Speaking at Stanford on B2B community building
A few months ago I received an invitation to speak to a class at Stanford Continuing Studies titled "Web 2.0 and its Business Applications" taught by Robin Stavisky, founder and managing partner of New Venture Marketing, a high-technology marketing and communications company.
I just completed my deck for tomorrow's presentation, titled: "the challenges, pitfalls and possibilities of implementing and building community."
I must admit that I'm extremely flattered to have been invited, because this summer's lineup of speakers includes Charlene Li, Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis and other social media heavyweights.
To be honest, when she called, my first reaction was: "You want me to speak to your class?"
Robin explained that she'd been following my blog conversations about my experiences building a new community for Cadence Design Systems as that company's senior social media manager last summer -- and she also followed my work at Symantec, where I launched that company's first enterprise community in early 2007.
Robin said she wanted me to focus on sharing my experiences "building a B2B community in an organization from the inside." She added that one objective was to break the (apparent) stereotype among her students (folks who want to build communities in their companies) who think that social media tools only play out in consumer companies.
I'm looking forward to the presentation and discussions that will follow. I'll try to take some good notes and report back here in the next few days. I'll also bring along my Flip camcorder and interview some folks after the Q&A session in possible.
Wish me luck! 
