A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Factiva Forum

(Actually, nothing particularly funny happened, but I really wanted to use that pun. )

I was honored to be asked to speak yesterday at Factiva Forum, an executive conference event held high over Times Square, in the Reuters building. This year's NY version of Forum focused on the ever-quickening pace of news and business information and focused on some of the drivers of it -- the growth of business-oriented blogs, RSS feeds, etc.

I spoke on a panel discussing reputation management. I was asked to talk about one of Factiva's products, Factiva Insight: Reputation Intelligence.

I've been involved in the development of this product over the past few years (starting with our relationship with IBM's WebFountain and through our purchase of a company called 2B) and so I'm a bit biased when I say Factiva's is one of the most comprehensive approaches available today for companies to follow their reputational issues -- how they're being covered in the MSM, what people are saying about them on blogs and boards and the differences between the two.

Also on the panel with me were John Neeson, the co-founder of Sirius Decisions and Judi Frost Mackey, the Director of U.S. Corporate & Financial Practice at Hill & Knowlton.

John talked about the results of some studies they've been conducting in this space. Judi presented a real-world example of how a client of theirs (some retailer from Bentonville, Arkansas, I believe) has attempted to revive their sagging public image through a recent media blitz.

I also presented on the subject of "Content Chaos" (see my next post.)