And I hardly need an excuse to visit London.

Tube in Tube out.

Let me explain what I’m talking about. Together with Ton I was invited to join the Somesso/Headshift/Dachis Social Business Summit in London last Thursday. The program looked promising: only two speakers to kick-off the day, including the always inspiring JP Rangaswami), followed by a discussion amongst the participants. Participants were selected, so it could only be a great and knowledgeable crowd

(…) to plot the future of Social Business Design. (source)

I followed part of the online discussion around Social Business as a term and was intrigued. I thought the event in London would be a good opportunity to find out more about it and see if there is any relevance for me in this ‘trending topic’.

I would have loved to give you a content summary of the day with some insights from my side about social business, but it turned out to be a very confusing day.

I had a really hard time grasping what everyone was talking about. The language used was so abstract and often meaningless that I felt clueless what we were discussing. At first I thought it was just me, since I’m hardly dealing with large corporations these days, but others who were in the same discussions with me turned out to be just as clueless.

Although people were sharing stories throughout the day, to me it felt that there was no real exchange of ideas and insights. I saw few animated discussions. You won’t believe how many people were checking their phones even during small group discussions. Signs of an uninspired and uninvolved crowd.

Despite the lovely time I had visiting the Tate modern, drinking beer with Johnnie, dining with Paolo and Monica, ‘after-partying’ with the Danish guys, shopping and finally lunching with a friend that now lives there, the balance of this trip to London tips over to the negative side. It will make me seriously reconsider spending money on flights and hotel for any such event in the future.

Johnnie, I get your point more and more.