I'm watching a live,
streaming video of the VRM workshop in the background while I write and edit today. If you don't know much about VRM, go get lost in
Project VRM wiki for awhile. It stands for Vendor Relationship Management, and I'm only just starting to understand it myself, so forgive me if I botch the basic definition here. The theory is that consumers can gain control of their own data to be more proactive in their relationships with vendors and other service providers (doctors, hospitals, financial institutions, insurance providers, etc).
The workshop itself seems to be set up in the style of an
unconference, where attendees list their topics of interest at the beginning, then break into smaller groups to discuss those topics throughout the day.
There's a wide range of subtopics on the board, approaching VRM from a lot of different angles. Here's a partial list:
• Customer-driven marketing
• VRM data compliance issues
• VRM and mobile technologies
• Learning how to apply VRM to the enterprise & enterprise crm apps
• User-driven search
• VRM maturity model, User maturity models
My favorite quote from this morning came from an attendee who said something along these lines, "Most of the time when I'm dealing with a vendor, I don't want a relationship. I just want my coffee and I want to go. How do we prioritize VRM for those industries/relationships where it will provide the most value to consumers?"
