“Be Proactive: Media Analysis for Near Term Scenario Prediction”

We’re happy to announce an upcoming DC chapter program.  You can register for this event at the SCIP website.  Here are the details.

Program Description

Few dispute traditional and non-traditional media outlets publish information that matters to the competitive intelligence professional. The question then is how to be proactive in finding, digesting and quickly applying relevant information to your near-term scenario predictions. Good data will slip through the cracks unless you have a smart system in place to catch it.

There is a right and wrong way to monitor the media. One is comprehensive and sharp, while the other is sloppy and littered with holes. Join Jeff Trexel, CEO of Infoition News Services, and Steve Lunceford, Director, Global Communications, Deloitte, for a session on building your own internal media tracking system. They will analyze press coverage surrounding the stimulus package – referencing real data and metrics collected from products customized over the past few months for the White House, key congressional committees and several top government contractors.

Your competitors, partners, clients and policy makers closely track the media to make better market predictions and decisions. Do you?

About the Speakers

Jeff Trexel, CEO of Infoition News Services

Jeff founded Infoition, an innovative news and information company, in 2003. The idea for the company came as he watched world leaders struggle to keep up on relevant news when serving as the communications director and chief spokesman for a United States Representative.  Prior to serving on Capitol Hill, Jeff worked as a corporate communications manager for American Management Systems and Hill and Knowlton’s public affairs and corporate practice groups. Jeff currently serves as the Greater Washington DC Chapter Chair for the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals.

Steve Lunceford, Director, Public Sector Communications, Deloitte

Steve Lunceford is Director of Public Sector Communications for Deloitte, a leading provider of consulting services to U.S. Federal and state/local governments. Mr. Lunceford has 20 years experience in media relations and corporate communications, working with key international, U.S., local and trade media on behalf of firms such as Sprint, Choice Hotels International, BearingPoint, RadioShack and the NFL.  He has broad-based expertise in corporate positioning and raising awareness for brands and business/consumer products and services; from enterprise IT and wireless, to federal contracts, broadband and hospitality/travel.  Mr. Lunceford is an expert in crisis communications planning and execution, and is an evangelist for the use of new media technologies to help achieve traditional communications objectives.  He is the founder of GovTwit.com, a listing of government using Twitter, and a co-host of Gov20Rado.com, a weekly podcast about the use of social media in government.

Location

Residence Inn Arlington/Rosslyn

1651 North Oak Street

Arlington, VA 22209

703/812-8400

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/wasrr-residence-inn-arlington-rosslyn/

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Registration Link for “The Art and Science of Elicitation” Chapter Meeting

Here is the link for you to register for our next chapter meeting on March 30, “The Art and Science of Elicitation.”

http://www.scip.org/Training/EventsDetail.cfm?itemnumber=6875

The Art (and Science?) of Elicitation

We’re happy to announce the next program for the SCIP Greater Washington chapter: The Art and Science of Elicitation by Ms. Catherine L. Foley om CM2 Limited.

March 30, 2009

6:00 – 8:00 PM EST

 

We will also be meeting in an exciting new venue!

Restaurant 3

2950 Clarendon Blvd.

Arlington, VA 22201

Find directions and local information on Google Maps.

Program Description

There are numerous skill sets required to be a successful competitive intelligence professional in today’s environment. Among these skills, and possibly the most important is the ability to gain valuable information from human sources in a non-threatening form, without directly asking for it.  The technique for this is known as elicitation. Definitely one of the more difficult intelligence skills to master, elicitation is more of an art than science. It is a skill that needs to be learned, practiced and honed.  Elicitation techniques can be used to improve all primary research activities to get maximum value from telephone and in-person interviews as well as collection at trade, industry and professional events.

Ms. Foley will provide an overview of what elicitation is; what it is not; and how to use it in everyday intelligence collection.

Beginning with planning, she will cover the basic models of elicitation and several of the primary techniques to get the source to “open up”.  The program will cover the most common psychological tendencies of human sources and how to best apply elicitation techniques that are effective with them.

Please note that we will not be able to accept walk-in registrations for this meeting at the request of our speaker.

 

Catherine L. Foley, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of CM2 Limited

With twelve years of investment banking experience and fifteen years of intelligence experience, Ms. Foley has significant expertise in both disciplines. As the founding Director of the Competitive Intelligence Group of a privately held investment bank in Washington, DC, she designed intelligence collection and analysis methodologies that supported mergers and acquisitions for more than 80 projects. She also led intelligence and risk assessments for deals ranging from $10 million to $5 billion. She served four years as a member of the bank’s Board of Management. Additionally, Ms. Foley has extensive experience in senior executive search and recruitment.

Previously, Ms. Foley was employed by the United States Department of Defense for eighteen years in a number of human intelligence and counterintelligence positions, with a focus on strategic debriefing and collections. Her international experience includes operations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Latin America. In her free time, Ms. Foley enjoys sea kayaking and volunteers her time on the Board of Directors of North Shore Paddler’s Network, a non-profit group that promotes kayak safety and training.

About CM2 Limited

CM2 works at the intersection of competitive intelligence, strategy, M&A and Enterprise Risk Management. By blending military and government human intelligence collection experience with global business consulting expertise, CM2’s unique approach yields tangible results for clients seeking to gain a competitive advantage.  See http://www.cm2limited.com for more information.

Sally Church’s Observations of New Ways of Knowing 2.0

We were privileged to have Sally Church of Icarus Consultants join us for our New Ways of Knowing 2.0 session yesterday and share her experience using social media for competitive intelligence discovery.  Sally blogged about New Ways of Knowing 2.0, and here are some excerpts:

For me, I was curious to see how many other Competitive Intelligence professionals are using social media and cloud tools in their workflow and to gather relevant data.  There was also a bonus as several interesting ideas cropped up during the workshop and stimulated my own thinking further.  The first was asymmetry of information, the second was playmaking and how both can influence marketing strategy.  These ideas piqued some long lost thoughts I had from reading some excellent books such as Daniel Pink’s ’A Whole New Mind’ about how right brain thinking will dominate in the information age and Don Tapscott’s treatise on ‘Grown up Digital’.  If you haven’t read either book, I would highly recommend them. 

Follow New Ways of Knowing 2.0 on Twitter

You can follow the proceedings of the SCIP DC New Ways of Knowing roundtable on Twitter here.

Systematic Threats in Finance and Cognitive Dissonance

In preparation for tomorrow’s New Ways of Knowing I wanted to share some of my thoughts I captured in a PowerPoint to highlight the complications of anticipating systematic risk based on established economic models and the negative impact of cognitive bias in executive decision-making that can make managers blind to said risk.

I hope this spurs a lot of thoughts and discussions.

See you tomorrow!

Embassy Suites Chevy Chase Pavilion Location

Use  Google Maps for directions to our location for the “New Ways of Knowing 2.0″ event. The Chevy Chase Pavilion is at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue, Western Avenue and Military Road in upper Northwest DC.

There is plenty of parking available (for pay) at the Chevy Chase Pavilion. The Friendship Heights metro station (Red Line) has an entrance adjacent to the Pavilion.

Register for New Ways of Knowing 2.0

I’m happy to report that the SCIP registration link for our upcoming half-day session is now live:

http://www.scip.org/Training/EventsDetail.cfm?itemnumber=6053

Please follow this link to register for the event.  Due to limited room capacity the event will be limited to 50 attendees, so we will close down registration once we have achieved that number.  If we have more than 50 pre-registered attendees we are not going to be able to support walk up attendees on the day.  It’s going to be an exciting and interactive session.  Register today to secure your place.

New Year’s Letter to the SCIP DC Chapter

My fellow SCIP Greater Washington Chapter members,

Happy New Year! I’m glad to write to you today with three updates about steps we are taking to make your local chapter more valuable to each member.

First, I am excited to announce that our chapter has a new co-chair! Jeff Trexel, the CEO of Infoition, has agreed to transition into the role as Chapter Chair. This is an important step for our chapter because new leadership brings new energy and new ideas, and Jeff is already showing an abundance of both. I will continue to support Jeff, and we’re both committed to broadening the opportunities for volunteering and leadership within the chapter. This is an exciting time for the chapter, and we all wish Jeff the best as he takes on this new role. Please join me in welcoming Jeff to his new role.

Next, I want to take this opportunity to introduce the SCIP Greater Washington Chapter blog. Point your web browser to http://www.scipdc.org to share your opinion on the goings-on with the chapter, explore the topics raised in recent programs and interact with the chapter membership. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be adding authors to the blog, and any member or interested party is welcome to comment.

Finally, we are happy to report a successful completion of the recent member survey. Special thanks belong to Denise Baken for all of her efforts to move this survey forward. The survey report and results can be viewed at the SCIP DC blog here: http://scipdc.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/results-of-2008-scip-dc-members-survey/. Here are some of the highlights:

• Chapter members hold diverse roles in their organizations, and the majority of our survey respondents are not full-time CI professionals.
• We have an experienced membership.
• Tuesday at 6:00 PM is the best day and time to hold a chapter meeting.
• Locations in Arlington near metro stations with available parking are the ideal locations to hold meetings.
• Our members are not as satisfied with the chapter as we would like them to be. Hopefully some of these steps we are taking will move us in that better direction. We can’t stress it enough that specific feedback about what you would like to see is welcome. Volunteering to help make the programs you want to see happen is even more welcome.
• We received some great guidance on the kinds of programs you want to see in the future. Expect to see more programs on analytical frameworks, industry-specific events and programs about human source collection. If you know of local speakers on topics of interest please recommend them. We’ve received some great suggestions in the past few months.

The coming months are going to be very exciting ones for the chapter as we transition to our new leadership. Stay tuned and visit the blog often to share your own thoughts and feedback. You can also send questions, comments and inquiries about the chapter to chair@scipdc.org.

All the best,

August Jackson
Greater Washington SCIP Chapter Co-Chair

New Ways of Knowing 2.0: January 28, 2009

Enterprise 2.0, Social Media and the Future of Intelligence and Decision-Making
SCIP Greater Washington Chapter Event

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
12:00 Noon – 5:00 PM EST

Embassy Suites Chevy Chase Pavilion
4300 Military Road, N.W. Washington, DC 20015

Intelligence is at a watershed moment. After decades of developing a profession to collect information and provide early warning, we find ourselves in a broad-reaching financial catastrophe that was unknown or ignored by decision makers. Despite a collection and analysis of economic information, most businesses walked unknowingly into a ruined banking sector, retail distribution on the brink of bankruptcy, housing grotesquely overvalued, American automobiles at the point of extinction – all while most leaders continued to view change as incremental.

This unprecedented current economic crisis seems to represent a failure of intelligence. After all, if intelligence cannot motivate leaders to action, then as professionals we must ask - what good is it? Many analyst voices in the desert warned about the risks in real estate, derivate markets and reliance on leverage, but it’s not clear that this led to action. Are we in our current mess because the leaders in business and government simply didn’t listen? If so, how can intelligence professionals deliver analysis that drives appropriate action?

The next generation of intelligence might solve the inherent weaknesses of Intelligence 1.0 by relying on a broad range of information, focusing on relationships over hierarchy and replacing official dogma with a continuous dialogue. Technology will be a major driver in this evolution: Web 2.0 and social media tools are moving into the mainstream– not just in the consumer space but also in business. 2008 has seen the year of “Enterprise 2.0.” Web 2.0 has gone to work to enable collaboration, smash silos and change business processes. Intelligence analysts have new tools and methods at their disposal for primary research, secondary discovery, collaborative analysis and communicating actionable insight.

“New Ways of Knowing 2.0” will be an interactive educational event in which we will examine the potential of social media to improve the intelligent organization of the future. Participants can expect to teach as much as they learn and see connections among diverse concepts, tools, intelligence practices and business processes. Our panelists will include:

• Suki Fuller, social media maven and CI consultant
• Eric Garland, strategic forecaster, intelligence thoughtleader, author of Future Inc: How Businesses Can Anticipate and Profit from What’s NEXT, and principal of Competitive Futures, Inc.
• August Jackson, market and competitor intelligence analyst and Enterprise 2.0 evangelist at Verizon Business

You will come away with this program with immediate an actionable advice about how you can incorporate Enterprise 2.0 tools into your intelligence processes to improve your ability to adapt to our ever-changing world. Discussions and highlights from the program will be posted to the new SCIP DC chapter blog at http://scipdc.wordpress.com.