Fresh from two weeks vacation (its a European thing), I find myself at Bill Lee's Spring Customer Reference Forum in Berkeley, California. Having reached the West Coast via Switzerland and then London, I'm catching up on email, blogging and sleep (there's a contradiction in there).

Bill's event is a sell out which reflects the interest in this area at present. We both run Customer Reference Programs for our clients and provide software applications to support and automate their customer reference activities, hence our interest in the broad subject. 

I've attended Bill's events as a delegate, a speaker and also a sponsor but I'm looking forward to this one more than most. The convergence of 'traditional' customer reference programs, with new concepts around advocacy, customer communities and the plethora of technologies that are making these changes possible, makes this an exciting time. There are some great speakers scheduled, including Ben McConnell and Jeremiah Owyang, as well as top rated in-house practitioners able to give the view from the trenches.

I'm here to learn and share best practice and experiences to feedback into the development our own customers programs. I'll also blog my comments over the next couple of days - but not as a running realtime commentary... I'm here to participate, not speed type.

Tags: Ben McConnell, Jeremiah Owyang, customer references, customer advocacy, social media, Customer Reference Forum,