Last week, a few of my fellow bloggers jumped the gun in their rush to share with you some of what they learned during conference season. Jason “The Prophet” Busch of Spend Matters was the first out of the gate with his post on “Three Lessons From Conference Season” where he suggested that:
- You don’t judge a book by its cover (or an event by past reputation)
as both ISM and SAP Sapphire (apparently) put on a good show this year - Your attitude is everything
and the key to successful networking and learning - You really can find examples of innovation at many events to take back to your organization
and CVM Supply World, SIG, and even Ariba LIVE had numerous examples of innovation
This was quickly followed by Vinnie “The Deal-Maker” Mirchandani’s post on What I Learned From Conference Season on Deal Architect where he echoed Jason’s point about networking and how it generates the greatest value from these types of events. He also noted that the expo floor, which allows you to see many solution providers in a compressed time-frame, is also valuable. But his biggest “aha” was that his clients should also have tickets to the conferences and events so that they could take advantage of the events together, and not be on conference calls when they could be learning and networking on the expo floor.
And then Brian “Service Master” Sommer of Services Safari decided he just couldn’t wait any longer and offered up his humorous post on Traveling During Conference Season where he asked the Lord to save him from the “expert” travelers. (Who are the “expert” travellers? Follow the link to find out!)
But if you want to get technical, David Bush of eSourcing Forum and Tim Minahan and Justin Fogarty of Supply Excellence beat them to the punch with their learnings from reSource 2008 and Ariba Live. These can be found here:
reSource 2008 by David Bush and Michael Lamoureux
(e-Sourcing Forum [WayBackMachine])
- Iasta reSource Begins Monday
- reSource ’08 leaves the dock
- Iasta reSource Dispatch I – Users and Usage
- Iasta reSource Dispatch II – Highlights From the Main Day
- Can You Really Afford to Leave Millions on the Table?
Ariba Live by Justin Fogarty and Tim Minahan
(Supply Excellence [WayBackMachine])
- Live From Ariba Live in Las Vegas
- Live From Live: Good News About The Global Economy
- Live From Live: Bad News About The Global Economy
- Live From Live: Suppliers Are Not The Enemy
- Live From Live: Lessons From Private Equity
- Live From Live: Finding and Keeping Good People
- Live From Live: Cultural Divide
- Live From Live: Where Is China Headed?
- Sustainability: Throw Out Everything You Know
And then if you want to get really technical, Jason Busch and I have been blogging about conferences for over a month now!
Spend Matters* Event & Conference Posts by Jason Busch
* All posts prior to 2012 were removed in the Spend Matters site refresh in June, 2023.
- CVM Supply World Chicago – Dispatch One
- IACCM — Blogging Live (Dispatch 1)
- IACCM — Blogging Live (Dispatch 2)
- IACCM — Blogging Live (Dispatch 3)
- IACCM — Blogging Live (Dispatch 4)
- IACCM — Blogging Live (Dispatch 5)
- Inside the Mind of IACCM’s Tim Cummins
- Pierre Mitchell’s Information-Packed IACCM Presentation (Part I)
- IACCM Americas — Dispatch 6
- IACCM Americas — Dispatch 7
- Pierre Mitchell’s Information-Packed IACCM Presentation (Part 2)
- Sapphire Dispatch 1 — Landed at Sapphire
- Getting the Most Out of Conferences this Year
- Sapphire Dispatch 2 – The Frictionless Brand Creates Some Friction
- Sapphire Dispatch 3 — Widgets and Dashboards
- Sapphire Dispatch 4 — The SAP E-Sourcing Roadmap
- Sapphire Dispatch 5 — A Strong Collaborative Vision (with a Questionable Reality)
- SIG — Dispatch One
- Ariba Live Dispatch 1 — Landed At LIVE
- Ariba Live Dispatch 2 — A Vegas Metaphor
- Ariba Live Dispatch 3 — Calderoni and the Ariba Supplier Network Take Center Stage
- Ariba Live Dispatch 4 — Summing Up Day One
- Ariba Live Dispatch 5 — Tyco’s Stewart Takes Excellence Achievement Award
- Ariba Live Dispatch 6 — Flying Commercial is a Good Sign
- Ariba Live Dispatch 7 — Shopping for a Deal
- Blogger Relations: Taking a Lesson From SAP
- One Observation from CVM Supply World
Sourcing Innovation Event & Conference Posts by Michael Lamoureux