While Steve is checking in from Half Moon Bay, being thlinky (a Redmonk term for "thinking" and "linking"), and playing with TextPattern and Typo, I'm seeking to have a conversation with him about the panel at next month's Collaborative Technologies Conference in Boston. James, also of Redmonk, said that Steve would be more likely to respond quickly to something on his blog rather than the email in his inbox from me, so in the spirit of adjusting ones communication style to meet the communication preference of the other, here's what I need to know Steve.
You are moderating a panel discussion in the Enterprise Collaboration Architectures track called "Open Source Collaboration Architecture for the Enterprise: Can It Really Be Done?". We've got four good speakers, 75 minutes of available time, and we now need to decide on how to structure the panel. Here's what I'd like to do:
Format for the Session
(a) Steve introduces the panel ... high-level overview of open source collaboration stuff for the enterprise (2 minutes)
(b) Each speaker presents a vendor-neutral 6-8 minute presentation, including no more than 6 slides, on an appropriate topic for the session (see suggested topics below)
(c) After each speaker, the moderator asks for any questions from the floor, which enables the audience to ask things while they are top-of-mind (3 minutes)
(d) After all of the 4 speakers and the topic-aligned Q&A has finished, Steve to open it up for general Q&A (15 minutes)
This format only works if you are tough (but not a jerk!) ... and keep to time. As in, at 7 minutes interject and say "you have 1 minute left", and then at 8 minutes stand up to assert your ownership from here on in. You have to keep Q&A to 3 minutes too ... by keeping an eye on your watch.
Speakers
Reuven Cohen, Founder and Chief Technol, Enomaly
Munwar Shariff, CTO & VP Business Development, CIGNEX Technologies, Inc
John Robb, VP Product Management, Zimbra
Kevin Cochrane, Alfresco
Suggested Topics
Open Source Content and Document Management: State of the Market (Alfresco)
Open Source Email and Calendaring for the Enterprise: State of the Market (Zimbra)
Combining Open Source Products to create an Enterprise Architecture: SWOT (Enomaly)
Constructing an Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Architecture Strategy: Notes from Customer Engagements (CIGNEX)
Is this going to work for you Steve? We've got to get it sorted ASAP as deadlines are approaching fast. Hope you managed to find wifi at the Thirsty Bear.
Tags: ctc+2006, stephen+o'grady, open+source+collaboration+architecture
we should definitely chat about this michael, and apologies for being difficult to reach: the schedule's been nuts.
anyhow, we can certainly conduct the panel this way, but in my experience allowing panelists to present slides is a difficult proposition. they're very difficult to control, and don't really promote the kind of inter-speaker dialogue that you'd like to see.
my recommendation would be to pursue a more informal, straight Q&A format. the panelists would be given a minute or two to introduce themselves - sans slides - and there we're off into Q&A.
that'd be my recommendation. but either way, i'm in the office tomorrow and we can discuss it. how about 9 AM MT / 4 PM BT? if that works i'm at 303.893.1650.
Posted by: stephen o'grady | May 12, 2006 at 10:32 AM
Steve,
So James was right ;-)
Can we do a bit later than 9am MT? That's like 3am for me ... a tad too early. How about 1pm your time, which is 7am my time?
Pls confirm.
M.
Posted by: Michael Sampson | May 12, 2006 at 11:20 AM
my mistake, i thought you were UK based. 1 PM's a bit tight. how's 2 PM MT?
Posted by: stephen o'grady | May 13, 2006 at 03:37 AM
That's perfect Steve. 2pm MT it is. tty soon.
Posted by: Michael Sampson | May 13, 2006 at 05:28 AM