I’d like to take a few minutes to share with you my takes about the last Enterprise 2.0 Forum that took place in Paris on march 17th et 18 th. First, a few words about the context.
I was looking for a professional event about enterprise 2.0 in Paris. Why do I mean by “professional” ? I’m fed up with the usual 40 min “show flat” presentations which conclusion is “it’s really awesome but I can’t do this in my company” and where we have the vague impression that insteat of getting answers to our problems we’re being sold a little piece of dream that comes with a big piece of software. In brief, attendees leave with shining stars in they eyes but realize, when the time to wake up comes, that it does not help them to achieve anything. I don’t even mention the events where we gather among experts, gurus, convinced practictionners to share certainties and common places before we realize that those we’re supposed to help weren’t in the room.
I came to the last Enterprise 2.0 Summit in Frankfurt with this idea in mind and, there, two things surprised me in a positive way. First, the format, that favors exchanges instead of one way talks (exchanges with the speaker but also among attendees) and, second, the fact that sponsors, even present around the event and the conference room were not allowed on stage to turn case studies into disguised sales speeches. So I we had the idea to bring this format to Paris, with a modest ambition regarding to the time we had : demonstrate it was possible in a local an french context and provide attendees not with discourses but with a strong added value. I think we did it and can already promise you there will be a second edition next year and than having 12 months instead of 2 to organize it will allow us to make things even better ans maybe bigger.
Last thing before delivering my takes. We usually judge this kind of event regarding to the quality of speeches (and of the buffet if you’re french). That’s not enough in the format we chose because it relies on an active participation from attendees (what implies to keep an “human size” to favor discussions). If I got many positives feedbacks, it’s also mainly because of the audience that asked the right questions and started vibrant discussions. When a conference room is crowed with people that have to het things done in their company, the debate easily reaches a higher level.
After the form, the substance. Here are my conclusions in a few points
If you’re staying in France next week and want to see how an collaborative intranet 2.0 can help you to manage your HR problematics, you can attend the conference that will take place at the Microsoft Technology Center Microsoft Technology (Salle Everest, 148 rue de l’université 75007 Paris) on tuesday october 31st from 5 to 7 PM.
I don’t know if foreign people have ever heard about Tchooze. Tchooze was a french site where people can talk about companies who hired them, saying what whas goog, what was wrong, giving advice to those who wanted to apply for jobs in these companies.
You can find the "original" french version of this blog here

