions are finally lifted.  So it will be interesting to see where the most interest is shown and who’s case studies inspire the most discussion.

The one thing I’ve heard about past Enterprise 2.0 conferences is there has been too much hype about the ‘potential’ of social software and not enough about the real business benefits.  I don’t think that will be the case this year.  Companies don’t have the time or patience for hype, so expect to hear frank discussions on the real power of Enterprise 2.0.

I’ll be sure to attend Lee Bryant’s  session “Transition Strategies for e20 Adoption”. It’s great to have a UK ambassador like Headshift at an such a high profile conference.

The other topic I will be closely watching is how Sharepoint is discussed.  Will it get the bashing it has at previous conferences? Or will there be a widespread but reluctant acceptance of it’s enterprise 2.0 abilities?

If you are attending from the UK give me a shout, it would be good to meet up.

Note: picture courtesy of ITSinsider