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One of my favorite organizations is the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. I love the work they do because they have figured out that the best way to help gorillas in the wild is to partner with both the local people who live closest to them and the gorilla lovers all over the world like me!
The biggest threats to these gorillas are poaching and habitat destruction. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund through the help of international donors have shown the local community, by significantly improving their standard of living and investing in their people, it is better to keep the gorillas around and help them thrive. So, they employ the locals as rangers, build schools and bring in high-paying eco-tourists to the area.
They also have created an international community of gorilla lovers who subscribe to receiving news and information about the animals they love as well as a ton of creative programs that bring in lots of contributions. (My kids love to get me gorilla sponsorships for my birthday and Father’s Day and I have a scrapbook full of them!).
It is this combined community, local and international, that is responsible for the amazing comeback the Mountain gorillas have made (from under 400 to now over 700) while benefitting in so many ways themselves (a true WIN WIN).
While I was at IBIS last month (and, yes, it was the best IBIS ever!), I realized that we also have an awesome BusinessObjects community. So many people both sharing and gaining knowledge about the solution they use every day and finding new and better ways to leverage it.
In addition to the annual in-person IBIS event, we have the Virtual SpeakBO Experience running from September 25-27 and the agenda is set. We also have in-person regional BusinessObjects Users Group Meetings starting up again this year. They have run already in Arizona, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with more expected in the coming months.
The best news of all for the BusinessObjects community is the new SpeakBO PLUS offering announced at IBIS.
After running educational webinars for almost 7 years under the Let’s SpeakBO banner, the new SpeakBO PLUS brings all that learning together and adds even more valuable content. The PLUS stands for Premium Learning and Utilities Subscription and provides training tutorial videos, tips and tricks, best practice guides and useful utilities and scripts. The annual subscription also includes 20% off all InfoSol training courses and a big discount to attend the SpeakBO Experience.
There are three levels of subscription so everyone can participate and benefit.
The SpeakBO Free includes access to live monthly webinars along with access to the recording of the last webinar for up to 30 days. It also includes access to the BusinessObjects News and Feed to keep you up to date with BusinessObjects updates and announcements.
The SpeakBO Extra includes everything in SpeakBO Free plus access to the full library (75+) of Let’s SpeakBO webinar recordings. It also provides access to all the new BI 4.3 self-learning video tutorials. These are 4 to 8 minute training videos for all levels of user on the new BI 4.3 release with more being added every month. SpeakBO Extra also has access to the new SpeakBO Solution Forum where you can Interact with others in the community sharing and learning everything BO together.
The top level subscription is the SpeakBO PLUS and, as mentioned above, includes everything in SpeakBO Extra, along with access to best practice guides, utilities, training and event discounts and a quarterly “Ask the Expert” session where you can bring your BO issues and ask questions in a live web meeting.
Although SpeakBO PLUS is just launched, there was a ton of interest in it at IBIS and many have signed up both as individuals and corporations, so it’s off to a great start.
Just like the gorillas, a community thrives when everyone participates, and everyone benefits too. Looking forward to interacting with you soon on SpeakBO PLUS.
