2010 Forum

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2010 Customer Reference Forum

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Featured Presenters and Panelists

Featured Presenters

Julie Tung, OracleHow Oracle Attracts Executive Customers Into Its Customer Reference Programs
by Julie Tung,
Vice President, Global Customer Programs, Oracle

Julie will describe how Oracle attracts high-level decision makers into its customer reference program with a compelling value proposition. You’ll learn what executive customers want from you, how customer reference programs can play an important role in a broader customer engagement effort, how Julie and her team help sales get into better deals, and more. By the way, another sign of the importance Oracle places on its customer programs is it's Chief Customer Officer position, held by Jeb Dasteel, to whom Julie reports directly.

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Julie Tung, OracleJust Getting Started: A Workshop for New Customer Reference Programs
led by Tami Andrews,
Worldwide Customer Reference Manager, Dell

Just starting a customer reference program? Why reinvent the wheel? This year, the Just Getting Started workshop will be led by one of the most experienced reference pros in our community and a member of the Customer Reference Forum Advisory Board, Tami Andrews. She’s built or helped build reference programs at large companies like Compaq and HP, as well as startups like NetIQ. You’ll learn the key things to focus on in building your program, what common mistakes to avoid, how to build a reference pipeline, how to gain and keep executive support for your program, how to work effectively with sales and other stakeholders, and much more. Tami will also provide useful forms, templates, and other tools she’s found to be helpful and to help you get started.

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Laura Brooks, SatmetrixKeynote: Realizing the Full Potential of Your Customer Advocates
by Laura Brooks,
Vice President, Research and Business Consulting, Satmetrix

Please note: Deborah Eastman was originally scheduled to deliver this presentation, but has had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances.

Based on her firm's groundbreaking research on Net Promoters (or "enthusiastic references"), Deborah will show how to uncover high value customer references in your midst, how to measure and leverage their value, and how to gain new buy-in and respect from senior management. This will be a key moment in the growing strategic importance of reference programs.

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Laura Ramos, Forrester ResearchPanel: the Practical "How To's" of Moving Customer References Into a Community Marketing Effort
moderated by Laura Ramos,
Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

You'll learn what community marketing is, why it is increasingly critical, how reference programs will play a central role in such programs, and what reference managers need to do to prepare for this.

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Diane Davidson, Cisco WebExWorkshop: The Nuts and Bolts of Using Video to Create Compelling Customer Content
by Diane Davidson,
Program Manager, Manager, Customer Success Programs, Collaboration Software Group, WebEx, Cisco Systems

With the rise of social media, video is becoming an increasingly important tool for disseminating customer content. Diane will lead a workshop on how to make the move to video vs. more traditional written and/or audio customer case studies.

Read an interview with Diane

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Collateral that Sells

Kathryn Poole, Red Hat Kathryn Poole,
Manager, Customer Reference Program and Communications, Red Hat
Lorie Loe Lorie Loe, President & Chief Content Strategist, Eccolo Media    

Ever wonder how your reference collateral is perceived by the technology purchasers you want to target? This session will give you research-based hard numbers to plan and justify your collateral budgets.

Read an interview with Kathryn and Lorie

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Cynthia Hester, Hewlett-PackardHP’s Customer Reference Online Community: Transforming the Reference Experience
by Cynthia Hester,
Worldwide Software Customer Reference Program Lead, Hewlett-Packard

With all the buzz around Web 2.0 and online communities, how do you adopt – or better, transform - your customer reference program? Cynthia will show how the HP Software Group is addressing these issues with an integrated customer engagement strategy.

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Getting Sales and Marketing's Attention: How Adobe Increased the Strategic Importance of its References

Lisa Hanna, Adobe Inc. Lisa Hanna, Sr. Manager, Customer Reference Program, Adobe, Inc. Holly Lugassy, Adobe Inc. Holly Lugassy, Sr. Manager, Customer Programs, Adobe, Inc. Emily Chiu, Adobe Inc. Emily Chu, Customer Reference Manager, Adobe, Inc.

Lisa, Emily, and Holly will show how they have methodically raised the strategic importance of Adobe’s reference program. Result: significant increases in actual number of references, reference recruitment and size of the reference pipeline.

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Jeanne Talbot, Lexmark International Inc.How Lexmark is Building Its Stable of Key-Account Global Customer References
by Jeanne Talbot,
Senior Customer Communications Manager, Lexmark International, Inc.

Jeanne will show how Lexmark has built a global customer reference program from scratch. Lexmark senior management wanted to build a reference program that  would would encourage more of its key-account global customers to agree to reference publically around the world.

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