I just finished a stimulating Day 1 at Forum One’s online community business forum.  So far, so good!  I like small conferences with a focus on conversations and this one meets the bill…with just 50 or so attendees.  Had a nice dinner tonight with peers from Apple, Dell and Lithium.

The day started with a round of introductions (ok, after 18 holes of golf with my colleague at Chardonnay Golf Club!!)  With the audience size, this is a great and gives a quick way to understand key interest areas and zero in on who I want to talk to most.  Here are some topics that were common discussion points:

• Globalization and Localization issues
• ROI / monetization / value prop to business decision makers to invest
• Community and internal company content "connectivity"
• Moderation and Community change management best practices and tough situations
• Segmentation
• Gift economy vs paid models
• "boomers" and communities
• Privacy and social responsibility
• Corporate culture implications
• Legal
• Nuturing your most active core contributors
• Brand implications
• Community as a source of market / product insight

This was followed by talks on New opportunities with online community, Dimensions of Value in engaging communities and Community ROI.

All in all, I enjoyed the day and it reminded me of why I named this blog what I did…a sense of common need for group therapy on all these topics!!

If I had to pick one topic from today that I will think more on, it came from Bob Rebholz.  Bob talked about the relative value of location based community (community defined by it’s venue) vs connection based communities (which are more likely defined by the participants and their movements between and across communities).  I liked the concept as a way to think about some of the challenges associated with building value (both external and internal) from similar, but highly fractured/distributed communities.  Good topic for me to sit down and wrestle to the ground.

Sean

Popularity: 5% [?]

Do you know about WOMMA?  WOMMA is the word of mouth marketing association.  And if you are a "Web 2.0-er" in your organization, you need to know about WOMMA.

First a little about WOMMA:

WOMMA is the official trade association for the word of mouth marketing industry. WOMMA’s mission is to promote and improve word of mouth marketing by:

• Protecting consumers and the industry with strong ethical guidelines
• Promoting word of mouth as an effective marketing tool
• Setting standards to encourage its use

Web 2.0 and Word or Mouth are inseparable concepts in my view.  Take the look at this recent cnet article:  Experts: Let customers help brand your product.  I blogged recently about how Search might effect your brand, but what about real user participation in your brand!!  This isn’t without some risk, but I’ve said before this is the direction, so time to get out in front.  (thanks to Andrew Brown for sending me this article!).

I’ve been part of WOMMA for the past several months and already made many great contacts through the network of professionals that participate both online and through their events.  This year I’m working hard to adjust my calendar so I can join the Word of Mouth Basic Training conference - and selfishly, I’m hoping I might see you there!  WOMBAT this year is April 17th-18th in New Orleans.  The keynote line up looks good:

• Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die as a headline keynote.
• Dr. David Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
• Peter van Stolk, founder and CEO of Jones Soda

Sessions look like they are lining up good as well.  I know this will be a great event.  My friends at WOMMA shared a special discount code as a courtesy to my blog readers, so you can register with "friendsofsean" for a $75 discount on attendance.

Hope to see you in New Orleans!

Don’t forget to Digg it…

[digg=http://digg.com/business_finance/Are_you_attending_the_Word_Of_Mouth_Basic_Training_conference_in_April]

Sean

Popularity: 12% [?]