Meet

Quick now…

I am:

• a husband
• a dad
• Australian
• an entrepreneur
• a public speaker
• an author (check the list below)
• a Flickr fan
• a regular (sometimes too regular) Tweeter
• all over the web
• pretty Google-able (except for that bloody actor!)

At least that’s it in a nutshell.

And now, onto the bio, which in great biography tradition is in the third person.

And the bio

Stephen Collins understands people. He understands business. And he helps his clients put the two together.

Whether it’s designing user experiences and service delivery approaches, helping to understand collaboration and knowledge sharing in the context of 21st Century business or building expertise in the social technologies that pervade our business and social lives, Stephen has proven expertise and experience.

Everyone is trying to figure out what social networking and social media mean for them. Stephen has been thinking about it, working with it and talking about it enough that he knows there is a simple answer. He knows it’s not about social media itself, but about understanding business goals and problems, and understanding people inside and outside the business. He then can help find strategies (which might include social media) to connect people to one another to solve those problems. He uses the language of business to talk about ideas, not jargon that only the cool kids understand.

More importantly, he knows technology is only a small part of any solution. Technology doesn’t help organisations and individuals spread and retain knowledge, engage employees, and connect with stakeholders, customers and communities. People do.

People are also at the core of Stephen’s work in user experience design. He helps design, develop and build great online experiences by connecting to people in and around your business. Their needs and goals are considered, distilled and included in the experiences he helps you to build.

Since he founded acidlabs in 2006, Steve has concentrated on working with organisations in the public and private sectors to help them change their corporate culture into one where people are at the heart of everything they do.

Previously, Stephen worked in the Australian public sector and consulting industries. He has extensive experience in government and private business with expertise in corporate communications, social media and networking, knowledge management, web strategy and project management, information architecture, user experience and business analysis.

Stephen is recognised internationally as an innovator, community builder and engaging public speaker in social media and user experience design. His views are regularly sought in the media and at conferences and he has received extensive coverage in many forums.

Other things

He is the #2 Australian marketing blogger ranked by The Population – a leading digital strategy agency – and B&T magazine. He is also ranked in Advertising Age’s Ad Age Power 150. He is a member of Social Media Today and Social Media Club, industry bodies focused on mentoring expertise, increasing business literacy, advocacy and best practices in social media and social networking in a business context.

He is a contributor to ABC Unleashed, the ABC’s opinion blog and has also been published in Marketing Magazine, Social Computing Magazine and has been interviewed several times for articles on ZDNet Australia. In 2008 and 2009 Stephen contributed to The Age of Conversation and also provided a piece for the anti-depression project The Perfect Gift for a Man in 2009.

His work on public sector reform and Government 2.0 has been published by the Centre for Policy Development and in the book State of the eUnion: Government 2.0 and Onwards, released in November 2009.

Stephen is a board member of Electronic Frontiers Australia and an Electronic Frontier Foundation member. He is an active organiser and contributor to the BarCamp movement.