Goodbye and thanks for all the fish! :)

This is a short and sweet post to let all of you wonderful people know who read my blog that I will not be posting on blogger.com any more. I switched over to a word press instance. 

You'll find my new blog on baysidechronicle.com

I have exported all my old posts and comments (yes all 2 of them) to the new blog . So really little has changed, only the hosting area. 

Over all time since I  started this blog I have had 5020 hits on my posts and an audience spanning the globe. 

I decided to move to wordpress to up my game and offer a better reading experience. That's not to say I see no value in blogger.com. It's quite the contrary. Thanks to all my readers for dropping by. you can continue to do so if you wish on   baysidechronicle.com . And also I have changed my Twitter handle. its the same account, just a different name. @DathBrun. 

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest. See you on the other side. Thanks for your reading and support.

I really appreciate it.

Cisco Live London my love for tech networking rekindled

So Matt Brender in his awesomeness has shared some nerd humour and some of what we are up to at Cisco Live this year on his Blog . For my part I have been working on thinking like an EMC Elect member and looking as to what I would want out of a show like this from an exclusive Elect perspective.

So looking at that Matt and I both realised that one of the benefits should be suggested events/ sessions at the conference, tailored to the Elect members interests. So thinking in those terms I thought about my own technical interests. I once was a technical support person in routers and switches and well it's Cisco Live and I am very interested in IPv6, so I am getting to those sessions that are about that. And suddenly the old techie inside me is rekindled.

Now for a real EMC Elect member how awesome would it be to hit a conference, get exclusive content, meet up with fellow Elect members and have a suggested tailored agenda to go from right off the bat. That is damn nice methinks.

I will have other thoughts and perspectives to share later on. I just wanted to get these thoughts out. I seriously need to pimp out my blog too, as Matt is showing me up :)

I have to run to a session, more later.

EMC Elect is well and truly arrived!

Well today it's official. We welcome 75 new members to The EMC Elect! See the list here

This is a great day for EMC in its recognition of it's advocates. Plenty of EMC Elect members will tell of their experiences and delights about becoming an EMC Elect and how great the program really is.

Today, I am telling a personal story from my perspective about EMC Elect and what it means to me.

Well it means an awful lot to me and here's why.

I really never considered myself to be the guy to advocate social in EMC or be a community manager for that matter. It just sort of happened to me.
As it did I established a great rapport with Customers Partners and EMC'ers I never expected to. These people are professional colleagues, mentors, and dear friends. Engaging in the Support Community was enlightening. The encouragement from that community has led to me being the Community Manager I am today. Up until I started working with Matt Brender on Elect, to me the Support Community on the ECN Support Forums was the most important social channel for me. To be honest, that Community and the many awesome people that engage there were my priority. I became a passionate Community Manager, willing to advocate on behalf of and protect my Community. No other channel really mattered to me. I stepped up and blogged and got socially engaged to champion this community and tell all that if you're engaged with EMC Products this is the only place to be. Engaging on twitter however led me to widen my scope. And it is the culmination of announcing the EMC Elect members, that really brings home how far I have come.

Twitter was the first social channel I used where I made connections that were not related to work and I subsequently met said connections in person. These people were as awesome as my ECN Support Community Members. I learnt that the ECN community is one channel. and that there was community driven EMC support and tech discussions happening off the reservation. Brilliant stuff I knew other ECN community members would want to know.

Now recently during the judging for EMC Elect one of our founders, an ECN Support Forum legend told myself and Matt Brender that he had spent ten hours evaluating nominees in one day. Matt and I were apologetic to that founder for the sync on his time. He replied, that this is not what he meant. He said thank you for this opportunity. Our Founder found nominees with external blog content that he found to be invaluable. He had not realised the breadth and value of content relating to EMC technical stuff could exist outside of the Support Community. It blew myself and Matt away. We never intended this to happen, but it is one of the single benefits that calls out how amazing EMC Elect is. Matt and I were fiercely trying to represent our existing points of views and our silo'ed mindset on our perspectives. That's not to say we did not see the value of the others communities, but we felt individually that our "place" was where it's at! Upon hearing this from our founder that changed irrevocably.  We realised EMC Elect not only rewarded well deserving advocates, it brought different people on different Social streams together and the community grew, exponentially. And will continue to do so. other Founders, who only engage externally to EMC discovered amazing content on the ECN Support Communities they never knew about too.

The benefits of EMC Elect to EMC, its customers, partners & employees is very powerful. It creates a newer more vibrant collaborative community mindset for people engaging with EMC. I am awestruck by it and so proud to be a part of making it happen. I am am somewhat overwhelmed by the amazing people and the tenacity with which EMC elect has been received. It's a little bit scary as i feel responsible for this Community. But Ia mso happy to be a part of it and will be a very passionate Community Manager and advocate of EMC Elect alongside Matt Brender.

In Golden Globe style I have to thank people. Mainly you the Community members, but also our illustrious founders for trusting Matt and myself. Thanks to the amazing support of two amazing ladies, Stephanie McBride and Mary Kilgalen for their sterling tireless work behind the scenes for EMC Elect. Thanks also to Brace Rennels and Chris Gardner for the immense support and direction and "go for it" encouragement behind this project. Thanks also finally to my amazing wife and kids for loaning me out to EMC to have fun like this.

Enjoy EMC Elect :) I will!

Reflecting on an amazing year: 2012 in review.

Wow, It's hard to believe that 2012 AD is coming to a close. What a year it has been for me. Personally and professionally it's been a roller coaster. But it's been a hell of a ride!

Looking back over my last  12 months professionally, well, the biggest thing I guess would be kicking off Ask the Expert.

That all started with this post: Wrapping-up-2011, into-2012-on the EMC Support Community
Since that post, we've hosted, 30 Ask the Expert events. And it was a mix of forum discussions, webinars, live events, and tweet chats. We even wrapped an event during EMC World in a luxurious suite in the Venetian in Vegas. It's been a lot of fun. We had numerous experts, too numerous to mention here, but I am thankful to each and everyone of them. They and the Support Community members, made Ask the Expert the amazing program it has been and will continue to be.

Keep an eye on it in 2013. We are expanding the program to incorporate Ask the Expert events for new products and services. We will also continue to have events around existing products. But we will be going further by hosting more events on a wider range of products and hot topics. We will be engaging more experts, from EMC, Partners and Customers who know our products so well. It will continue to be your hot centre for EMC Support hot topics on existing and newly launched products and services. And we are always open to new experts and new topics. Its a community driven program so don't be shy in suggesting topics and experts.

EMC World 2012 was a big highlight of the year. Our Buzz Talk was a great highlight as was the Support Community party. Getting to recognise some of the participating experts and to thank some of the legendary stalwart ECN Support Community members was very fulfilling. To meet community members in person is always great and rewarding. It was a hugely successful conference for my organisation, eServices, as we also launched the new EMC Online Support Site. It really brought home to me the level of collaboration we've had with customers, partners and EMC employees in a vibrant community. Did you know our ECN Support Community accounts for over 50% of the entire traffic of the EMC Community Network. with 250,000 + members of ECN it's obviously a large Support Community. It's extremely collaborative friendly and full of great knowledgeable helpful professionals.

And the year ends for me now as it began, with a big project getting underway.
With EMC Ask the Expert established and growing we are also focusing on EMC Elect.  As I posted recently EMC Elect is Community recognition with exclusive opportunity. Its a fantastic program recognising EMC advocates within the ECN community and out in the social sphere. Unintentionally it also has a great benefit of bringing externally socially engaged advocates together with internal EMC Support Community advocates. Something that might not have occured were it not for this project. the nomination phase has ended and Matt Brender, myself and the amazing EMC Elect Founders are now engaged in the selection process. It's nerve wracking and exciting. Some truly amazing people have been nominated. It will be difficult deciding. But I look forward to January 15th 2013, when the 2012 EMC  Elect group will be announced. And then the fun starts.

2013 is lining up to be a very amazing and challenging year. But I am looking forward to it. It's an opportunity I am ready and raring to take. Thanks to all those who follow my blog / ramblings. It's been a challenge to write for all the right reasons, being really busy doing something I truly love.

So have a safe holiday , however you celebrate, and to you and yours  Go raibh maith agaibh agus Nollaig Shona Diobh! (Gaelic for "Thank you all and have a happy Christmas!" )

EMC Elect update

"Response to the EMC Elect has been phenomenal. As of today, the message has been in front of 1,071,133 Twitter followers with thousands of views across blog posts." As Matt Brender shared yesterday

But as he points out our unique number of nominations remains low. As nominations close on December 15th, 2012 it is important that you ensure that your favourite person for this distinguished honour gets nominated.

Just as a reminder:
EMC Elect is a community-driven recognition and thank you for individuals engagement with EMC as a brand over the last calendar year. There are many deserving a nomination. Perhaps even you deserve a nomination. You can nominate yourself. But participation is the price of admission.

Make sure you nominate that deserving someone, even if that someone is you.

As Matt says: "EMC Elect is inclusive, community-driven and a huge opportunity. Don’t let it go by. Nominate your influencers right now. "


I could not agree more, please don't miss this opportunity to have your say in this community driven recognition.

EMC Elect: Community Recognition with exclusive oppurtunity

The EMC brand is based on a promise to take information as far as possible. 

But EMC alone cannot do this.

Our loyal Customers, Partners and yes, EMC employees do the lion’s share of that work.

These people are EMC advocates. They do it not out of a preconceived fondness for EMC, but because they prove to themselves that EMC Products and Services enable the full realisation of the inherent power of information / Big Data / journey to the Cloud.

Every day they do this, immersing themselves in EMC technology, letting EMC know when and what we need to do to improve our service when it needs it.

They blog about EMC, They talk about EMC on pod casts and they participate in the EMC Community Network collaborating with other customers and partners sharing their experiences, the subject matter expertise on EMC as well as helping customers solve issues who really need their help. These are tireless, passionate, brilliant people.

The EMC Elect designation has been brought about to recognise these tireless advocates. It is a distinguished designation to thank the advocates for their past endeavors’ in the way they have helped EMC and, more importantly, EMC's Customers be successful in deploying our technology.
The beauty of this program too is that it is not designated by EMC, but by the EMC Community, made up of Customers, Partners and EMC Employees. The designation is achieved by peer nomination. And it is essentially a well deserved thank you to these wonderful people, from the EMC Community.

The Benefits -

The EMC Elect designation is a very special one. It entitles the designated Elect members to a suite of privileged exclusive access, granting:

• First Access
• Exclusive Privilege
• Status

This translates to benefits like:

• A direct conduit into EMC Business Units to hear about Betas, Roadmaps & other events
• Private events with distinguished members of the EMC brand
• Thought leadership conversations with Distinguished Engineers and Executive
• Personalised opportunities to build and cross-promote documentation, videos, projects
• Elevated status within the EMC Brand
• VIP treatment at Tier 1 events
• Personal liaison into EMC
• Private VIP community on the ECN with
• Elevated access to content
• Special curated communication
• Blogging collateral
• Exclusive iconography and brand recognition
• Welcome activation kit (nice bag)

For 2013, there will be 150 advocates awarded the Designation of EMC Elect. Nominations are being accepted now and in Mid January of 2013 we will announce the EMC Elect designees.

Anyone following my blog will know this has been a passionate dream of mine & @mjbrender. I am delighted to see this dream come to life, with a tremendous team behind it. You can find out more about the program on our EMC Elect site page on ECN.

And as we are now seeking nominations for EMC Elect candidates feel free to fill out the nomination form if you know someone who deserves a nomination. Maybe that person is you :) And yes you can nominate yourself. This is a great Program, one that celebrates these stalwart people. I can barely contain my excitement.  Do drop by and get involved.

Now you know what's been keeping me occupied :)

Customer Advocacy :This is the right time, and this is the right thing.

" This is the right time, and this is the right thing." - Thomas Moore

Well, it's been a while and yes it's the usual excuse, I have been busy. But I really have.
Remember this post of mine? Well it is finally becoming a reality and I am delighted! We will finally be able to recognise and thank our loyal community members who advocate on behalf of their community.
 Matt Brender and I are the unlikely duo who will spearhead this Project. Matt describes our Project very well on his own blog post about what is codenamed Project DNA

Recognising and celebrating our Advocates at EMC will be amazing!

The enthusiasm and Passion both Matt and I have for this Project are summed up in this quote from his post " We’re ready to go big, and there’s no way we’re going home unsuccessful."
I love it ! Recognition for our advocates is finally getting the big roll out it deserves.

 It's just fantastic!

EMC Ask the Expert

And tied to that is the other behemoth of a Project that I'm heading at present, EMC's Ask The Expert. It's going great guns and it's thanks to those advocates we plan to thank through Project DNA, who are making this project a great success. We've even launched our own twitter account for it @EMCAskTheExpert and tomorrow we kick off our first experimental "Tweet Chat". you can follow it it if you wish using #EMCATE.
it will be about "Performance calculations in Clariion / VNX" which is also a current ongoing discussion on our Ask The Expert Support Forum.

 

And that of course is not all, we will continue to expand Ask The Expert to product updates and launches, facilitating access to Customer advocates and subject matter experts who can make sense of a new feature or launch and what it means to EMC community members and product users.  And we will continue to bring in experts to address hot topics relevant to our Support Community members.

For more information on how Ask The Expert works you can listen to .. well .. me :) talk about it when I was recently interviewed about it by the InFocus team 

I am increasingly busy, but I have to say I am enjoying every minute of it. It's incredible how much the Support Community in EMC has grown. It offers so much to the existing and newer community membership and it's provided by dedicated community members sharing their experience, knowledge and expertise. I love being the Community Manager for it, as I get to know these community members, listen to them and advocate for them. The passion of our advocates is amazing. And I am delighted and honoured to play my part in having EMC recognise them through Project DNA. Much more about that very soon, that's a promise. :)