Intro to C3: Conversational Commerce Conference

The picture at right is of the “Meeting of the Waters,” where the silty water from Rio Negro enters the upper Amazon River. With the tip of the hat to the MMA’s Michael Becker, we regard this as a metaphor for the clash of cultures (and technologies) that is taking place as businesses and their employees strive to embrace the changes wrought by the growth of social networks and multiple media channels.

Today, new technologies put marketing folks, who measure success by CPMs, CPAs and CPCs, against the support fabric who care about building engagement models predicated on trust. They install monitoring and analytic systems that are used to anticipate your next action. The result often feels like “serendipity” as the firms you do business with seem to “understand” you and anticipate your next move. I called these “feel good” tactics that are “destined to fail” because they treat people as “consumers” not loyal or respected customers. Meanwhile today’s CRM technologies put marketing and advertising people on a collision course with the support folks who strive to build engagement models and build trust and loyalty between and among customers.

On February 2-3, 2011 in San Francisco Opus Research will convene the Conversational Commerce Conference (C3) as a venue for raising and resolving the issues exposed in the clash between Marketing and Support. As with the Meeting of the Waters, both disciplines will ultimately be assimilated into a torrent of talkpaths, interactions, queries, responses and transactions. Still the time as come, in these early days, to foster discussions that lead to mutual understanding – or at least an agreement to co-exist.

The idea of C3 began when I gave a talk at a CRM+VRM gathering organized by Project VRM and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. In it I observed CRM systems now monitor and capture input (metadata) from an unprecedented number of sources and use analytical engines to impute your intention, get more prescriptive and manipulate your tastes, preferences and activities. But, as I note in this post, they are *not* doing a very good job of listening and building meaningful conversations with customers.

Over at Internet2Go, Greg Sterling provides his insights into our goals for convening C3. In brief, it will be like no other conference because we’re bringing together a diverse group of executives from multiple disciplines and business focuses to address their real world issues. On the podium, you’ll find folks from Cisco, RapLeaf, Yelp, iCrossing, Marchex, Innovation Interactive/360i, Edelman, Creative Realities, Acxiom, the MMA, Empirix, Lithium, Get Satisfaction, Orange Labs, Air2Web, Oodle, Closely, Vendasta, Praized, Comcast, Fair Isaac Corporation, Weber Shandwick and others still to be formally announced.

As Greg notes, we’ve eschewed “social media fluff” with a list of topical sessions that include:

* Where Does Support End and Marketing Begin – and Vice Versa?
* The ROI of Social Conversations – What Metrics Should Apply?
* Shaping the Conversation: Search, Reputation and P2P
* A Parallel Universe: Social CRM for SMBs
* Customer Care in a Mobile and Cross-Platform World
* The Age of the Individual: From CRM to VRM

The day-and-a-half event will also feature provocative case studies from Cisco, Marchex, Lithium and Get Satisfaction mixed with panel discussions.

There are still a few speaking slots available. To inquire about them or to sponsor, contact Pete Headrick (pheadrick@opusresearch.net). Otherwise, visit the C3 Web site to see the latest speakers and sessions. Or Register Now, to get our early bird rate.