On The Way to SOCAP Annual Conference

I’m on my way to San Francisco for the annual conference of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP). Historically, the content of this conference, and the attendees, has been very focused on in-the-trenches issues that consumer affairs – a unique band of customer service people – professionals deal with day to day. Such topics have included crisis management, adverse events, handling product recalls and performance management metrics. That model is about to erupt; giving way to what I think will launch this organization, and its members, into a whole new strata.

Starting back in the Spring of this year, the first of these semi-annual events covered various topics around social business pretty hard. This was a pivotal conference that really started the transformational thinking of SOCAPs members about what it means to be a social business and deliver social customer services.

My thought is that, after this next three days in San Francisco, that train is going to be heading down the track, full steam ahead, with no breaks. And that’s a good thing!

One review of the agenda and keynotes for the conference and it’s clear to even the passer-by that SOCAP is getting recognition as a forum for driving change in the way companies think about and interact with the social customer.

As one of the keynote speakers, Charlene Li first described in her book Groundswell, the attendees of this event will own the groundswell in their own organizations come Thursday. Attendees will be the drivers of change. I’m bullish on the prospects for consumer affairs to radically transform itself.

Some attending the conference have already made great strides towards in their transformation. Anticipating a focus on collaboration and a demonstration of the spirit of social business, I can’t wait to land and get into the SOCAP and business of social customer service.

If you’re interested in following the event, I’ll be live tweeting during the conference at hashtag #SOCAPac10. I’ll probably be back here once or twice as well for some reflection as things heat up.