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 , 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 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

 

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