On September 21, 2010 Dell hosted a SMaC Talk Unconference for some of its EMEA employees. SMaC stands for Social Media and Community and I'm assuming EMEA stands for Europe, Middle East & Africa. I was invited to the event as a member of the Opel/Vauxhall social media team. I joined three other guests and our role was to contribute an outside perspective. The event was held in London and kicked off with a tweetup the evening before. I have to say this is such an important part of social media; cementing the online friendships of your virtual contacts. Doesn't have to be a tweetup, but the physical meeting is rewarding in so many ways. We discussed the format for the following day and decided not use any of those nice Powerpoint presentations we had each prepared.

About 100 employees filled the conference room the next day. The usual scramble for power outlets ensued and then the room was bathed in the eerie glow from multiple notebook screens. Oddly, there we no Apple Macs in the room. Strategically placed flatscreens scrolled the twitterfeed of the unconference hashtag #dellstu. The unconference started with more of a structured approach with a session on Dell's social media principles; a comprehensive introduction to the five core principles the company wants employees to embrace when they participate in the social media space. Protecting information- company, customers, privacy & intellectual property were all illustrated with practical examples. A Facebook update, a tweet, a blog post were read out and the audience asked what was questionable or at odds with the principles. Disclosure & transparency, the law, Dell's code of conduct and responsibility. Each one was covered in the same way. This introduction to the principles was a reminder for the various social media training courses Dell runs inside the company.

After an excellent, motivational keynote speech from Manish Mehta, Dell's vice president of social media and community, we changed from the U-shaped conference seating to theatre style. Well, to be honest, not quite theatre style. We pushed all the chairs to the front. Semi-circular rows that, seen from above, must have looked like a crop circle. The unconference was now in full swing with the invited "outsiders" seated centre-stage.  My fellow panelists were: 

• Nichola Pergande, Marketing Manager, Specialised Industries and Women In Business, HSBC Bank
• Neville Hobson, Head of Social Media Europe, WCG (and co-host, FIR)
• Shiva Rajaraman, Product Manager, Twitter

Richard Binhammer, more commonly known by his twitter handle @RichardatDell, kept us on our toes with unprepared questions- well we were unprepared anyway- and the audience fired questions at us that ranged from justifying resources, role of agencies and the balance of private and business online presence. The panel session was recorded as an FIR (For Immediate Release) Speakers and Speeches podcast. Much to my disappointment I might add, as I hate hearing my own voice. On top of that I regret not answering a question in a better way. Too late now. Digital footprint, etc.

Dell employees got busy with yellow sticky notes writing down what they wanted to hear about in the afternoon and nine topics were identified- or was it 12?, I lost count. I led one on culture change inside the organization. All the topics were ones I could relate to. What was really great about the unconference style was the agenda shaped itself to the needs of the audience.

It was an outstanding event. There was true engagement and participation from employees. The unconference style was perfect and I'm sure employees went away fired-up and ready to make social media a part of their daily activity.

Big shoutout to Kerry Bridge from Dell who led the team that put all this together.