Trip to Germany: See the Light – Thinking out of the Inbox

Phew! I really needed to have those couple of extra days off over the weekend to unwind from a massively busy schedule with plenty of travelling all along in the last couple of weeks, having just returned from Barcelona on Friday, then on the road again over the next couple of days. Too hectic, huh? Yes, probably, but loving it! Every minute of it! Yes, that is right! Things seemed to have been rather feverish lately and must say that there is no sign it is going to stop any time soon! That’s why you have seen very little activity from my usual regular blogging, but fear not, because now that I am done with the weekend I have got a bunch of posts to share with you folks over the next few hours!

Starting with some more reviews from the Next08 event in Hamburg from a couple of weeks back, where I am hoping that the video recording of my session will become available shortly as well, so that I can share the link with all of you, as most of the different replays are up and running already and in various different places. Then from there onwards continuing further with the weekly reports on my progress giving up on e-mail, where the good news keep piling up, thus stay tuned for those, too!

One of the other things that I would want to touch base with as well is with regards to one of my customer visits from last week to Barcelona, where the session I provided on Social Computing in the Enterprise sparked some really good, and thought-provoking, discussions I am hoping to touch base on as well (Link here, in Catalan). Not going to mention too much just yet in order not to spoil it, but I can certainly guarantee you that it would be quite an interesting read.

At the same time I am planning to create another blog post on the Startup 2.0 event that I was kindly invited by Jose Antonio del Moral and where I met a good bunch of folks involved with Start ups and the Web 2.0 world with a special mention to some fascinating discussions with one of the folks I have been following up for a little while now and whom I know our relationship is going to get more active than ever: Tom Raftery (By the way, Tom, congratulations on the massive gig! Great news for sure!! ). Thus something else to talk about over the next couple of days as well.

Finally, and as I am entering the 16th week in a row of my new reality on giving up on e-mail, I am now ready to start sharing with you folks different blog posts where I can talk about my social software tools suite that I have been using all along and with which I am sticking around for the next few months, in order to help me successfully move away from e-mail. Thus stay tuned for those entries as well if you would want to find out some more how you can get started yourself. Oh, and a lovely surprise I am hoping to be able to share as well very very soon, too!

And now, to wrap up this half-way-through-catchup status blog post from the last few days, I will detail where I am going to be this week and the next (My Dopplr account has been updated already, by the way, in case you are wondering). But before I do that watch out as well because I will be creating a number of other different blog posts where I am going to be sharing some further details as to where I will be over the next few weeks ending up, so far, to the end of June! Non-stop travelling till then! But let’s get started with one step at a time…

Starting this coming Wednesday I am actually flying out to Germany to participate in an event that the IBM Software (Tech) Sales folks have been setting up and which I am surely going to enjoy quite a bit! It is called "See the Light (2.0)" and its main purpose is to help spread the message around with regards to Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and Social Computing in general. Yes, I know, my kind of thing! Indeed!

Initially it is going to be for an IBM internal audience, thus a bit more restricted than the events I have been participating thus far in the last few days, but still equally exciting. So much so, that I will be one of the speakers talking about the presentation I have been doing already a couple of times and which I am thinking about changing its title a little bit, thanks to the inspiration from this particular event itself. Thus I will be presenting on "Thinking out of the Inbox – More Collaboration through less e-mail", but I am thinking that I may be changing the title to something more like "See the Light – Thinking out of the Inbox". Much shorter, straighter to the point on what I am doing lately, as well as keeping that evangelism flavour that part of my job role entails. We shall see how that goes…

So, where am I going to go? Well, it certainly is going to be quite interesting and totally new to me. I will actually be in six different cities in Germany over the course of eight days! Yes, you are reading it right. I will be in six different cities over the course of eight days enjoying the unique experience of the Autobahn. Thus I will be flying out this coming Wednesday to Munich where my Tour of Germany will start the next day; then from there onwards off to Stuttgart the day after to continue further with the roadshow. Then I will be spending the entire weekend in Cologne (Probably where I would be getting the highest chances to meet up with folks as I unwind a bit from everything while in there) and will continue with Monday to Frankfurt, Tuesday to Düsseldorf and, finally, Wednesday to Hamburg. And Thursday on my way back home! Have a one day rest at home, and off we go again with the next trip on Friday (But that would be another entry on this blog, not to worry!).

Goodness, eh? Yes, that’s right! That’s the kind of massively hectic week that is awaiting me, talking to a whole bunch of people on Social Computing in IBM and the kind of impact it is having within the corporate world and then finishing up sharing my experiences on how I have been using successfully social software tools to walk away from work related e-mail for the last four months. Sounds like some good fun ahead of me! And I can’t wait!

I am sure that during the course of these few days where I will be travelling I will have some time to keep posting those posts I mentioned above I would want to touch base on, but I am thinking as well that if you fancy getting together for a drink or two, or a dinner, you may want to keep in touch, leaving a comment over here, or contacting me through the various social software tools we interact with each other already. No guarantees I would be able to make it, like I said, Cologne is probably the best option over the weekend, but you never know. I may be able to generate more free time than I expect at that point in time. Either way, here you are, resuming my blogging activities after a wonderful and relaxing weekend and ready for another two weeks of feverish activities in the 2.0 space!

Come on! Let’s do it! Let’s get the fun started!!!

Tags: Travelling, Travels, Barcelona, Spain, Next08, Hamburg, Germany, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Innovation, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Clients, Customers, Catalan, Startup 2.0, Startup2.0, Jose Antonio del Moral, Jamoral, Tom Raftery, IBM, Software, Tech Sales, Sales, See The Light, SeeTheLight, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, e-mail, Autobahn, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Köln, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Roadshow, Tour of Germany