I had the opportunity this last week to participate in the Key Note Panel “60 Ideas in 60 Minutes” moderated by Paul Stockford, Chief Analyst with Saddletree Research, at the ICCM Canada Conference. The format of the panel was created by Paul several years ago and has been mimicked and replicated by other conferences since. There were six panelists and each of us was given one minute to present an idea to the audience, and then Paul would move on to the next panelist. We continued this round robin for an hour. The panelists all had diverse backgrounds so the premise was to not just present based on what our company’s expertise is, but rather on unique topics that the audience would find useful and be able to apply in their call centers. Not only did the participants generate a lot of great ideas and discussion, it was just darn right fun for both the panelists and audience.

After the session, a number of people commented on the creativity and usefulness of ideas that were presented during the session. There were several that also remarked on the format of the panel itself and mentioned they were going to take the idea back to their call center to put together a panel from various people in their company. One in particular mentioned she was going to create a panel with a member from each of her seven call centers. Having worked in similar environments for years, I thought this would be a phenomenal team building event and a great way to get her team’s creative juices flowing.

This actually got me thinking that it would also be a cool and useful format for my blog. But instead of 60 quick ideas in 60 minutes, I’d do 60 brief ideas in 60 days. Seems like a bit of a stretch goal, but let’s face it I always like a challenge. So, for the next 60 days I’ll be generating a new post everyday with a new tip, idea, suggestion or thought that’s relevant to the Contact Center or Business Intelligence disciplines. A “Blogothon”, so to speak.

This means that by the end of the year, this site will be chalked full of quick and easy tips that anyone can easily use and apply to their contact center.
So let the fun begin…

-Chris