What has happened to the old stodgy content management space? One way that I think you can measure the coolness of an industry is to look at who is doing the entertainment at industry functions (I know, frivolous, but stick with me). Let’s be honest for a minute about the kinds of bands one would see at ECM user conferences in recent years. Gladys Knight and the Pip (yes, there is sadly only one Pip left). Earth, Wind, and Fire. Fortunately for everyone concerned, at least no one booked Bachman Turner Overdrive despite the potential attractiveness of a “Taking Care of Business with ECM” theme. Well, judging by 2 recent user conferences I attended last month, the times they are a changin’ (OK, I realize this is a dated reference). I was lucky enough to go to Box’s Boxworks conference and IBM’s Information on Demand event. The bands? Third Eye Blind and train. Bands my kids like. Bands my kids have heard in concert. Clearly an inflection point. This ain’t your Father’s content management; content is cool again. I can’t think of two more different companies on the content spectrum than Box and IBM, and yet the coolness factor not…

Just a quick word of thanks to the record breaking number of attendees for coming to our recently completed ECM Boot Camp and to the sponsors of the event. I spoke at two of the events — in Atlanta and in Toronto. Attached are some pictures from the Toronto event to give you an idea of the crowd. It even includes pictures of attendees who were listening to me speak who were actually awake. I can’t even get that degree of attention from my kids. I was asked by a number of people how a non-profit can afford to put on a free event like this for users — and give them breakfast and lunch to boot. The answer is through the contributions of our sponsors. Thank you especially to our speaking sponsors and for their commitment to early stage user education. (Chicago & Toronto) (Washington, DC) (New York & Toronto) (Atlanta & Toronto) (All Cities) (All Cities) (All Cities) (Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta & Toronto) (Washington, DC) (All Cities) Thanks also to the full list of demo sponsors. Click HERE for the details.

One of my favorite AIIM events each year is the annual Executive Forum. For those unfamiliar with the event, it’s the premier event for executives from companies in the document and content management channel. It’s being held November 3-5 in Hollywood, FL. Two action items. First, if you are in the channel and not planning to attend, think again. It’s a terrific event. Registration is here — http://www.aiim.org/Events/DMSPF/. Past the word. Second, I’m starting to work on my keynote. If you are in the channel, would be interested in your perspectives. What are the big issues facing your company? How are you dealing with them? Where do you see the biggest opportunities in the next year? Either post a comment or send me an email. Here are some of the things people said at the event last year — “In one or two sessions of this year’s DMSPEF in Nashville, I paid for the trip with the ideas and takeaways. See you next year!” Mark Zecy CEO American Micro Company “If one of the products does as I expect it will, the trip will be paid for in a few days worth of scanning. I also have some attendees coming…

[As is the case with our 8 things series, the opinions expressed in the 5 myths guest columns are those of the guest contributor and not necessarily mine or AIIM's. This guest post is by Bill Galusha from EMC. As usual, contra perspectives welcome.] Myth #1: Desktop scanning works well enough for digitizing my paper documents Reality: Digitizing your paper is really just a small piece to the solution and does provide some value, but the scope of your business problem will determine whether or not a simple desktop capture solution is going to do the job. For small organizations or businesses that are looking to do a simple back-file document conversion project, a basic capture system might satisfy their requirements. But for mid- and large-sized organizations, the requirements are often more complex and require advanced document automation, distributed capture, and connectivity with a host of business systems. In this case, organizations need to consider an intelligent enterprise capture solution that delivers a full range of capabilities including the ability to capture documents from anywhere within the organization, automatically connect information to your business systems, and deliver both scalability and high availability for those mission critical processes. It is time…