Social Media Week started in New York City back in 2009 and since then the startup community has exploded. To promote the booming eco-system of innovation, New York Tech Meetup in conjunction with Nasdaq has produced the following promo to encourage entrepreneurs to bring their startups to the city.
Author Archive
Help Us To Empower Change Through Collaboration
It’s pretty astonishing to see how far we have all come in the three years that Social Media Week has been in existence. The thirst for knowledge and desire to connect around the most pressing issues we face as a society has never been greater, and here at Crowdcentric, we’ve had the privilege of being able to provide a platform that connects leaders like you around these issues.
Reflecting on 2011, it’s remarkable how much has happened and how we have been brought together around so many world changing events. In September, we published an article entitled “Top 10 Global Social Media Events that Shook the World” and this week, we published an updated list, which also includes events such as the outpouring of emotion following Steve Job’s passing, the #OWS movement and continued uprisings in the Middle East. You can view the full list here.
Inspired by these events, we decided to establish a theme for our next global event, which is scheduled for February 13-17, 2012, and reflects the global impact of social media and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, political, economic and social change. The theme for Social Media Week 2012 will therefore focus on Empowering Change through Collaboration.
Acclaimed author, and one of the world’s leading business thinkers, Don Tapscott has agreed to come on as our global curator for 2012, and over the past few weeks, he has written three thought provoking articles Empowering Change through Collaboration, Collaborating for Change in Healthcare and A New Energy Revolution. Don's articles and perspective on how the world is changing act as inspiration for all of us and I hope spark ideas for how you can contribute to the Social Media Week conversation by hosting your own event this February.
To keep posted on all that is happening in real-time follow us on Twitter, join the global Group on LinkedIn or Like us on Facebook. Thank you again for your continued support.
Top 10 Social Media Events of 2011
In today’s world, social media has enabled us to consume news as quickly as it is happening. With our ever increasing use of social media, our understanding of the world has changed. We’re now more aware of situations across the globe, witnessing history changing, connecting with others as they endure tragedies, and able to take part in the lives the famous. During the past year, there were some events that stood out more than others- events defined and fundamentally shaped by the use of social media. Events, that without social media, we may not have even been aware of their occurrence.
Social Media Week has compiled what we feel are the strongest stories of the year; stories that really epitomized the underlying movement of social media. And we’re sharing these with you now:
Social Media Week’s Top 10 Social Media Events that Shook the World
- Arab Spring and the uprisings in the Middle East
The Arab Spring, from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya, has proven that social media can transform society and politics on a global scale. Throughout the past several months, social media has been used to organize protests, highlight injustices and government crackdowns, and sway public opinion. Whether democracy will flourish is an open question, but social media’s impact in the movement so far is indisputable. - Japanese earthquake and tsunami
People across the world sat riveted as they watched this terrible disaster unfold in real-time via social media. Tweet and videos from Japan were posted within minutes, and viewers across the globe witnessed destruction that would have been impossible to document before the widespread use of social media and handheld devices. - Wikileaks scandal
Is Julian Assange helping to promote more transparency in democracy? Or is he a criminal? Wikileaks continues to spur controversy. But, the simple fact is, Wikileaks would not have been possible without the rapid advances in digital and social media that have sparked new debate on transparency and Freedom of Speech. - Charlie Sheen’s meltdown/use of Twitter
Charlie Sheen seemed to melt down in front of our eyes, as the hashtag “#winning” became one of many catch phrases that permeated the American vernacular. He subsequently amassed one million Twitter followers faster than anyone else in history, and proved that our cultural obsession with celebrity is only growing now that we have more ways to interact online. - Anthony Weiner Twitter scandal
This was the world’s first true 21st century political scandal, one born through the use of and then broken, spread and developed by social media. This scandal put spotlight on the way social media tools are utilized both publicly and privately and will undoubtedly impact the way politicians communicate with their constituents and the broader public for years to come. - Hurricane Irene
Storm chasers didn’t need to leave their home to follow the path of Hurricane Irene, as it made its way up the East Coast in August, conjuring tweets on par with the traffic after the Japan earthquake. - Rebecca Black’s viral YouTube hit and subsequent backlash
How is celebrity defined in the age of social media? Does Black’s video, which racked up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube earlier this year, count as a ‘hit’? The answers are up for debate, but it’s a fact that the traditional business models used by the entertainment and music industries are being upended by advances in new technology. - Social Media IPO’s
Successful startups like Pandora and LinkedIn have gone public and there is growing speculation GroupOn, Xanga and Facebook will soon follow suit. - Social media coverage of British royal wedding
The royal wedding exploded on the social media landscape with upwards nearly one million related Tweets in the month leading up to the nuptials. In the days leading up to the wedding, this single event accounted for more than 70% of all social media mentions.
- UK Riots
After three nights of rioting in London, politicians blamed the violence on text and instant messaging on mobile devices. British police broke into smart phones to thwart planned attacks on local establishments, and even considered blocking access to social networking sites altogether.
Many of the events taking place during SMW tackle the underlying issues from these events. As we approach Social Media Week, we challenge you to look at how social media defines your view of events and then share your story with us, either in person at the events or through our CNN iReport partnership.
Stop Broadcasting and Start Co-creating: Collaborative Experience Design for the Conference Industry
In the past two years, the global Social Media Week community has hosted more than 1500 individually organized events in fifteen countries around the world. During this time we have worked hard to innovate around the event experience to create more engaging and collaborative ways for people to exchange ideas and connect around shared passions and projects.
The most common type of event, has, unsurprisingly, been panel discussions. The panel format has been around for many years and while it still has an important role in the exchange of ideas and the convening of thought leaders, I would like to put forward an argument that there are new approaches to event design that provide better and more engaging experiences for conference attendees.
Co-creation & Collaboration as a New Experience Design Model
“Tell me and I will forget” Show me and I will remember” “Involve me and I will understand” – Confucius
Of the three statements above, which most represents a traditional panel format in your view? The first one right? The second might apply to product demonstrations or specific talks where the presenter guides you through a case study; however, it’s the third item–involve me–that we should be focusing on if we’re really committed to engaging experiences for our community.
Social Media Week is built upon a set of principles that focuses on openness, inclusivity, collaboration and co-creation. We have worked hard since launching to put the attendee at the center of the experience and curation in the hands of individuals and organizations who bring a greater depth of knowledge on a broader and more diverse range of topics – the community.
At the very core of what we do is the notion that if you invite industry and individuals in particular to co-create an event with you, the experience for those that participate will be much richer as a result. However, with more than 50% of our events still representing “Tell Me and I will Forget” approaches to knowledge and information sharing, we have a huge amount of work to do to address this.
Co-creation & Collaborative Experience Design
The reason why panel debates are so popular is because they are the lowest common denominator. They’re fairly easy to organize and plan for and require much less preparation compared to a person giving a 20 minute talk, or a group planning an interactive workshop. Don’t get be wrong, they have a place, and with preparation, inspiring speakers, and great audience participation they can be great. It’s just that in today’s hyper-connected world, where people demand deeper levels of engagement, they shouldn’t represent the standard for the conference industry.
So what’s the plan?
Over the next 12 months the Social Media Week global community will host in excess of 2,000 events in 30 cities worldwide. Our goal during this next phase of development is to ensure that every single event is designed with co-creation principles at their core. To achieve this we need to establish and communicate a new set of principles in event experience design.
As a way of framing these principles, let me first provide some definitions for what we mean by “Collaboration, Co-creation and Experience Design”:
Collaboration: “A form of collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project, often modular in its nature.“
Co-creation: “Ability to organize communities of participants to develop, market, and support the development of event experiences.”
Experience Design: “Practice of designing event experiences and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions.”
Next, I’ve put together a set of guiding principles which embody everything we believe in at Crowdcentric and Social Media Week. Think of them as a guide, rather than a set of rules. Most importantly, think about ways to apply them when designing your next Social Media Week event:
- Inspire participation: Invite the best and brightest minds in your space to join you in the co-creation of your event: open up and show them what’s in it for them by building in ways to fully recognize their support publicly.
- Connect creative thinkers: It’s important to enable bright and engaged people to build on each others ideas, both on- and off-line. Provide them with a clear brief and give them the tools to connect and collaborate.
- Promote openness and sharing: Share your ideas, release them into the public domain, thereby making them available for others to use and comment on.
- Build flexible networks for participation: Create flexible networks that extend across internal and often even external borders, thereby enabling you to tap into a broader pool of talent, ideas and resources.
- Be agile & iterative in your approach: Based on iterative and incremental development, be agile in your approach and allow requirements and solutions to evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.
- Continue the conversation: Co-creation is a longer-term engagement. Don’t give up on your event once it’s finished. Think about ways to continue the conversation, build on people’s ideas and inspire continued dialogue.
- Remember Confucius: ”Involve me and I will understand”. Make it interactive, participatory and engaging. People don’t want to be broadcast to.
The benefits of Co-creation and Collaborative Experience Design
While the effort required to apply co-creation and collaborative experience design principles is considerably greater than “pulling a panel together”, the benefits far outweigh the additional time required.
Specifically, your event will rise above the noise, your participants and co-creators will come away with a much more rewarding experience and the extent to which people will want to continue the conversation and remain connected and engaged in the future will be considerably greater.
Ultimately, you have a choice when thinking about how to design your next event, but remember the most important principle. If you broadcast to your attendees they are unlikely to recall any information and you will have created no real lasting impact. If you involve them, they will not only understand, but they will become your greatest advocates.
Good luck in your efforts and thank you for reading!
Toby Daniels is the CEO of New York based Crowdcentric, which was founded as a means of bringing people together around the world via collaborative platforms that fuse real-world and online and mobile experiences, connecting people, content and conversation. Crowdcentric owns and operates Social Media Week. Follow Toby’s updates on Twitter.
Live #KloutDebate: Thursday July 7th 1pm ET on Twitter
Like it loath it, Klout remains the predominant tool for social influence measurement and continues to make significant improvements and adjustments to the way in which an individuals online score is calculated.
Over the past few weeks we’ve seen numerous articles and blog posts debating the merits of Klout and it’s clear opinion is heavily divided. To get in on the conversation, we’re inviting you to join the global Social Media Week community tomorrow at 1pm ET for a Live Twitter Debate.
The aim of the discussion, which will use the hashtag #KloutDebate, will be to explore the pros and cons of Klout as a social media influence measurement tool and discuss whether as a platform they are focusing on the most relevant and appropriate aspects on influence as part of their measurement.
Look forward to chatting tomorrow!
Social Media Week Launches Borderless Brands: Social Space Exploration in Global Brand Communications
Due to the speed at which information spreads through social media it is increasingly difficult to target messages by country without taking into account possible reactions elsewhere in the world. As businesses strive to understand these challenges there is an increasing demand for brands to LISTEN, LEARN AND CONNECT on a global level.
In response to these challenges Social Media Week is launching Borderless Brands, a new program that aims to provide global marketers with unique perspectives into how social media is impacting global brand communications.
As part of our launch we will be hosting an event in conjunction with JWT Worldwide, which will bring together CMO’s and senior brand marketers on both the agency and client side to explore the following topics:
- What it means to build a truly borderless brand in today’s shifting communications landscape?
- What is the role of social & mobile media in brand building & global communications?
- How does a global brand harness the collective power of consumers for brand building and fan engagement?
- How does a global brand defend and protect itself in the new borderless arena?
- How should brand teams working across geographic borders organize their internal communications?
- How does a global brand communicate its core message across culturally diverse markets?
This event will begin with a presentation called “Achieving Digital Fitness in a Borderless World”, by Bonin Bough , Global Director of Digital, PepsiCo.
Following Bonin’s presentation, the panel will begin.
” Borderless Brands: Social Space Exploration”
Featuring:
- Moderator: Todd Wasserman, Mashable
- Linda Boff, Global Director of Marketing, GE
- Bonin Bough, Global Head of Digital, PepsiCo
- Carolyn Everson, Vice President, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook
- Taylor Gray, VP of Marketing & Social Media Strategy, AOL Huffington Post Media Group
- Freddie Laker, Vice President, Digital Strategy – Global Brands, SapientNitro
- Peter Nicholson, Chief Creative Officer, JWT
The event is by invite only as space is limited, however, if you are a senior brand marketer that either represents a global brand or an agency that works with global brands and would like to join this conversation on June 1st, please email Ben Scheim with your information and we will do our best to accommodate you.
ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK
Social Media Week sets out to explore how local and regional societies, cultures, and economies are becoming more integrated & empowered through a global network of communication. In 2010/11, Social Media Week hosted more than one thousand events in 15 cities around the world with more than 45k people attending and hundreds of thousands connecting online.
“Social Media Week is a truly global phenomenon—showcasing borderless brands and communications, via the power of social media. We are proud to have been an integral partner, contributing to discussions and idea exchanges on three continents.” Bonin Bough, Global Director of Social and Digital Media for PepsiCo
We Are Hiring: Director of Global Sponsorship
The Role
Via direct sales efforts and coordination with our partners in more than 18 cities worldwide, the salesperson will sell sponsorships in the US and globally, including Europe and/or Asia, to consumer and B2B brands.
This position will be based New York City, but will also cover Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and South Africa and may involve some travel to those areas.
Responsibilities Include:
- Develop and execute a sales plan
- Coordinate with global and local sales counterparts as needed on opportunities that represent integrated revenue building opportunities
- Maintain a database of contacts consisting of client and prospect companies
- Produce regular activity/contact reports and revenue pipeline estimates
- Develop and present customized and creative sponsorship proposals
The Person
Crowdcentric is small but perfectly formed. We think very very big and have a huge ambition for what we do. We also have big hearts and strong personalities and laugh considerably more than we cry. We are looking for someone who shares these characteristics and someone who has a passion for emerging media and technology.
Qualifications:
- Ability to build senior level relationships
- Have existing senior level relationships
- Ability to create creative solutions for clients
- Expert sales skills
- Expert marketer
- Knowledge of emerging media and technology markets
If you are interested in this position, APPLY HERE
About Crowdcentric Media
Crowdcentric is a small company with a big mission. We launched in New York in 2010 are committed to helping people, brands, companies, not-for-profits and governments around the world establish deeper and more valuable relationships through collaborative learning and social communication.
One of our biggest projects is Social Media Week, a global conference which brings people, brands and organizations together to explore how we connect and communicate as a society.
Since launching Social Media Week we have hosted over 1,300 events for more than 50,000 people in 15 cities worldwide, including London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Hong Kong, Istanbul, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Bogotá.
In addition to running Social Media Week, we’re also figuring out how to solve big complex social and environmental problems through a joint venture initiative with social production firm Mutopo. So far we’re taking on the issue of paper cup waste through The BetaCup and global problem of traffic congestion through BetaTraffic.
Crowdcentric is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and we welcome applications from all backgrounds regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or any other classification protected by law.
