by Charlene Li

Josh and I will be doing a free webinar “Groundswell: A Framework For Using Web 2.0 For Business Advantage” on Friday, May 9th at 8am PT / 11am ET / 5pm CET.

We'll be reviewing the core ideas laid out in our "Groundswell" book, going through the frameworks and strategies needed to approach and thrive in the groundswell.

We hope you can join us -- and invite your colleagues if you think they would benefit!

Agenda:

• What process should companies use to create social strategies?
• What business objectives can be achieved with Web 2.0 technologies?
• How should you get started? 

Click here to be registered for the Groundswell webinar

By Charlene Li

Josh and I will be at the Web 2.0 Expo this week, with the hope of meeting as many of you as possible! Below is our general schedule, and in between sessions we'll be roaming the halls and show floor. You can track our whereabouts via our Twitter feeds (Charlene and Josh's feeds, respectively).

And if you have a copy of the book, we'll be happy to sign it (it will be on sale on the Expo floor).

Wednesday, April 23rd

9:40am-10:20am, Conference Session, "Creating A Coherent Social Strategy For Business", Room 2022.

Both of us will be presenting key frameworks from the "Groundswell" book, as well as how technology and business people can and need to work together to create a strategy. You technically need a Conference Pass to see the session, but O'Reilly is including our session as part of Web2Open, meaning that if you have that pass (which is FREE) you can attend our session. When you register on site, use the code Websf08opw to get the Web2Open pass.

10:40am-12:00pm, Web2Open Discussion

This is an open discussion forum following our conference session. We'll facilitate discussions around strategies, tactics, and metrics used by companies -- and turn to the people who are active practitioners to join the conversation. Note that you'll need the Web2Open pass to attend this session as well.

4:30pm-5:00pm: Keynote: "A Conversation With Max Levchin"

Charlene will be running the kickoff Q&A session with Max Levchin, CEO of Slide. If you have any burning questions you'd like to see her ask Max, please add them to the comments or email them to cli at forrester dot com.

9pm onwards: Meet up at Restaurant Lulu, 816 Folsom @ 4th Street

Come meet us for no-host drinks at the bar of this great restaurant.

Thursday, April 24th and Friday, April 25th

Josh will be around Thursday morning before heading back to Boston.

I will be doing some real-time research on two topics: widget marketing and the future of social networks. If you have anything to add to these two research areas, please let me know. Two sessions I'm looking forward to are "Open Platforms" with David Recordan from Six Apart, and "Widgets Grow Up" with Alex Bard (Goowy Media), Tariq Krim (NetVibes), and Hooman Radfar (Clearspring).

Hope to see and meet many of you later this week!

By Charlene Li

 

Kudos to O'Reilly for organizing a women's networking event during the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo. I'm going to be attending the event (details below) and am really looking forward to it.

 

There's a tremendous need for this -- I attend and speak at many technology events, and while our numbers are growing, it's still uncommon enough that I celebrate each woman speaker on stage or on a panel. In fact, I'm one of only three only woman so far scheduled to appear on the main stage at Web 2.0 Expo (the others are Jennifer Pahlka (CMP) and Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation). There are many women leading the breakout sessions, but we're still a heartbreakingly small number. Simone Brummelhuis details the list -- it's just 20 out of 200, or 10% of speakers.

 

It's also the reason why I support and attend events like BlogHer (now making its fourth appearance), and the upcoming PBWC conference later this month. And if you're putting together a conference, take a look at the links below for ideas of excellent speakers.

 

There's also a need to support especially the small but growing number of women entrepreneurs in this space -- a few that come to mind are Rashmi Sinha of SlideShare.net, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, Caterina Fake of Flickr, Mena Trott of Six Apart, Meg Hourihan of Pyra Labs, and Gina Bianchini of ning.com. (If you know or more, add them to the comments or let me know!)

Hope to see you there!

 

Event: Women's Networking Event

Description: Web 2.0 Expo is excited to provide a forum to bring together the women of web 2.0 communities for discussion, debate and networking. Come refresh and connect while overlooking downtown SF

Date/Time: Thursday, April 24th, 6:30-8:30pm

Location: Marriott's View Lounge, across from Moscone West, 55 4th Street, San Francisco

Other relevant links on women and Web 2.0:

Anil Dash's list of Web 2.0 speakers (who happen to be women)

List of Women Speakers for your Conference

Socialtext's Speaker Wiki

Kapp Notes: Great Women of Web 2.0

by Josh Bernoff

Join me for a talk about Groundswell and how to build and run a successful community, sponsored by Lithium. Sign up here. The Webinar is at 1:00 eastern, 10:00 pacific.

Many companies use Lithium communities for Supporting their customers, one of the five key objectives we cite for groundswell strategy.

Lithium is featured in our book including the incredible story of the support forum that saved Christmas when an earthquake in Asia cut many of the support phone lines for router-maker Linksys. We also quote Lithium CEO Lyle Fong on how recognition systems are crucial in making communities successful.

Should be an interesting online event.

by Charlene Li

Josh is making his way to the West coast so we're going to have an informal, no-host blogger dinner on Tuesday, March 25th in San Francisco. Also joining us will be Jeremiah Owyang (bio, blog). The goal: to have a stimulating discussion around any topic that intrigues us -- in other words, all things social. No pitching allowed!

It’s pretty normal at blogger dinners that everyone pay their own way, and in the spirit of community blogger dinners, we’d ask that you chip in $30 for dinner and we’ll all buy each other drinks. Please RSVP and pay in advance, as there's space for 50 people. Hurry - I have to turn in a headcount by Sunday.

And see below for a list of attendees -- I'll be updating as frequently as I can.

SF Blogger Dinner on Tuesday, March 25th

Dinner
Cocktail style, with a buffet of appetizers (pizzas, crispy calamari, spring rolls, chicken and beef satays, endive spears).

Location:
21st Amendment, 563 Second Street, San Francisco, phone: 415-369-0900

Date:
Tuesday, March 25th

Time:
6-8pm

Cost:
$30 for dinner. Please RSVP/pay in advance and by Sunday, March 23rd at 6pm.

Parking:
There's metered parking on Second Street. Closest lot is on Townsend, just west of Second Street (at least, according to Google Maps)

Update: I've been asked by several non-blogging PR people and vendors if they can come to the dinner. Well, frankly, anyone can sign up and I'm not going to be policing attendees. But realize that you may incur the wrath of dinner participants who are there to develop closer bonds with other bloggers. Not exactly the way to improve blogger relations if that is your goal!

Attendees:

Charlene Li
Josh Bernoff
Jeremiah Owyang
Adam Metz
Jacob Morgan
Sarah Park
Ted Shelton
Carter Lusher
Deborah Schultz
Eric Rosser Eldon
Beth Blecherman
Chris Heuer
Jennifer Jones
Shel Holtz
Justin Thorp
Kevin K. Leong
Esther Lim
Christopher Lynn
Janet Tyler
Samantha Weeks
Wayne Hengesbach