Social Connections - the very first ever IBM Connections User Group meeting ever anywhere

As previously mentioned, I took some time out today to pop along to the oh-so-shiny headquarters of The Salvation Army, in Queen Victoria Street in London, to attend the inaugural Social Connections event.

This was ably organized by Sharon Bellamy and Stuart McIntyre, along with a cast of many, including Mr Mark Calleran, CIO of The Salvation Army.

Arriving around 0900, after an excellent walk along the the Thames, with my friend and colleague, Alastair Hillis-Wragg of the IBM Betaworks team, I was soon into the important part of the day - the coffee :-) Sharon and I did a good job of getting through the first few flasks, but the catering team were way ahead of us, and kept the beverages flowing.

Apart from the kind hosting from Mark and his team ( who also doubled up as cameramen, audio experts, key grips and general goto-guys ), the event was sponsored by three BM partners, ATech, Collaboration Matters and Portal, and supported by IBM ( there were a fair few IBMers there, so it gave me an opportunity to catch up with those people who I see so infrequently, thanks to project fun off-site ).

Despite a few hinky travel-related moments, Stuart kept things running to schedule, and I was enthralled by presentations from: -

Daniel Siddle from Headshift

Jon Mell from IBM ( Portal and Social Sales Leader for North-East Europe )

Joseph D'Armi from Portal

Mike Roche from IBM ( Chief Architect for IBM Connections, Dublin Labs )

Michael Ahern from IBM ( Connections development team, Dublin Labs )

- Michael even managed to squeeze in a real live demo of that "Norwegian Army Knife" known as Tivoli Directory Integrator ( TDI ) - also known as IBM Blue Glue :-)

Sadly I had to leave and go do some "real" work after lunch, so missed presentations from Mark, Andy Piper, Claudio Proccida and others.

Even more sadly, I missed out on the opportunity to go for beers with the team after the event :-(

On a more positive note, I believe Stuart is going to ensure that the presentations are posted on-line soon, so I commend you to go and take a look ....

In the meantime, I gather that the live streaming was well received, judging by the Tweets directed to the back of my head :-)

So, in closing, a great session, well organized, well-run and well delivered - my thanks to Sharon and Stuart and the rest of the hard-working band.

Looking forward to the next event - which is, apparently, in Cardiff, which is in Wales :-)