Forrester Event Blog: Humanizing The Digital Experience

Forrester gets it right at Forrester's Consumer Forum 2006 conference titled "Humanizing The Digital Experience".  How?

They are running a blog of the event where notable bloggers such as Christopher Carfi - the author of The Social Customer Manifesto blog and co-founder of Cerado, along with Marianne Richmond the author of the Resonance Partnership Blog have been invited to guest blog the event.

Of course Forrester also has their own employees blogging as well.  So why is this significant?  Other conferences have done this many times before. I was a guest blogger at the IIT's Strategy '06 conference for example.

The answer is simple.  Because it's Forrester.  Despite how cutting edge marketing has become, Forrester is still the percieved as "The Source" among millions of office dwellers.  The reports, data and studies they produce quickly become "Holy Grail".  So, you can bet that when they open up a significant conference like this to bloggers—us corporate office dwellers will take notice.

Here's another anecdotal.  I blogged about the last Forrester event I attended, and had a brief but interesting conversation with senior analyst Moira Dorsey before doing so.  I think the lightbulb has gone off for Forrester where they figure "our conferences will be blogged anyway—why not invite folks to do so on our turf?"

On a side note, the conference blog is taking shape rapidly.  Go and check it out. I wish I was at this conference as it is right up my alley, but we had to send some other Digitas folks.  However, at least I have the blog to follow.  I'll leave you with this little gem written up by Chris:

2) What is a humanized digital experience?

"An interaction in which the human benefits are more visible than the technology"
- emotional
- tacticle
- "we feel part o the community"

Three building blocks of a humanized digital experience
- "Useful"...offers value
- Relevant
- Reliable
- Functional

Good example: VW online car configurator

- "Usable"...provides easy access to value
- Accessible
- Convenient
- Familiar

Good example: Netflix, desktop widgets

- "Desirable"...appeal to emotions
- "Empathetic"
- "Empowering"
- "Engaging"

Comments

[christopher carfi]

david...thanks for the good words. it's a good event. charlene just asked michael wiley (formerly GM Fastlane blog, now @ Edelman) about WalMartGate...he felt it was an rookie mistake by an overzealous account team. it appears all 2200(?) edelman employees are now going through some type of "ethics in social media" training as a result. will be interesting to see the results.

[Matt MacQueen]

Good thoughts.

I spoke with Micahel Wiley right after that session today, he had the most "straight talk" of those on the panel, I thought.

He also had the best answer to the question I posed about the imbalance of value between those producing content for sites, and those who are currently making money off that free work. Ben Nelson (General Manager of Snapfish) seems to think "fame" is the most public currency of value on the web, and has existed well before blogs, wikis and YouTube, etc. Sorry but that's just not enough anymore. I disagree and (as Michael Wiley noted), I think that smarter sites/brands will figure out a way to have a more explicit revenue or "value" share with the producers of the content. Even if it's not cash money (Revver), but in the form of product or service exchanges is another good way to think about it.

For example, the CEO of TripAdvisor was on this panel, and one way I would recommend they look at this is: if you take a trip, and come to post your experiences in the form of a hotel review or tour evaluation, that next time book a trip following a link from your site, maybe you get a few percent discout - OR - are eligible for some kind of a travel perk.

There will be a day when users figure out that they are adding all the value to these sites, and are going to expect something more tangible as a reward for their input... even something symbolic is important at this early stage.

[DA]

Thanks for that Matt—really appreciate the additional context.

So looks like I'll be crashing the event tomorrow morning. Look for the dark haired guy with black glasses with a name tag that reads "Margaret".

I'm not kidding.

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The best time to learn is before you're in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable experience while it's still free. - William B. Doyle, http://www.wbdoyle.com/blog/