As metioned last week, Jeff and I had the privilege of attending the AIM Institute’s Futures Forum, featuring Anthony Williams, author of the book “Wikinomics“.
Like many AIM events that we’ve been to, the it was a very corporate crowd, to say the least. Tables had been purchased by large corporations (UP, Mutual, etc). Certainly nothing wrong with this, but I think its important to note, given the topic for the day was about “social media” and “web 2.0”, specifically collaboration methods such as wikis and the like.
Not having read the book, I was a little curious going into this environment, how receptive the audience would be towards the topic. Certainly *I* would be listening with baited breath, but would the rest of the room? I mean, I live and breath social media and the web… Its practically where I live. The question though was whether the rest of the audience could relate.
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I must say, that I was completely engaged throughout the presentation. Though I was well aware of many of the topics, Mr. Williams presented them with a tone that made me want to hear about them all over again. Additionally, and more to my main point, there were were many stories that I had *no idea* about. Who knew that Proctor and Gamble had implemented “crowdsourced” much of their R&D? Who knew there was gold mining company which had used prize money to encourage participants to help them locate gold.
These very real, very non-tech-startup examples, served as a great bridge between the audience members, and these new-age topics of social media and collaboration. The theme of “How to enhance your organization with collaboration” resonated throughout the talk, in a very real manor.
At the end of the talk, I was blown away by how insightful and relevant it was for not only me (a social media quasi-expert), but also those in the room that have to go back to Fortune 500 companies and think about how to apply these concepts. My only hope is that those individuals got as much out of the presentation as I did.
Kudos to the AIM Institute for knowing their audience, and bringing in such an appropriate and enjoyable speaker.
All photos curtosy the very awesome and talented folks at Paparazzi by Appointment
Jeff getting his booked signed.
Dusty flailing his arms spouting off about something.
