Will Enterprise 2.0 be a wash?
Next week sees the start of Enterprise 2.0 in Boston. You'd think that given the line up of rock star speakers that it would be a magnet for eager buyers looking to find out what's likely to be new, fresh and shiny in the wonderful world of all things social. Not if you read what my colleague Jevon MacDonald has to say about the event:
Those customers who are actually making purchases right now are a little timid and not sure exactly what to expect, and usually it was a friend who took them out to the party.
When the lights go down and the drinks start flowing however, things aren’t as clear as they were before and it isn’t always obvious who you are getting in bed with.
The Drag Queens of Enterprise 2.0 are those old Enterprise software vendors who haven’t done anything to change their products, but instead they went out and have bought a nice dress and have put some eye shadow on their football player physiques.
Ouch! I'm not going to name names but just check out the Diamond sponsor list. My firend and colleague Vinnie Mirchandani is more to the point:
"Drag Queens"
fellow EI Jevon McDonald uses that term to describe "old enterprise companies dressing up like a pretty E2.0 babe"
Against that background I read a Sandhill piece on Jesper Andersen of Oracle and its plans to become a "2.0 babe"Oracle is hosting a dinner for several EIs at next week's Enterprise 2.0 conference.
Wonder what the dress code is? :)
Eeek! Every felt you've just been hit over the head by a cluestick?
In the meantime every man and his dog wants to pitch their shiny new stuff at me. I guess that's because I'm on the 'media' list. I'm not sure how that happened but hey ho, even if I have yet to see a single approach that bears even a passing resemblance to the so-called 'new' social media.
But then I'm also chairing a panel about microblogging. You all know what I think about Twitter so I couldn't resist adding Loren Feldman. His understanding of Twitter is up there with my cynical enterprisey friends. I have a feeling that sock puppets might be involved. Whatever happens and given we've got the gravyard slot - last panel on the last day etc - I'm sure the three or four folk who turn up will be entertained. That's my expectation.