Re: Personal Brand
^ I understand completely… at least in one prior instance, something I presented in a speaking engagement about a client I worked with had put me at odds with my employer… and this was despite the fact that I had anonymized the identity of the client firm. It isn’t too difficult to decipher who you’re talking about with even just a few defining attributes… so unless you’re publishing a success story, chances are that the subject concern will have some objections.
My only recommendation would be that in addition to anonymizing the information, still get permission in advance from the organization. Also, in some cases, you might have better luck if you collaborate with someone else from within the organization that you’re reporting about. This can sometimes act as perceptual alleviation of some of their superficial concerns. I recently did a “Lessons Learned” style conference paper with a practitioner. Since the report wasn’t painting a rosy picture of the program that we were writing about, I doubt that I’d have been able to publish it alone.
I don’t know how much this applies to your case since you’re actually working for the organization that you’ll probably want to refer to in your commentary.