It's the people Silly!

At the EMC World Conference in Las Vegas from the 21st to the 24th May, 2012, at the Venetian Hotel, we will have over 13,000 attendees. It's exciting and somewhat scary!

Now many of my colleagues in EMC will tell you about our services, our technology , Big Data, Cloud Architecture and other next generation technologies, as well as a whole suite of new products from EMC. All of these are important to know about and share.

 But for me, this EMC World is all about the people. Now I am not saying my colleagues don't get this, they so do! But I want to directly point out that all 13,000 plus attendees are the ones that make this conference / show what it is, and obviously the business of EMC.

 I look forward to meeting the real people. I love meeting customers, finding out about them, what they do and what they need. The EMC Support Forum Community has enriched my experience of EMC Customer relations. I come from a background of technical support over the phone in various companies. There is no need for me to go over the evolution of Support from then to now. The Internet & Social are a self evident tale now told.

What blows me away every day is the global scale of the conversation and the myriad of paths crossed, time zones, borders etc. And it 's all around helping people solve a problem or figure out how to do something. I really do love my work, even though at times it's tough, with long hours. But working with the people in the EMC Support Forums, be they a colleague or customer,  has been amazing. Beyond their technical know how, they are all amazing regular individual people.

So while it will be all about the coolest new technology, I really look forward to meeting the people.
Seriously! Here is a link to the video I did for our Ask the Expert participants. As you'll see we are planning some cool interaction, both in person and online.
EMC Ask the Expert, May update 2012

So wherever you are be sure to check out and engage in EMC World. If online try the vPass

I also urge you to tune / attend our "Join the Support Community Legends!" BUZZ talk. It promises to be a lot of fun and there will be prizes :) (for online attendees as well as those in person)

And keep an eye on our Expert Community page. There will be updates from our attending "Expert hosts" for the Ask the Expert program. And if you keep in touch with them and ask questions about things you want to hear about at the show, you could win a prize. Stay tuned for updates on that.

In any event there will be more posts from me very soon from Las Vegas. It will be busy and fun and I look forward to seeing you there, in person or online :) Las Vegas here we come!

eServices Online Support @ EMC World!

It's an exciting time for eServices and the EMC Community Network. Some really cool things will be happening for the overall ECN users. But more on that will come in later blog posts. Plans for eServices representation at EMC World this year are in advanced stages of planning. I am thoroughly delighted that we will have some very special guests this year. As well as our Customer Council members attending, we will have @sthulin, @henriwithani, @ionthegeek & @NerdBlurt as special guests.

They will be attending EMC World sessions and events and will also be at the EMC Online Support Booth.
While there they will be sharing their insights on what the sessions bring as well as answering questions live & online and in the EMC Community Network Support Forums as appropriate. This is great for people who cannot attend EMC World and even for those who can but cannot make every session.

This is major as the content they will create and discussions they will have with peers in the industry will be a unique and privileged insight. We will be getting the Technical Support persons perspective on how cloud can transform your IT, and how Big Data can transform your business.

I am delighted that these experts  are part of this and encourage anyone following my blog to watch our Ask The Expert Support Community Page on ECN to keep up to date with planned events and content from EMC World.



I will have more to post in due course.

Ciao

The Evolution of Social relationships:

Does Social Media smash the rule  about mixing business and pleasure?

 As ever I am a busy person. But I am due a post and this topic has been on my mind. I suddenly realized the importance of Social tools while following "Making Social Part of Your DNA" on Feburary 16th.

  

Social Media week has made me  me think of my own social development over the last 12 months, and how it has integrated into not only my work, but my life. For me social tools and Social Media has insidiously slipped into my life. I have made true and real friendships with it though and that surprised me when I thought about it. It was the indomitable @nerdblurt that started me really understanding that in the twitter sphere. Almost unconsciously I've made dinner plans with friends and colleagues using twitter and Facebook, FourSquare, Linked In, TripIt. It's a second nature thing but suddenly today I had a better appreciation of my Social Media integration.  

Mind you, Facebook is my least favorite Social Media tool and not somewhere I engage very often. (I'm still smarting from the Farmville invite craze :) 

In any event I have seen Social Media as very much part of my social life DNA. And the consequences of real Social Media relationships is more apparent to me in 2012.

 Looking into my work at EMC it is ever so apparent. Working with @mjbrender, @sthulin,& @henriwithani as you will note in my previous blog post we launched #EMCAskTheExpert . But that collaboration has enabled us to further our working relationship and bring forth some cool ideas for EMC World 2012 :) 

 Yes it's that time of the year again!  EMC World is looming and Ask the Expert will be coming to it in 2012. The gents mentioned above and I are putting together an exciting plan to engage at the conference and online.It's going to be cool!

More on this in subsequent posts. But what I want to emphasize here is the relationships I am building through Social Media. These guys are colleagues, one is also a customer and we have or are beginning a friendship. Behind Social Media is of course real people. It's just amazing at how it has come about. Or rather how  the tools enable collaboration and grass roots effort like never before.

I was also  reading an EMC colleague's blog ( @SuzySpaatz ) today. Her latest post about the year of Social business is good food for thought from the business perspective of Social. We do have to move from Social Experimentation to  Social business. And I think at EMC we are starting to get our arms around that. But for me the business / personal division is blurry, in surprising and exciting ways. While it makes sense I thought it was worth pointing out, even if it is just to myself :)

EMC Online Support Community Ask the Expert Launches today

I am delighted that the EMC Ask the Expert events are now off the ground. I meant to get a blog post together to post about it, but it's been a crazy week and weekend making sure everything was in place to make it a go for launch. Thankfully my illustrious colleague @sthulin has posted a blog describing the program in great detail. He has been very flattering to me (I think undeservedly, the guys answering the questions are doing the bulk of the work). What he omitted tell you in his blog is that it was he who masterminded this video including the editing.

This was a great job. So it is now up and running. Our first event for this initiative can be found here:

Ask the Expert: VNXe front-end Network Configurations with VMware

 Do drop by out of interest or indeed to ask a question regarding this topic. It is the first of many topics we intend to cover across all of EMC's product range. I hope you'll see that the EMC Support Community is a vibrant one with many excellent people who are happy to interact and engage with you on your technical EMC questions.

Do enjoy and please let us know what you think of the program. Your feedback is important.
 

Wrapping up 2011 and into 2012 on the EMC Support Community

I felt it proper and right that I at least post once more before 2011 is finished.

I wanted to share some big news for EMC Support Forums. On December 23rd we launched the EMC Support Community Ask the Expert Series. 
The Series will be events where EMC product experts will  host dedicated hot support discussion topics on the Support Forums . The Introductory video is done by me (explains a bit more) and can be seen here: http://community.emc.com/videos/2506
This will be a big program for the Support Forums at EMC in 2012.

 I wanted to give a great shout out for @mjbrender, @sthulin and Mike Chelotti of EMC for helping get the taster/ teaser video out as quickly as they did. It was great work. See the video here: https://community.emc.com/videos/2499

It's exciting stuff and will enhance the experience of the EMC Support Community. Keep an eye out for the events as they are scheduled in 2012, it will be informative and fun. Also in 2012 we will be revamping the Most Valuable Player Program for the EMC Support Forums. It is now no longer a competition for the status. It will be a recognition of those who steadfastly help the Support Community in EMC by answering their questions and contributing content to the Support Forums. We intend to recognize more people with this status, expanding the program. With recognition will come benefits for those people. It's still in the creation phase but in the early weeks of 2012 we will be wrapping that up and getting it rolled out to the Community as soon as possible.

I can't believe 2011 is almost over. the Year flew for me. It was hectically busy with highs and lows and creamy middles :) It was a huge year for EMC. 2012 promises to be very challenging, but I am really looking forward to it.  With the news above shared all that's left for me to say is Happy New Year and thanks for reading my blog. I am still learning the ropes from a blogging perspective. It's been fun. Stay safe, be well have a great holiday, whatever is left of it :)

EMC Community Support Forums: recognition of our Community champions

My role in EMC is changing. That's not what I am blogging about though. It's about what EMC eServices are doing to recognize, empower and reward our most valuable contributors in the Support Forums. Now it's not like we have not been doing this already. We have. And we have even got them together to talk about what it's like to be a champion in the Support Forums. See here: Meet the Support Forums MVPs

But we are expanding the program to include more people and recognize those that are the superheroes in the Forums. Nothing as yet is set in stone. But here are some ideas around what it will entail. Such people would be recognized and empowered. We would highlight them, give them a voice via blogging, vlogs as well as traditional discussions. We would reward these people with early beta release testing rights, educational credits, access to exclusive groups with other MVP's and developers. We would invite these individuals to EMC events in their local areas. We would ask such individuals to participate in our Ask the Expert program, answering questions from other customers in a special live events and online.

It's cool this is shaping up. And it's great that EMC is bringing a sharper focus to the Support Forums, recognizing the people who make it such a great and powerful community. And I am absolutely fired up that I am a part of making it happen. In the coming weeks I will have more about this and what it entails. And it won't just be about customers. This will include employees of EMC too in all areas. Pat Gelsinger described EMC, shortly after he joined the company, as extremely customer focused. How very true. It's my intention to advocate the Support Forums as a communication channel to all people working in EMC who communicate with customers. Which is as Pat Gelsinger says, all of us.

Thank you Steve Jobs!

It was through the traditional Medium of the wireless radio while driving at 9am this morning in West Cork that I heard the awfully sad news of Steve Jobs passing. We have lost a luminary to be sure. I was never fortunate enough to meet the man. But I am an ex Digital Equipment Corporation Employee. You can't have worked there and not have heard of him and the legendary story of the mouse.

He certainly revolutionized technology and changed our lives. I am late to Apple technology, but when I bought the iPad I am writing this blog post on I got the experience. The staff talked about how Steve liked to make things simple and elegant right down to the packaging. The staff there revered the guy, it was extraordinary to hear a CEO being talked about by staff at a store. But that's Apple. The Apple that Steve Jobs built.
I am sure the staff there are in bits at the news. He will be missed by the world, but most especially by his family. My deepest sympathies goes to to them.

Forbes have put together this tribute video (linked below) to honor Steve Jobs. It includes EMC's own Howard Elias speaking about him.

Thank you Steve Jobs for all you have done for technology and the people that it helped and continues to do so.