Eric Norlin
Defrag: Summit or Conference?
I had a really interesting phone call with Sameer Patel yesterday. The last couple of times that we spoke Sameer had taken to describing Defrag as a “summit-y feel” or “more of a summit than a conference.” Yesterday, when he said that again, I asked him exactly what he meant by that (and now I’m [...]
Lowering Risk at Decision Points
I’ve actually got the chance to catch up on a little blog reading this morning, and I just got to digest Sameer Patel’s wonderful post entitled, “Innovation 1.0, served here.” The bit that really hit home was this (emphasis mine): “By organizations embracing and encouraging innovation, that really doesn’t equate to every factory worker walking [...]
Selling modern software
Some conversational threads are converging today: 1. In a discussion this morning, I talked through two sales models in the “e2.0″ space — one, wherein non-IT people sign up for accounts, and the vendor then approaches IT about signing up for a comprehensive license; one wherein, the vendor uses more traditional enterprise sales methods to [...]
The Enterprise Irregulars and Defrag
I’ve long been a fan of the Enterprise Irregulars – and if you aren’t, you should be. The “EI’s” (as they’re often called) are a loosely joined group of practitioners, consultants, and analysts that collectively blog about enterprise software (and building the “smart” enterprise). Their group includes such well-known folks as Michael Krigsman, Susan Scrupski, [...]
Monkeys and Typewriters and Data (oh my!)
That’s the title of Paul Kedrosky’s keynote (Monkeys and Typewriters and Data — I added the “oh my!”). And it sits at the convergence of some conversation threads I’ve got going today… I asked Paul to shoot me a paragraph about his keynote at Defrag. He sent over this: === Monkeys and Typewriters and Data [...]
The Sponge Bob Economy
If you’ve been reading along with the defrag blog for any period of time, you’ve probably figured out that I like to have a macro-economic view inform how I approach things. For over a year now, I’ve been pounding on the theme of a “productivity boom” as an economic meta-theme — one that was driven [...]
All About Entrepreneurism
Brad’s got a post up about entrepreneurial density in Boulder, and I’m back from a little morning exercise, having spent the time thinking about (oddly enough) entrepreneurism. As I’ve said before, I’m a startup guy. I have two business mantras that I live by: 1) always be starting; and 2) always be closing. I take [...]
A Special Offer
For reasons completely unbeknownst to me, last night while I was catching up on Mad Men, I had this inspiration — so I’m putting this out there (I haven’t yet decided if I’m stupid for doing this). Prior to running conferences, I ran marketing for a startup (Ping Identity). Ping was very successful while I [...]
How to Make the Defrag Agenda
It seems like I’ve been getting a TON of PR firms contacting me about getting “their speakers” on the defrag agenda, so I thought it might be useful to put down on virtual paper some guidelines/insight into how you can work your way on to the agenda (in no particular order): 1. Don’t open with [...]
Defrag Goals
I have tons of goals for Defrag. Being an OCD sales-freak, I track my revenue on nearly a minute by minute basis (and have corresponding goals). But those “hard numbers” goals aren’t my big, meta-goals for Defrag. My “meta-goals” are actually non-numerical in nature; derived from two conference experiences that set the bar for me [...]
One Hot Mess: Social CRM and E2.0
There’s been a pretty far-ranging discussion on the blogs as of late around Social CRM. Don’t ask me to define “social CRM” – that in and of itself is a blog argument that’s been raging. What you need to know is this: Traditional CRM is about “managing customers”; Social CRM seeks to move the “management” [...]
Age, Technology and Defrag
I’m just off the phone with Buzz Bruggeman of ActiveWords. I’ve known Buzz for some time (he’s one of those ultra-connected guys that always seems to be thinking about edgy things), and I’m very glad to be getting Buzz involved in a discussion topic for Defrag. A few months back, Buzz approached me with this [...]
E2.0, Productivity and Joblessness
In the months leading up to last year’s Defrag, I began to blog about what I called “the productivity boom .” By that I meant this broad phase that we’re in, whereby we’ll see productivity in the enterprise make better than normal gains. The boom has a couple of pieces: 1. the advent of cloud [...]
Defrag in the weeds
My last post addressed the “meta” aspect of this year’s Defrag. But if all that you do is stay “in the meta,” you don’t get the full picture. The problem is that when a lot of people say “tactical” what they really mean is “case study.” And, while some case studies are wonderful, others really [...]
Defrag and the Meta
Let me start today’s post with a quick recap: The uniting thread that runs through Defrag is data. Specifically, how data’s exponential growth and increasing velocity is dealt with by individuals, groups and organizations, and the tools and technologies that “handle” that data. The “data problem” can be viewed through various angles. From the individual [...]
