What's your "a-ha" moment?

A few weeks ago, I attended IBM’s Smarter Commerce Global Summit’s Super Women’s Group Networking Panel and Luncheon, and had the opportunity to immerse myself in pure #girlpower.

Moderated by IBM Vice President Maria Winans, the lively discussion rang true to the themes of the Super Women’s Group: Connect, Collaborate, and Achieve. The panelists featured distinguished women in technology sharing stories of how they made moments matter in their careers, with lots of impactful advice shared on how to recognize these “a-ha” moments, and turn them into meaningful opportunities. This event embodied what I love most about Super Women’s Group events.

The panelists and moderator all shared very human stories, featuring those “a-ha” career moments. These are the moments that tend to open the door to new opportunities for us – whether you realize that’s happening in the moment or not. It’s what truly defines those “moments that matter……most.”

For example, Sally Hogshead, author of FASCINATE: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, talked about how, when faced with a personal health crisis, she had to pass on a career-defining opportunity while she was still very young. What happened next, she said, was an onslaught of “opened doors” that paved the way for her to launch a very successful career. Sally had spoken earlier that day during the General Session on how to persuade and captivate your audience, and she did just that with this very touching personal story, bringing to light my #1 favorite thing about Super Women’s Group events: It gets real.

Also on the panel was Jo Kendrick, Marketing Director at Homebase. Jo shared with us how her very unconventional background laid the foundation for her “outside the box” approach to innovative marketing that is creating meaningful customer-centric experiences at Homebase. She made history by becoming one of the first women to join Great Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF). At that time, the RAF did not allow women to become pilots, so she went into marketing. Jo went on to head up marketing at Homebase, leading the successful campaign “Make Your House Your Home.” Her story of transforming a “life happens” moment into a career opportunity drove home my #2 favorite thing about Super Women’s Group events: How to turn a defining life moment into a career opportunity.

We also heard from Yvonne Genovese, Managing VP at Gartner, who has had an amazing and diverse career that fuses together her engineering background with multi-disciplinary marketing roles. At Gartner, Yvonne and her team focus on sharing insights on digital marketing essentials for CMOs, emphasizing data-driven strategies. She spoke on the importance of seizing any and all opportunities that come your way, even if you don’t immediately see how to connect the dots.

Maria Winans did a fantastic job of moderating this panel discussion, infusing upbeat energy into the room and providing the perfect environment that both engaged and encouraged the audience to share their stories.

Which brings me to my #3 favorite thing about Super Women’s Group events: Never stop “paying it forward.” I left the room so energized to keep the discussion and interaction going with other women that I signed up for the next big Super Women’s Group event: A Roadmap to Leadership: Discussion of How Great Women Lead by Bonnie St. John, hosted by the Women in Finance Community. Bonnie is a former Olympic medalist, White House advisor, and even IBMer, and she’ll be joining us at IBM Yorktown on May 28, 2014 at 2:00PM – 3:00PM EDT, to discuss her latest book and do a 30-minute book signing session.

In the spirit of “paying it forward,” you can sign up here to watch the livestream, or attend in person if you are located in the New York area.

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Procurement Gets Social with Suppliers

Throw away your Conan hammer! That’s the advice Jason Busch of Azul Partners and Spend Matters gave to procurement professionals at the 2014 Smarter Commerce Global Summit. His point: you can’t beat suppliers over the head to get what you want. Not that was ever an effective practice, of course, but that didn’t stop many in procurement from resorting to it.

Today’s business environment calls for a gentler, kinder relationship with suppliers. That’s not because we’re all more in touch with our feelings in this modern era, it’s because we have the social tools to make a new way of working together possible – and not just possible, but necessary.

Procurement workers and suppliers are now able to put social tools to use in order to collaborate earlier and more closely. This gives them the opportunity to reinvent the relationship and discover new information together. Busch gave an example: under the old model, procurement might say, “Our goal is to reduce costs three percent. We can work with you on that but that’s what’s expected of you.” Today, procurement should instead ask, “How can we drive innovation together in new ways, and what systems will enable that?” The cost reductions will follow.

The benefits will accrue throughout the length and breadth of the procurement-supplier relationship, whether when working on design, changing specifications, or adjusting service levels based on business needs. There's no longer any reason to resort to the hammer. Busch said procurement pros shouldn’t even keep the hammer as a backup – just throw it out. Conan might disagree, but then he wasn’t wielding today’s powerful social business tools.

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Kaltura's Hi-Def Video Integration with IBM Connections

Survey: What Happens to the Chair? #FallsOver? #StopsShort?

Michela Stribling, Program Director, Social Business, IBM

Can a chair have personality? In this case of this chair, the answer is a resounding yes.

One of our latest “Made with IBM” TV commercials stars a cheeky office chair. The spot ends with the chair seeming to race toward a set of stairs, as the music in the background builds to a crescendo. But we never actually see the chair go over the edge. Talk about a cliffhanger!

So we asked ourselves, “What happens to the chair?” And then we thought we’d ask you. Here’s your chance to weigh in:

Does the chair go over the edge? Does the chair stop? Or do you have an even better and more clever suggestion for what happens to the chair? We want to hear from you.

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Get 5 minute tips on IBM Connections -- every day!

A new post on SocializeMe: If you got here, you are either a regular subscriber to this blog, a fan of IBM Connections, or you are looking for tips and tricks to get the most value out of the enterprise social collaboration platform. Maybe you have a question on how to drive adoption, how to tune your email notifications, how to better structure your community navigation, or you are looking to learn more about IBM Connections.



Jim Claussen, a colleague of mine in IBM, has decided to take it upon himself and created the AskJim podcast to provide 5 minute answers to IBM Connections questions -- daily! For the past 4 weeks he's kept up the pace and has produced 30 episodes so far.



To listen in you can just do it directly from here (see below) or you can download the SoundCloud app for your mobile device (iOS and Android). You know you want to listen to these episodes while on the go, working out, etc.



Oh and if you listen to episode 14, you'll learn how to embed this podcast directly on your Connections community so that all your community members can get value out of it!!





Let me know what you think and send questions to Jim via Twitter if you want your own question to be answered.

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Shine When ‘Moments Matter’ – See How At Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2014

Please note that this was originally posted by Alisa Maclin on Smarter Commerce blog: http://bit.ly/1cYZfkG

Alisa Maclin, Vice President, Industry Solutions Marketing, IBM

On my return flight from IBM Pulse 2014 (IBM’s premier cloud conference) while watching the clouds pass and browsing shopping sites on my tablet to buy a raincoat I’ll need for an upcoming trip, I was again reminded how cloud-based solutions are transforming businesses and lives. A few tablet taps and, no worries, my new raincoat will be on my doorstep almost before I can unpack.

It’s exciting to think about what’s coming too. Capturing imaginations at Pulse was the Connected Car prototype demo. In the future, a network of these vehicles connected to the cloud would tap an array of real-time data from surrounding vehicles, upcoming traffic, road and weather conditions, and more to provide optimal routing and safe, fuel-efficient driving. New features can be added over the life of the vehicle, similar to adding an app to a smartphone. And, of course, many of the car’s functions and systems can be controlled or monitored via mobile devices.

Agility and innovation are keys to winning the race to differentiate. Whether delighting a customer in real time, reaching new markets, or collaborating with partners and suppliers across continents in the blink of an eye, every interaction is a moment of truth, and moments matter. From May 12-15, at Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2014 in Tampa, Florida, we will share how executives and professionals across industries and roles are using IBM Smarter Commerce solutions – nearly all of which are available in the cloud – to maximize the moment, and achieve a competitive edge.

For instance, Sanjay Gupta, Executive Vice President of Marketing, Innovation and Corporate Relations, Allstate, will share how Allstate leverages the power of Smarter Commerce. Many more exciting client speakers are signing up to share what’s working for their companies as well, and IBM experts will add their perspectives, and we’ll introduce some exciting innovations too.

More than 4000 are expected for the event. It will offer a unique agenda across marketing, customer experience management, eCommerce, procurement and supply chain management. I’d like to invite you to join us for an up-close look at the innovations that will enable you to shine when “Moments Matter” with customers and other key constituents. Hope to see you there.

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Communardo Further Integrates Confluence with IBM Connections

A new post on SocializeMe:I've talked about integration of IBM Connections with Confluence in the past. Communardo has created 3 new integration points to bring together IBM Connections and Atlassian's Confluence. These integration points are important for organizations that may be using both products and want to provide more synergy between them. This is yet another example of IBM Connections as a social layer, where you can embed Connections into other business apps allowing you to bring social to the end users.



The integration points are:

• Surface IBM Connections' person card within Confluence ( this is available as a plug-in from Atlassian's Marketplace) allowing profile data to be kept in just one system (IBM Connections)


• Use the IBM Connections Activity Stream to connect the decentralized Confluence wikis to save time finding information and avoid switching back-and-forth between systems.


• Confluence work rooms will surface within the list of Communities in the IBM Connections interface to surface previously hidden work laces.

To see it in action, check out the 5 minute demo below:





To learn more, check out Communardo's product page.

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