Information security in a world with both traditional IT and social networking: it’s all about people

A previous Lunch at the Circle event was on “security” Joseph Graceffa, co-founder and CTO of Advens.

Information security in a world with both traditional IT and social networking: it’s all about people.

Today it is not enough with “IT security”, it is really a question of information security, both for companies and for individuals. Wikileaks, l’affaire Renault, a Dutch web site that collects information from Facebook and blogs to show which houses are empty (to burgle) since the inhabitants are on vacation, someone “looses” (really?) a smartphone with the company’s entire client list on it…

On one side you need to avoid unauthorised access to your systems and information by having proper protection. On the other side you need to give people good tools to work with, especially when everyone is travelling or working from a home office: smartphones, remote VPN access, webmail etc. And then you have the “social networking” aspects: Today business is more about sharing and collaborating than what it was a few decades ago. And also about using Facebook, blogs, Twitter and other tools for the benefit of your company. But all this leads to security risks.

Information security is about technology of course, but it is also, and increasingly so, about people, their behaviour and awareness of the issues.

The Economist recently ran a big feature article on the subject: The Leaky Corporation. Read it here: http://www.economist.com/node/18226961

Joseph Graceffa, co-founder and CTO of Advens, will give us an introduction and insight into these questions.

Joseph Graceffa is co-founder and CTO of Advens, an information security company. Advens provides a full range of security services to medium and large enterprises in France and across Europe. Before creating Advens some 10 years ago he was in charge of network security at Decathalon and a consultant with Bull. More info: http://www.advens.fr/

 

Talent management in technology, challenges and solutions, with Marc Timmerman

The next Lunch at the Circle event will be on Monday October 3 on Talent Management:

Talent management in technology, challenges and solutions, with Marc Timmerman

Marc Timmerman is partner at Axiom Consulting.

Marc will talk about talent management in fast changing environments with a particular focus on the technology sector; on the challenges of identifying and developing top talent, the trends for the future and the increasing complexity for leaders, and which solutions are key in making an organization be more attractive as an employer of talent.

Before joining Axiom consulting Marc was Executive Director of the European Talent Management practice of Hudson Highland group. Previous to that he led the HR consulting practice of De Witte & Morel, and was a Partner at Ernst & Young in Belgium. More information on Marc and on Axiom here: http://www.axiomcp.com/

When & How

  • Time: Monday October 3, 12.15 (we will sit down for lunch at 12.30). Lunch ends at 14.00.
  • Location: only on invitation
  • Cost:  only on invitation/
    (Salade de canard confit, vinaigrette ‘poireax’ | Daurade sauvage poêlée, petit ragout Paimpol | Quetsches rôties & rafraichis, fine semoule au lait vanillé | bon vin | eaux pour ceux qui résistent | Café Balthazar – If you have “special dietary requirements” please inform me before/ the event.)

Participation limited to 30 persons

Strategic investments in technology and environment by the French sovereign wealth fund – an inside view

Lunch at the Circle meeting February 24: ’Strategic investments in technology and environment by the French sovereign wealth fund – an inside view’

With Marc Julien, investment director at the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI).

Marc Julien is director of investments at the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI). FSI is the sovereign investment fund launched by the French government a few years ago to promote development and entrepreneurship in French companies. Marc is focusing on the FSI’s investments in the areas of technology and environment. Marc will talk both about the overall strategy of the FSI and specifically about investing in “his” sectors. Marc was previously SVP at Schneider Electric and a consultant at LEK and Estin & Co. Marc has an MBA from INSEAD. More on the FSI here: http://www.fonds-fsi.fr/

L@C TV: Lindsay Adams speaks on Teams that work

This is a video interview from the Lunch at the Circle event on November 17 with Lindsay Adams.

Lindsay Adams speaks on Teams that work: “Teamwork as we knew it in organisations is dead”.

In this presentation Lindsay focuses on the elements that are now needed to work in “Teams That Work”. In the sixties and seventies academic researchers formulated models around teamwork that some companies today are still following at their peril. Lindsay will share his current research that shows teams now function in entirely different ways.

In today’s fast paced business environment business owners and leaders have to take into account a different set of factors when addressing the make-up and management of their teams. With organisations downsizing, resizing and remodelling it is imperative to have the right tools to manage the key to your organisations success, your teams!

You will learn how you to build effective teams while taking advantage of the constantly moving talent pool in your organisation.” Lindsay is founder and director of Teamocracy, a company helping corporations work more effectively by doing better teamwork: http://www.teamocracy.com/.

Lindsay is Australian and comes to Paris for a few speaking engagements, one of which is L@C. He is also president of the Federation for Professional Speakers. Lindsay comes to speak at L@C thanks to David Ednie.

L@C TV: David Ednie on Selling Your Ideas, vidcast

L@C May 30: Selling your ideas to technology-agnostic decision makers

— The 4 vital questions you must ask to create rapport, build trust and get the outcome you want in every situation — with David Ednie, founder and President of SalesChannel Europe

David talked to us about “Selling Your Ideas. The Art of Persuasion” with a particular focus on how to sell technology to “technology agnostic” C-level managers. This is how David describes the theme: “Selling Your Ideas transcends selling products or services, your company, or even yourself. Selling Your Ideas is the most critical skill you need today to succeed in business and in life. In this interactive discussion you will learn how to:

• Leverage the Psychology of Change
• Ask questions in colour
• CREATE insights in others

Learn how to master the 3 steps to Selling Your Ideas. The Art of Persuasion and make them work for you.”

David is an expert in sales performance and motivation and President of SalesChannel Europe (http://www.saleschannel-europe.com/, http://saleschannel.blogspot.com/). He has previously worked in various senior management roles in the technology sector, e.g. as Vice-President of International Sales at Genuity Inc. and at BT. He is also one of the founding members of the French Professional Speakers’ association. And a familiar face to many of you who come to Lunch at the Circle!

L@C TV: Giffor Morley-Fletcher on Making your web site business effective in a world with broadband & SEO

Here’s the video from the latest Lunch at the Circle event, with Gifford Morley-Fletcher, strategy director at Skive.

— Gifford mentions the BP Rally Game in his introduction and you find it here.

— Some other examples can be found here.

— If you want to listen to Gifford’s full presentation you can download the full audio mp3 podcast here.

— If you want to see some photos from the event you can take a look at Emmanuel Vivier’s photo album here.

Here’s a sample:

Lunch time at L@C

Lunch time at L@C

(Thank you Emmanuel Vivier, www.culture-buzz.com)

Some more background:

Strategies for success in promoting your business on the internet in the next 18 months

with Gifford Morley-Fletcher, Strategy Director, Skive

Gifford Morley-Fletcher

Gifford Morley-Fletcher

Gifford will approach this subject from two angles: the fabled “SEO” and the power of broadband. SEO is one of the buzz words that basically just means “how do you get your site noticed by search engines and thus by customers”. It is critical for any web site to take into account how search engines rank web sites. It can, literally, be a matter of life and death for a business web site if you are on the first page or the tenth for search engine results. And it is not just a question of “build it and they will come”. You have to know how to attract search engines, and customers. The second aspect is that the increasing uptake of broadband has changed the way to build web sites and make people notice them – today you can offer “rich media”, video, animations, sound etc, in a way that was not possible just a few years ago.

And if you don’t believe that it’s important how you manage your web presence and think about how to appear from a search engine perspective, consider this: What do you think you will find if you do a Google search on “miserable failure”? You’ll be surprised. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm)

Gifford Morley-Fletcher has worked in New Media since 1994, making him a bit of a ‘web dinosaur’. He is currently based in London as Strategy Director at Skive, an award-winning digital strategy and design agency based in London, responsible for developing interactive web sites, games and promotions for brands such as Reebok, Playstation, McDonalds and Gillette. During his career, he has worked in all areas of web development and online marketing, most recently spending 4 years in Paris where he was a founder of LSF Interactive, specialists in SEO, Paid Search and online lead generation.

More info on the digital strategy, design and production company as well as rich media agency Skive here.

L@C TV: Carlos Diaz on Enterprise Social Software, founder and CEO of blueKiwi, vidcast

Lunch at the Circle’s Per Karlsson interviews Carlos Diaz, founder and CEO of blueKiwi on February 4, 2008 at the Restaurant Maceo, Paris.

You can also listen to the full MP3 sound podcast with Carlos here.

You can download the video with Carlos Diaz here if you prefer to watch it off-line (go to the page with this specific video and you will find the download links).

Social software… FaceBook, SecondLife, Wiki… It’s just for kids or teenagers, right? Wrong! Perhaps.

There is a new breed of “enterprise social software” emerging that potentially may change the way we work and the way we collaborate. As well as the way hierarchies work in organisations. You can also think back to the days when millions of dollars were invested in enterprise “knowledge management” solutions. And change the scenario to something that may actually work and that costs only a fraction. And that is implemented and managed by line managers – not the big IT departments.

But first you have to understand what it is and start imagining what you can do with it. This is what Carlos Diaz will tell you.

Carlos Diaz is founder and CEO of blueKiwi, a French enterprise social software company. Gartner recently listed blueKiwi on its pick list for the top “Team Collaboration and Social Software” solutions. In fact, blueKiwi was the only European company on the list… (“blueKiwi has successful deployments of Web-based open collaboration solutions where the emphasis is on information sharing, strengthening of employee relationships and expert identification.” -Gartner 2007.)

Before founding blueKiwi Carlos was CEO of GroupeReflekt, a consulting company and web agency that he founded with his brother in Limoges ten years ago and recently sold to the Belgian company Emakina.

More info:
blueKiwi: http://www.bluekiwi-software.com/

L@C TV: Stefan Engeseth on Detektive Marketing

Interview with Stefan Engeseth, November 9, 2007 at Restaurant Maceo, Paris.

“Detective Marketing”…? Stefan Engeseth describes it like this: “to find what’s hidden in the blind spot and to see what your competitors don’t see”. Creative and unusual marketing. Understanding customer requirements differently. Detective Marketing is a concept Stefan created that focuses on “detecting” hidden possibilities and unrealised potentials in companies. It’s built around a structured methodology but Stefan will bring it to life with several examples, both surprising, amusing and unusual. Stefan comes to Paris specifically to speak at the L@C.

Stefan Engeseth is author, consultant and speaker. He is founder and CEO of Detective Marketing Consulting. Stefan’s ideas range from innovative and future-oriented to bordering on the far-fetched. Yet, they all build on the universal truth that without innovation and visions, companies will not grow in today’s highly competitive business world. “The question is, how far are you prepared to go?” Over the years, Stefan Engeseth has worked as a consultant with many international companies and Fortune 500 corporations. He has been described as on of the world’s leading experts and speakers in his field.

Stefan has written two books: “Detective Marketing: Creative Common Sense in Business” and “ONE: A Consumer Revolution for Business”. He is currently working on his third book.

More info:
Blog: http://www.detectivemarketing.com/
Jack Nicholson on advertising (for fun): http://www.detectivemarketing.com/jack-nicholson-vs-advertising/
Books: http://www.detectivemarketing.com/books/

L@C TV: Carlos Escapa, CEO of VMWare, on virtualization

Virtualization with Carlos Escapa, VMWare

Once in a while computing becomes interesting again. A new technology comes to maturity and turns everything up side down. This is what is happening right now with “virtualization”. A big battle is going on between Microsoft, IBM, HP, Citrix, VMWare and others. Come, to understand what is virtualization, why it is radically changing the way IS operates and how it is impacting new services and users … and wait until September 18th to buy a new PC!

Carlos Escapa is VMWare’s Regional Director in Southern Europe since November 2006. Prior to his current assignment, Carlos was with Sterling Software and Computer Associates as Business Development Director in Japan, Sales Director in France and Vice-President of channels in Europe.

A native of Valladolid, Spain, Carlos has a Bachelor’s Degree from Illinois State University and a Master’s Degree from Virginia Tech, both in Computer Science. He is based in Barcelona.