Our new book, Empowered, will be in book stores on September 14. But for a real-world conversation about what it means to unleash employees to solve customer problems using readily available technology, come to our Content & Collaboration Forum in Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C. on October 7 and 8.

Yes, this is a pitch to come to a Forrester event, but I promise you that it will be worth your time if you're looking for help with such Empowered topics as enterprise social, empowered employees, iPad in the enterprise, innovation, collaboration in the cloud, videoconferencing, and IT consumerization as well as deep dives into critical topics like search and taxonomy, enterprise content management, and what it means to be a content & collaboration leader.

You'll get two days of my Forrester analyst colleagues' presentations and face time as well as keynote presentations from some great and experienced content & collaboration executives. GM's Steve Sacho is way ahead of the curve in understanding how to turn consumerization from IT threat to business opportunity. Richard West of the defense firm, BAE Systems, is bringing his story of how investments in knowledge management and collaboration have empowered employees to work more efficiently together to solve customer problems. Both speakers as well as Zach Brand, head of all things interesting at NPR Digital Media (yes, that NPR), will share their stories, lessons, and experience.

I will be delivering a keynote with the first public presentation of what empowering employees means for content & collaboration professionals. In a nutshell, to empower employees to thrive in this new era of empowered customers, these IT professionals must work differently and in much closer concert with business managers to support the innovation and initiatives of employees: 1) find out who it is empowered and who isn't (and why); 2) support employees harnessing empowering technologies like social, mobile, video, and cloud; and 3) implement innovation and collaboration programs to further empower employees to solve customer problems. It's easier to say than to do, but we have 25 case studies to show you how.

I'm excited to be there to introduce Empowered and spend some time with you. Let me know if you're interested in learning more. Thanks!