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This is just a really quick wrap of my experience at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference the past four days. I’ve still got a couple of session posts in the pipeline. I’ll complete them in the next few days.

This summary isn’t comprehensive nor all inclusive, just some bullet points:

• the CIA guys were, no question, the rock stars of the conference and read my blog! I met and talked to two real-life CIA analysts - Don Burke and Sean Dennehy are about the best walking ad the intel community could have
• there are real organisations out there having real success with Enterprise 2.0 implementations. It can be scary but well managed risk mitigation goes a long way - Wachovia, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, the CIA, Serena and many, many others judging from the range of companies I saw represented on people’s name badges
• softly, softly may not be the answer for your organisation. Both Pete Fields (my #2 superstar for the conference - see his talk here) from Wachovia and the Lockheed Martin guys encourage momentum and the occasional grand plan
• there is an active and engaged community out there who want to do this stuff in their organisations or are keen to be a part of organisations that do. Hallway buzz and willingness to challenge and ask questions in sessions were both features of the conference. There really was a conversation going on the whole time
• video and audio are available on the Conference Community site
• slides and other collateral are mostly in the Session Zone. It’s a little hard to work your way through, but persevere for the gems that are there
• the media are interested in what’s going on, and not just to stir up worry. There are good news stories to be told
• the backchannel, supplied by Meebo (and on Twitter) was amazing. They should have used Tangler - it would have been ideal
• someone please hire Isabelle Lopez as a comms consultant for their business. The number of people I spoke to who were affected by speaking with her (she was another attendee) was astounding. She is a thermonuclear device in a 5-foot nothing, Québécoise body

I really learnt a lot at the conference, it was money well spent.

On top of all the learning, perhaps more fun, was having the chance to meet for the first time, or catch up with an amazing number of people. We social tool users profess to be able to form real, meaningful relationships through these media (and I truly believe we can). That said, the chance to meet someone in real life and share a conversation, a meal or a coffee with them is just an extra notch on the dial, taking the experience to 11!

Everyone I met was engaging, engaged and passionate. As a result, I feel very energised, despite being very tired from 3½ days of 7:30AM-8:30PM conference.

It would take way too much space to list them all by full name, so in the interest of brevity, I’ve put their their Twitter handles below. Click through and follow them if you feel like engaging with someone interesting. Mention my name.

mastermark, jenrobinson, rhappe, dougcornelius, pistachio, stevemann, dahowlett, minassian, samlawrence, kmhobbie, stoweboyd, chuckstar76, roberthomburg, georgedearing, elsua, absolutesubzero, dt, olivermarks, gialyons, sweettt, frymaster, chrisbrogan, marketingprofs, 1938media, achitwood, mkrigsman, benrapin, brianperson, vanderwal, thoughtfarmer, maggiefox, jevon, itsinsider, skemsley, leewhite, astrout, roebot, leebryant, dhinchcliffe, amcafee, jackvinson, ross, infovark, isatruc, tlg, pascalveilleux, scottmonty, stevegarfield, rogueduck, laurencooney

If I met you and left you off, or don’t have your Twitter handle, I apologise. Ping me in the comments and we can connect.

If you are interested in Enterprise 2.0 in any way, I absolutely recommend you get yourself to Boston next June. Hopefully, we’ll have an Australian contingent next time.

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