Thanks, guys! Happy to be here 😉   ... View more

@JennC, awesome, thanks! Without having outlined all of the project components yet, I had also estimated a quarter to really nail down and once the strategy is concise and ready, *then* implement. Thanks again! ... View more

@daphtan    As my wonderful colleague @Wendy_S mentioned, we really do try to incorporate community into our events! But I kind of think of this differently. Our annual, in-person event is really for the community (HP Experts) so it's not as much about incorporating the community into the event -- sometimes it feels the other way around 🙂   However, for our last big in-person event (#HPmeetup 2015), here are some of the things we did to incorporate the community: Planned a "Community Day" as part of the event: For 1/2 of the day, each language community (our communities are broken out by language in keeping with our forum instances) broke off into their own focus groups. The primary objective was to get feedback from our community on how we can improve -- everything from the forums, to the program, to the products, etc. The other primary objective was just for each community to spend time together without having language barriers, etc. But we've found that listening to the experts and having candid (to the extent we can) conversations with them about things HP can improve really helps to engage with them and cultivate the relationship. Of course, it means we all walk away with action items 😉 but it is always really valuable. Incorporated social aspects with our Selfie Wall of Experts. This was just a fun, social aspect to bring folks together and have some fun. Brought cool HP products for a showcase and let the community play with the products. HP Vlog - this was actually completely opportunistic, but a partnering organization here at HP is running an HP Vlog called #HPHowToForYou. We brought the folks running the blog to the event an they captured live footage of the HP Experts at the event and turned it into a vlog episode. Super cool. 🙂   We have other events that are virtual and less centered on the actual Experts and more on driving traffic/solutions, etc. Happy to share about those as well if it's of interest.   I hope that helps you! I am in the process of completely redefining and reassesing our events strategy, so I am looking for lots of ideas too 🙂 Happy Friday! -Natalie ... View more

@RichRe, you mentioned that you are still finalizing details and that the strategy is not quite completely defined/final yet. May I ask about how long you foresee the overall strategy definition taking? I am still working through defining the project plan (i.e., what it is we need to do to get the strategy defined & implemented) and am working through timelines associated therein. You don't have to give me all your secrets, I'm just curious if you see this as something that can be nailed down within a month...a quarter...a year? Thanks again! ... View more

@JennC, @RichRe - Thank you both for your comments! this is super helpful. I'll keep you all posted on how this goes. 🙂     Jenn - you are absolutely right about getting focused (in this case, lost) in the details. And I love your idea of keeping track of events, objectives, etc., within one sheet for easy reference.    Thanks again to both of you!    -Natalie  ... View more