Vol. 2: design-management.de

Well I’m almost off to Amsterdam to deliver my “Blogging for Design Leadership” Workshop on Friday for the 10th DMI European International Design Management Conference. From the list of participants (which seems to be the biggest ever with some 175 design professionals mainly from across Europe and the US) I’ve already spotted some friends, several former DM students of mine and interesting people I’d like to have a chat with.

While there are some interesting speakers scheduled as well (I would have loved to listen to Stefano Marzano, CEO & Chief Creative Director, Philips Design) I think the core value of these gatherings is the networking in between ;-) Unfortunately the highly communicative dinners on Wednesday and Thursday have been replaced by sponsored receptions. While these are nice and communicative as well after one hour people leave the place to seek for a dinner location. Accordingly the trick is not to miss your favourite crowd of people you’d like to spend the evening with ;-)

However lunch is still included in the conference fee and I’m happy that my session takes place on Friday before lunch. From past events I’ve experienced post lunch time slots as quite challenging since attention is usually declining around 2 p.m. Anyway, in the long version my the session description which I’ve submitted to DMI last year my idea around the one hour workshop reads as follows:

“Imagine reading a diary say your own recordings from many years ago or the diary of a contemporary witness. Beside being interested in the “What” referring to events and facts, the “Why” issues reflecting motives are usually far more interesting. By the same token blogging goes beyond telling your department or the public “What” you do. Blogs are about sharing the “Why” resulting in a win-win scenario for you and your audience. We will discuss the opportunities which arise from sharing knowledge and what it means for your company to enter the blogosphere.”

While this is not really new stuff for experiences bloggers I plan to give the audience both an idea about the general idea of blogging as well as real world examples of different settings in which blogs might appear and possibly make sense. Paradoxically at the Open University Business School staff development weekend in Brussels which I’ve attended two weeks ago I’ve experienced tremendous interest in blogging, but very often my peers responded: “So far I’ve only met people who have been talking about blogging, but not a “Real Blogger”. Well in Amsterdam this Friday you can meet a “Real Blogger” from 11:30 – 12:30 hrs. See you there …