#2012sce

After 2 days holed up in a FREEZING hotel conference room in San Mateo, my head is spinning with new concepts, contacts and creativity (see what I did there?!). To have over 100 customer reference professionals from all over the globe in one room, really is pretty spectacular and all credit to Bill Lee for organising the 2012 Summit on Customer Engagement.

There were some great sessions, and the calibre of presenters was impressive. Lots covered over the two days, including:

How reference professionals are utilising social media in their programs

More effective ways to market to new prospects

Extending reach through empowering your customers to deliver their own content

Ways to leverage your highest value customers for strategic referencing

Recognition that not all your advocates will be current customers

To summarise the event in three simple phrases borrowed from the NetApp presenters, and interpreted in my own way:

Think Big: have a lazer focus on the bigger picture and what you want to achieve with your reference program. Align to your company's 3-5 year plan.

Start Small: you have to start somewhere, and it's not often customer reference programs are heavily staffed or funded right away

Move Fast: deliver, deliver, deliver. And while you're delivering, make sure you are measuring and reporting program success in a way that's going to speak to your execs and demonstrate the real value these programs have

I met some of the team from Projectline at the 2012 Summit on Customer Engagement, held in San Mateo, CA on 28/29 February. They asked me for a voxpop on my key take-aways after the first sessions on day 1. Take a look at their website or YouTube channel to get the low-down from other attendees, including Alison Bowen at Microsoft.