The Developer Conference is coming up and so I went to see the guy at Dassault Systèmes putting it together, Fred Vacher. Collaboration, partnerships and communities are important to DS, and since the event encapsulates all three, I wanted to get Fred’s perspective on:

1. What are the ingredients to a successful community strategy?
2. What does DS do to foster mutual success for DevCon community collaboration?
3. What will the DevCon community look like in five years?

Here goes . . .

Q1 : What are the ingredients for a successful community strategy ?

The main ingredient is content. Shared interest in the content makes it more valuable and encourages people to interact with others and contribute more. It’s also important to make sure that people can interact on an open platform.

Q2: What does Dassault Systèmes do to foster mutual success for DevCon community collaboration?

Around ten years ago we created a partner ecosystem of companies developing applications on top of our platform. It was really a one-to-one relationship with Dassault Systèmes and its partners. We began to animate this community with physical conferences so developers could meet each other as well as people from Dassault Systèmes on a regular basis.

Now in addition to Devcon where we annually gather, we’ve put in place a set of online tools to foster continued interaction throughout the year. We have an open strategy that includes a ‘PLM Marketplace’ LinkedIn group for our partners to interact. We have PLM Marketplace , which is our online business platform for connecting software, technology and services partners with our channel partners and VARs so that they can do business. Plus there’s some new stuff in store coming soon.

Q3: What will the DevCon communities look like in 2-5 years?

I think the key element is mobility. Time being very important, people will need to interact fast with an access to their community no matter where they are. That’s something key that’s already coming I’d say. Then as communities grow I’m sure we’ll find things that we’ve never imagined. And I guess the value of social networks around PLM will really give a new set of experiences and value that we can’t imagine today. Mixing and matching will develop a lot of value.

Sounds good, Fred. I look forward to mingling with the DevCon community at the event this June! Live blogging of course, and hopefully I’ll be able to report first-hand about some of the Serious Gaming action. 😉

Best,

Kate