The importance of being Social at eXtreme365

Later this week two co-Directors from Prosperity 24.7 and I will travel to Lisbon, not for a holiday, but to work for a week within the Microsoft Dynamics community and I thought it might help participants to understand the importance of being Social at eXtreme365 with five useful tips to help you to get the most out of the event.

For clarity, this post is not about Dynamics 365, Intelligent Customer Engagement or Customer Relationship Management, nor is it about leadership or being a Director – just some of our normal topics!

The purpose of this article is to help the community of 850+ participants of eXtreme365 Lisbon 2017 to get the most out of the investment that you are making both in time and money.

The importance of being Social

So, ‘the importance of being Social’ means several things in the context of this post:

  • Participate
  • Meet
  • Expand
  • Contribute
  • Amplify

I shall endeavour to elaborate about each of these points based upon my own experiences of eXtreme365 (eXtremeCRM as was) over the last 5 years, to share how my threads of being social might help you in your career…

Participate

First and foremost, you have either paid to attend or your employer has, therefore make sure you participate. Take part in everything you can, from Social events to learning activities but most of all, if you can, participate in the Innovation Challenge.

Why? You might well ask…

Well, two years ago I happened to be a part of the team that won with a novel yet much needed application ‘KYC’ – I won’t go into details as to what the letters stood for on this occasion but I wrote a post last year to help ‘Innovation Challengers’ (as a mentor in 2016) so will simply share my experiences once more here: https://prosperity247.com/2016/04/08/extreme-crm-2016-one-week-and-counting/

If you can participate in the Innovation Challenge then there is probably no better way to accelerate your learning journey and your networking. You will be working alongside Dynamics MVP’s in the creation of a minimum viable product in a day which you then get to present to your peers (with incredible support from your host). You will get to know all the best people ;o) and be known as a contributor in the community.

Meet

Enough said. Just do it. Be friendly, meet everyone, say hello, walk around with a smile on your face, be approachable and accessible and you will become part of the Dynamics community very quickly.

If you are a little uncomfortable walking around grinning like a Cheshire cat, make sure that you download the eXtreme365 Social App by DoubleDutch (you will get an invite to download it tomorrow) and start to share thoughts, nuggets, insights or curated content with your peers via the event private Social channel to enable peers to know that you are attending, listening to, processing and therefore happy to discuss a common topic – Dynamics 365 – helping you to get over any initial fear of saying “hi” to anyone who happens to smile at you (just remember, they will have read this post as well!)

Expand

You are at eXtreme365 to learn, to evolve, to develop, to expand your knowledge of the best business platform the World has ever seen – Dynamics 365.

“Do not be afraid to immerse yourself in the most obscure sessions
rather than those which you find most comfortable”.

If attending events like Dynamics 365 has taught me one thing it is that the most I have learned has been when I have put myself the furthest from my comfort zone. Try it and let me know if you too derived some surprising and beneficial results.

Contribute

Now, this is an event built by the Dynamics Community for the Dynamics Community therefore to use the old adage ‘you will get out what you put in’ so please, contribute! …Raise your hand, ask that question, it won’t be daft it will simply be that you asked it first (that is what I always tell myself anyway).

Be a part of the community and the community will reward you when you get back to your desk – when you need that question answered, you will be able to jump on Social Media or e.mail and ping that question to someone you met, spoke or debated with regarding the most obscure topics about Dynamics365.  Similarly, if someone reaches out to you to ask a question after the event, make sure you provide a positive answer as you will no doubt meet that person at WPC-Inspire or eXtreme365 2018 and they will say thank you to you in person, which develops your network and of course your self-esteem with a good old boost of dopamine in anyone’s book.

Amplify

Now this is very much a ‘Social’ term and I have already said about the event App earlier, but please, use it to amplify good news and insights to your peers.

I used the App at the December Newport Beach eXtreme365 event to challenge, cajole, ask, contribute, network, be friendly, say thanks or just simply notify people in the app that I happened to strike gold in a specific session which everyone was interested in – AppSource – (for example). Two minutes later, 12 additional people squeezed into the session about the AppSource roadmap and they were all very happy to have been using the App.

Amplification of Social messages means to expand the awareness of great knowledge beyond your physical sphere of influence so of course, jump on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or whatever channel you prefer and tell the World about the insights you glean at eXtreme365 about Dynamics 365 as this can only help to enrich our broader community with knowledge which in turn leads to excellence, resulting in a very, very happy client base!

So what about you Chris, you promised us Career insights?

I did indeed. What can I say? For three years I participated at eXtreme on both Developer tracks and the Executive Exchange, then I really immersed myself in the innovation challenge and helped a team win it – the organisers liked the way I made the audience laugh whilst presenting and now I am a Director of eXtreme365 and the host for the second year running of the Innovation Challenge.

Does it pay? No. Does it help on my CV? Maybe. Does it provide me a rich sense of purpose knowing that I am encouraging people who may be nervous public speakers to stand up in front of a warm and welcoming audience of like minded peers who will support and cheer no matter what the outcome? …I will leave that for you to work out when you see me on stage next week!

Finally, if you are attending eXtreme365 and are looking for a friendly face, just find me or my colleagues Geraldine Evans or Julian Slater – alternatively make sure you use the event App to find those in attendance or simply look at the website for the links to speakers, sponsors and participants. The eXtreme365 Community is more like a family so don’t be afraid to say hi to any one of us – we are all here for the same reasons as you no?

“To participate, to meet, to expand, to contribute and to amplify the great things that we all can achieve by leveraging Dynamics 365 for the benefit of our clients”.