Events

• New Mobility Technology Meets Old World Charm on the Orient Express

  Thu. Aug. 14, 2008
  by Kerry Bridge, EMEA Digital Media Communications

  As part of our launch of ten new laptops this week, we held an event on the Orient Express, largely to exemplify all the mobility features of the new range. Where better to do that than on a train? We were joined by around seventy journalists from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

  As well as hearing from Dell spokespeople about the laptop breakthrough features, we got to enjoy a sumptuous lunch and take the opportunity to socialise and take in the countryside. I enjoyed meeting some familiar faces as well as making new friends and Twitter buddies.

  

  I have been very impressed with the real-time journalism that I’ve seen over the past few days. Check out a great summary of the day here from LJ Rich, on her blog Geek Chic and from her good friend Annie Mole. I also posted a few photos from this event on our Dell Flickr site where you can see our journalist “digital nomads” in action.

  I did some filming on the train, asking several of the Dell team what feedback they had received from the journalists so far. Watch the video below to get a summary of the day.
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• My Thoughts on Twitter and the Dell Mobility Event

  Thu. Aug. 14, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Sorry for the delay in getting this post up—it's been a busy couple of days. I wanted to take a few minutes to give some perspective now that this first one is behind us.

  First off, Kudos to Chris Brogan and the folks at Radian 6 for coming up with the Twebinar concept. That's really where this idea came from. When we shared the news that we were going to use Twitter to  during the event, the blogosphere reacted: most of the initial reaction was positive, some was kind of mixed.

  Overall, I think it's fair to say that Dell folks were pleased with how it turned out. More importantly though, non-Dell folks seemed to appreciate it as well. That said, there clearly are ways for us to do better next time. Neville Hobson raised two good points in his summary post:  1) to use #hashtags and most importantly, to 2) keep the Twitter conversation going during the Q&A session.

  Item #2 was a sentiment that a lot of people who took part reiterated. Take a look at tweets like this one from @MelWebster or this one from @thornley, and there were lots more like those. It's clear we need to change that.

  And about the hashtags thing—some of us had discussed the possibility before the event. We opted to tweet from @digital_nomads as a group because that tweets from it will be part of the DigitalNomads.com site and we wanted to get discussions going since @digital_nomads tweets are part of that site (on a side note, @davidcushman we will correct the follow-back issue you raised shortly). Some Dell folks said they would have been more comfortable tweeting as themselves instead of the group, which I take as a positive from a transparency perspective. All the more reason to do hashtags the next time around.

  For me personally, responding to participants was a blast.  This was a learning experience for us. Next time we do this, it will be even better. Thanks to all of you who participated and thanks for your feedback.
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• Dell Global Mobility Event & Twitter

  Mon. Aug. 11, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  I love it when I get to blog about Twitter. Lots of you out there in the blogosphere are aware that we are having a global mobility event tomorrow (Tuesday August 12—register here). We're adding Twitter into the mix to have discussions and answer questions from folks in real-time online the event.

  Users of Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging service, will be able to ask questions about Dell’s new products and the company will “tweet” the answers. Tweets are text-based posts up to 140 characters in length.

  Sound interesting? If so anyone who wants to chat with us from 9am  - 10am PDT can  go to www.twitter.com/Digital_Nomads. An even better way to track the conversation tomorrow is through this link on Summize.com. I'll be part of a group that will be an

  Dell folks will provide live updates online from the event in San Francisco, and from media events in London and New Delhi, India. Back in Round Rock Texas, I'll be part of the team answering questions during the event. Anyone who has questions can send me a reply or a direct message to www.twitter.com/lionelatdell.

  Now for the event specifics:

  What: Live event featuring demonstration of a new generation of fresh and innovative designs, extreme power-efficiency and connectivity that will allow users to work anytime, anywhere.

  When: Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. PDT

  Where: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (151 3rd St., San Francisco, CA 94103)

  How: If you want to register for the event itself, go to this link

  Who: Dell executives on hand for interviews include:

  • Jeff Clarke, senior vice president, Dell Product Group
  • Margaret Franco, director, Commercial Notebooks
  • Steve Belt, vice president, Business Client Engineering
  • Ken Musgrave, director, Commercial Experience Design Group

  Also joining live from London via satellite uplink:

  • Mark Jarvis, Chief Marketing Officer

  For more information about Dell’s use of social media to connect with online communities, visit www.dell.com/conversations.

  A few folks have asked me to post the Latitude video from today's event. Here it is:
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• Dell and MTV at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico

  Thu. Aug. 07, 2008
  by Todd Dwyer, Community Liaison - Environment

  There's a huge gathering going on in Mexico City right now. Over 25,000 strong, the attendees come from all over the world and consist of celebrities, young people, doctors, scientists, citizens, advocates, the curious and the concerned. They represent a diverse range of nations and backgrounds, but they share one thing in common: a concern for stemming the spread of the global AIDS pandemic and creating a conducive environment for people living with the virus. The name of the gathering is the International AIDS Conference (IAC), and it takes place every two years in a different location around the world. The conference is bringing these people together so that they will have a forum to discuss the wide range of issues associated with the AIDS pandemic.
  
  MTV’s HIV AIDS awareness campaign, Staying Alive, has their own space in the main conference hall where they are hosting an interactive media lounge. They’re using it for a whole range of great activities – listed below - as well as making it a place for young women and men to come together and talk about their own experiences or concerns about AIDS – it’s also a much needed place to chill out and process everything they are learning at the conference.
  
  One cool initiative taking place in this creative space is a ‘speak out wall’ which encourages young people to leave a message about HIV AIDS. These messages are posted up around the lounge for others to view and learn from – topics covered so far are wide ranging and diverse – they’ve got everything from coming out to testing. There’s also a video booth where people are invited to share their thoughts and experiences of HIV AIDS on camera – the footage will be used on staying-alive.org with a view to further raising awareness.
  
  The two major initiatives that are taking place in this space are The Big Question and Untold Stories – both partnerships between MTV and MySpace.
  
  The Big Question takes one question that everyone has an  opinion on –namely “why, despite being aware of the risks are young people still having unsafe ?”  People stopping by the media lounge are encouraged to log on to MySpace and leave their answer.  The responses so far have been interesting and varied – check them out here –  it gives a real insight into how young people are thinking about this important issue – and it certainly made me think as well.  I look forward to seeing what you guys have to say on the issue.  MTV is also filming video responses to the question in the media lounge and around the conference – the footage will be posted on the MySpace page for all to see and learn from – so be sure to check out the page.
  
  The second initiative, Untold Stories, is a writing competition with a twist – three well known authors have written the opening 70 words of a short story with an HIV AIDS awareness message seamlessly integrated.  Celebrities including Selma Blair, Ludacris and Ashley Judd have got involved by reading out the scripts on camera - this footage is being shown on MTV channels and used as a directive for young people to log on to MySpace and upload their own ending to the story.  In September, one complete story will be chosen as a winner, the prize is great – the opportunity to – with the help of MTV- make the story into a short film for MTV channels, as well as a trip to India.  You can check out the stories and responses so far by checking out the page here.  The competition ends on September 2nd, so be sure to stop by the page before then to join the conversation (and perhaps win a shot at having your story immortalized on MTV!)
  
  While both The Big Question  and Untold Stories are being featured at the IAC conference in Mexico City, you don't have to be there to be a part of it.  This is a great opportunity to listen to what people all over the world have to say about a pandemic that effects everyone, and grow from these new perspectives.

  In addition to providing support for the events I just listed, Dell will also be providing 5 XPS M1330 (PRODUCT) RED laptops with Windows Vista® Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED to the MTV lounge so that attendees can blog about their experiences there – as well as participate in the two MySpace initiatives.
  
  Towards the end of the conference these laptops will be given away as prizes to five deserving grassroots projects attending the International AIDS Conference.  All week people have been filling out entry forms in a bid to win one of the computers.  Entrants have had to state how themselves or their project could really benefit from winning a laptop.  When I last checked, there had been over 500 entries and queues were forming at the media lounge as word spread of this great giveaway.
  
  We are happy to play a role in facilitating dialogue and education about this important global issue, and hope that the small role we are playing in this huge movement to eradicate AIDS makes a difference.
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• Dell at LinuxWorld this Week

  Mon. Aug. 04, 2008
  by John Hull, Manager of Linux OS Engineering

  As many of you know, the 2008 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo is taking place this week in San Franciscso. Several of us at Dell will be attending to take part in the "Desktop Linux" track. I'll be part of a panel discussion titled "OEM Desktop Panel Discussion - We’re shipping Linux on PCs: Now What?" on Wednesday morning at 11:30, while Daniel Judd and Cole Crawford are hosting a session titled "The Client Linux Desktop: A Dell Case Study", on Thursday morning at 10:15. If you're attending the conference, please stop by and chat with us; we'd love to meet you and get your feedback.
  
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• Netroots

  Thu. Jul. 17, 2008
  by Todd Dwyer, Community Liaison - Environment

  The ReGeneration Team is joining forces with Grist.org to report on the “green” conversation at this week’s Netroots Nation. We’ll be roving the halls and streets of downtown Austin asking attendees their impressions of the event and whether Netroots bloggers and candidates running for office are paying enough attention to the environment. If you are planning to be in Austin, drop by the Convention Center and share your thoughts and insights.
  
  Dispatches from this event will be frequent, so stay tuned to ReGeneration.org as well as the environmental section of this blog for updates and reports. For my own part, I will be joining the conversation via Twitter. If you're a Tweeter, you can follow my updates via TDatReGeneration. If what transpired at SXSW this year is any indication, Twitter will play a big role, perhaps even shaping the event itself.
  
  We’ll also be igniting the “green” conversation at a Grist/ReGeneration party this Saturday from 5-8:30pm at the Cedar Door. The first 150 people get a drink on us, and everyone qualifies for the door prize: a green Dell Inspiron 1525.
  
  If you can't make it, you can still join the conversation by commenting on our blog posts or sending us a message via Twitter. Either way, we're looking forward to hearing from you.
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• Recycling in the Rain

  Wed. Jul. 09, 2008
  by Jonathan Perry, Take Back Compliance Manager

  Today the Dell UK Green team held a recycling event for employees, which was successful despite the downpour of rain! From under our shelter and umbrellas we collected 9 pallets of outdated notebooks, desktops, monitors, printers and other IT equipment. We’re still counting, but we estimate this to be in the region of 2 tonnes of equipment. In addition, we have collected over 300 old mobile phones for the local Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust who will recycle them and convert this to cash.

  Click on the images below to view larger versions.

   

  From the photos you can see that we collected all kind of brands of equipment, Trish for example is holding an HP notebook.

  This event follows a similar employee activity in Cherrywood, where our Irish Green team collected around three quarters of a tonne of equipment on a sunny day in June.

   

  Results like these are an indication of how Dell employees are joining Dell’s global ReGeneration movement, only with employees embracing these company values can we be the kind of company we’re striving to be – the greenest technology company in the world.
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• My Thoughts on Blog Potomac & More

  Thu. Jun. 19, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Last week, I had the pleasure of being one of the speakers at Blog Potomac, an event that was well-organized and driven by Geoff Livingston and Debbie Weil. It was an honor for me to be part of such a strong group of social media folks. Simon Heseltine wrote a wrap up post and also summarized each of the keynotes over at EndlessPlain.com. Or take a look at the Blog Potomac site for all kinds info—videos, photos from the Flickr feed and more.

  Since I still get broad questions about how Dell's social media strategy has evolved over the last two + years, I figured it made sense to begin my part of Blog Potomac by providing a framework for our external efforts:

  • Listening: Originally started from a pure customer service perspective in April 2006. I've blogged about this in the past.
  • Launching our own blog: Direct2Dell went live in July, 2006. Now we blog in five languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Norwegian and Japanese. We've also rolled out several additional standalone blogs: DellShares, Cloud Computing, Small Business, Inside IT, Dell Channel, Your Blog, and ReGeneration.org. A University Relations will be coming soon.
  • Brand presence in the blogosphere: Started in August 2006 as natural extension from the listening we had started earlier. Outside of customer service issues, we found lots of bloggers who were commenting Dell from a brand perspective. It made sense to have conversations on that front as well.  
  • IdeaStorm: Launch date, February 2007. Click here for a background on what it's all about.
  • Our latest phase is Microblogging: Twitter, Friendfeed, YouTube and Flickr comment threads.

  I know this was familiar territory for folks that have followed Dell throughout our experience in social media. In fact, Technosailor called our blog outreach efforts old news, and asked me what we planned to do moving forward. My answer was that we've combined our outreach strengthen our focus. This combined team is a mix of our Digital Media Communications team, the Dell Community Forum team and our blog outreach team.  I went on to add that we're also beginning work to better integrate our social media properties. More on that in a bit.

  I failed to mention the concept of accepted solutions will play an even greater role in the future. Essentially, any customer who creates a new thread on the Forum can mark a response as an answer to the question or issue they raised. Take a look at Natalie's blog post for a better understanding what they're all about. Accepted solutions have taken off quickly—we've recently surpassed 7,500 accepted solutions since we introduced them in the Forum. We need to bring that functionality to the blog, and longer-term figure out how to pull useful information from accepted solutions into wikis.

  That's where Integrating our properties comes in. We're really just getting it off the ground, and it's going to take us a while. We're aiming to have Dell Community Forum, Direct2Dell and wikis on the same platform. May seem easy on the surface, but it's pretty complex thing to solve. In my view, all of our social media efforts should revolve around connecting our customers to information that's helpful to them—whether they are looking for product support or trying to educate themselves on new technology or the latest Dell products.  Lots of work to do there, but I think if we can get it right, we'll reach a more mainstream set of customers. We need to make it easy for all our customers to have conversations with Dell employees or other customers, and most importantly, to find the information they need.
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• Plant a Tree for Me Helps Restore Kansas Wildlife Refuge

  Thu. Jun. 12, 2008
  by Todd Dwyer, Community Liaison - Environment

  In case you haven't heard, Dell's Plant a Tree for Me program has played a key role in restoring 775 acres of forestland in the Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Kansas.  More than 230,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be sequestered by these trees throughout their lifetime, which is especially welcome news considering that, according to estimates from the World Bank, 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are caused by deforestation. 

  “Protecting the environment is a task that crosses both geographical and generational lines,” said David Frink, senior manager of Dell Corporate Affairs. “We're excited to partner with our customers, The Conservation Fund and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in broadening the impact of our ‘Plant a Tree for Me’ program and helping ensure the well being of our natural resources.”

  So far, more than a hundred thousand trees have been planted through the "Plant a Tree for Me" and "Plant a Forest for Me" programs, and more planting projects are in the works.  In the United States, contributions to these programs start at only a dollar, and the money goes a long way to help reforest hard-hit areas.  If 775 acres of trees land can clean our air that much, imagine the impact we can all have if we continue to put our heads together to save the planet!
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• Share Your #greentip for World Environment Day

  Thu. Jun. 05, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  I did this earlier in the year, and thought it made since to re-visit for World Environment Day. If you're on Twitter and have some green tips to share with folks, here's how you can do it:

  • Create a Twitter account - It's pretty straightforward... go to this link and Enter a User Name, Password, and e-mail address
  • Follow @hashtags - Do this by going to Twitter.com, logging in, and entering "hashtags" in the search window near the top of the Twitter main page, then click the Follow button
  • Type your green tip in the Twitter comment box (in 130 characters or less)
  • End your tweet with #greentip (no "s" on the end, all one word).
  • Press the update button

  You can easily follow the latest tips by going to http://twemes.com/greentip. You can also see those that we amassed on Earth Day.
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