Social Media Week has reached an important milestone today for the September 19-23 conference, as we are proud now to reveal the first wave of confirmed events taking part in this simultaneous worldwide event.

This September’s event–powered by global headline sponsor Nokia–is the largest yet, taking place in twelve cities on four continents.

“Social Media Week is more than an event, it’s a movement. Such an innovative event that taps into the human networks of people across the world and encourages sharing and best practice will move us forward faster and more effectively than traditional event silos. Nokia is proud to be powering such an innovative movement through our #NokiaConnects solutions and helping people join the conversations and participate from every walk of life” says Craig Hepburn, Global Director, Social Media, Nokia

Learn how to get involved and take part in the global dialogue this September:

• Join The Community
• See What’s Happening
• Submit An Event
• Spark the Conversation
• Share Share Share!

Join The Community

Become a part of community by joining the Social Media Week network–go to socialmediaweek.org and sign up for a Social Media Week account. Signing up is an important step because it will allow you to:

a) Submit an SMW event
b) Save interesting events on the schedule to your personal “Favorites” list
c) Register to attend events when registration opens worldwide September 6 (it’s not open yet, sorry!)
d) Receive weekly updates from us on progress worldwide to make sure you know what’s going on and don’t miss any key updates

Signing up for an account is easy–just visit socialmediaweek.org and click “Login/Register” in the upper right hand corner. And if your name is already in the upper right hand corner, it means you’ve already signed up!

See What’s Happening

It’s still early and only the first wave of events have been made public today, but already there are a lot of great ideas confirmed for September and we’re excited to share them with you.

To see the entire global schedule for Social Media Week this September, go to socialmediaweek.org and click the “Schedule” button to see what’s confirmed so far, or else go to http://socialmediaweek.org/schedule/. To see city-specific lists, choose your preferred location from the drop down menu.

Registration to attend events begins on September 6, but as stated above, for now you can choose events you are interested in and “Save to Favorites”

Here’s a handful of our favorites so far from the early confirmations:

Social Buzz Awards (SMW Glasgow)

Social Buzz Awards are launching to celebrate and reward the best in social media communications in the UK and will recognise the individuals, companies and organisations who are transforming the use of online to communicate with people in new and innovative ways. The judging is set to take place in Glasgow as part of Social Media Week Glasgow. The list of judges includes well known names from Google, Tesco, and BBC.

Improvised Innovation: The Second City and The Chicago Tribune (SMW Chicago)

A 150 plus year old powerhouse newspaper and a 50 plus year old legendary comedy institution wouldn’t seem to have much in common, but a closer look at the two companies and their unique partnership provide a fascinating look at how the landscape of new media has fostered unprecedented collaborations and innovation.

Berlin Election: Who won the social media election? (SMW Berlin)

The Berlin city-state elections will be held on September 18. On September 19 Social Media Week will assemble a panel of experts to analyze the impact of social media on the vote. Did any issues arise via social media? Did any candidate use it well, or badly? Was it an influence at all, and if not, why not? What does the pattern of social media use in the Berlin election tell us about the forthcoming federal election in 2012? Supported by Projekt Zukunft.

Travelling Inside of Innovation (SMW Milan)

A whole train (11 couches, 600 people) will go from Rome to Milan as a traveling “innovation lab”, a unique experience at 300 km per hour. Attendees will have a chance to meet experts, investors and digital media with the Speed Business formula (15  min turnover). Upon arriving at the Press Conference in the Royal Room at the Central Station in Milan and the first Italian Digital Mission. Sponsored by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (national railway company). See the Milan team’s last SMW train voyage here.

Tim Wright of Twintangibles and city partner lead for Glasgow said, “We are getting really excited about what is happening for Social Media Week in Glasgow because already we seem to be well on course to hit one of our key targets – diversity. We want Glasgow to demonstrate the breadth of impact social media and mobile communications is having through diversity of topic, venue, participants, hosts and event types and we are getting bowled over on every one of those fronts. We will have tweetups, flashmobs, workshops, seminars and speaker-led events to really cover the map.”

Submit An Event

Join Google, Ford, BBC, Financial Times, and more to get involved and position your organization at the center of the conversations impacting your industry. Give your organization the opportunity to facilitate dialogue around a pressing theme or topic by hosting an event in your city.

If you’re looking for inspiration on planning your event, go here and here to get some ideas from us on how to put together something new and fresh and outside of the traditional event framework.

Spark The Conversation

The power of Social Media Week is driven by the way you (the SMW community) participates with your ideas, knowledge and creativity. Help to shape the conversation and define the experience in your city by nominating yourself or someone else as a speaker.

How else can you get involved? As an open and collaborative platform, Social Media Week provides many other ways to join the dialogue by providing in-kind service, sponsoring events, joining the editorial team, or volunteering to help out local city organizers.

Visit the global Get Involved to learn more.

Share Share Share!

We would love it if you can continue spreading the word to help galvanize your local Social Media Week community to take part and get involved today. Use the links at the top of this post to share with your communities on Facebook and Twitter!

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Thanks for again for your interest and support. The next major milestone takes place September 6, when people around the world will be able to start registering for events. Look for more updates on this milestone in the weeks to come.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook for real-time updates.

This was a question posed by Bonin Bough, global director of digital for PepsiCo last week at JWT during the Social Media Week launch event for Borderless Brands, a new program that aims to provide marketers with unique perspectives into how social media is impacting global brand communications.

This Darwin-esque interrogative set the stage for an evening designed to showcase the underlying principles of Social Media Week’s new Borderless Brands platform, through a panel discussion featuring marketing and branding leads from Facebook, GE, PepsiCo, AOL, JWT and SapientNitro, starting with Bough’s preamble, “Achieving Digital Fitness in a Borderless World”.

Borderless Brands panelists (l-r): Bonin Bough, Peter Nicholson, Taylor Gray, Linda Boff, Freddie Laker, Carolyn Everson and moderator Todd Wasserman

Bough’s question of “Are we prepared to adapt?” was highly germane to the evening and was asked repeatedly during the hour and a half of conversation.

Social and technological innovations and an ability to connect with and get feedback from the consumer are driving these adaptions, said Taylor Gray, VP of Marketing & Social Media Strategy, AOL Huffington Post Media Group: “Companies and brands have an incredible opportunity between the technology and the platform to give a much broader experience of their brand and their company to consumers.”

Organizations big and small around the globe have begun to understand that the age of Borderless Brands demands similar ideas about the need for change and adaption, as well as in listening to the consumer. On how her company GE has been able to grow and evolve in the 21st century, Linda Boff, Global Director of Marketing, said that she realized that “We’ve got to get out of the business of just talking and start listening and engage one-on-one.”

“Social is a great listening mechanism and an incredible way to transform your business. We think the most interesting businesses are saying, ‘How do we redesign our business?’” said Carolyn Everson, Vice President, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook. Everson stated that “two and a half million businesses have given up on their own website and have put their presence on Facebook pages: ‘We’re going to go where the people are and be part of the social network.’”

But right now, not everyone has figured this out yet, according to Peter Nicholson, Chief Creative Officer of JWT, but in order to survive, they must, he said. “A lot of brands are afraid to take risks. They are precious about their messages and what to put out… but at some point you have to throw uncertainty out the window.”

At Facebook, it’s written on the wall that “It’s OK to break things,” said Everson, but it’s hard for many brand marketers to have the courage–and internal backing–to take such risks.

“We need to exercise those muscles so we feel comfortable with them and we will see more risk taking as a result,” said Bough, whose company PepsiCo was referenced repeatedly as a chief innovator and a brand unafraid of learning new ways to engage and adapt. According to Bough, “Those organizations who have figured out how to deliver strong, global passionate campaigns around the world have been able to change their business.”

Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital, PepsiCo

Throughout the evening, the speakers were lively and engaged as the conversation ranged throughout to answer the six questions listed above defining Borderless Brands. At the end of the day, while many brands are daunted about the potential adaptions and evolutions required of them to grow in today’s borderless age, but for those that do, the possibilities are endless. “If you can use [data compiled from Facebook and others] in an amazing way, you will be able to communicate with  consumers in a way that has never been possible before this time. The relevancy that you can deliver through this insight is mind-boggling,” said Freddie Laker, Vice President of Digital Strategy for Global Brands, SapientNitro.

It was a fascinating evening, and the first of many conversations to take place over the next few months on the topic of Borderless Brands. See more photos from the event at the SMW Flickr page here.

Toby Daniels, Founder and Executive Director, Social Media Week”

About Borderless Brands As part of Social Media Week this September 19-23, the Borderless Brands program will take 10-15 participating brands on a unique tour of three international cities over five days to meet and engage with some of the world’s top emerging media and technology influencers, representing an incredible opportunity for brand marketers to close the gap between where society and organizations are in their understanding and adoption of social media tools and technologies. If you are interested in learning more about the Borderless Brands initiative and would like to find out if you and your company are qualified to participate, contact Toby Daniels for a meeting and consultation.

Today we are thrilled to announce the (nearly) final locations for the next edition of Social Media Week (SMW) this September 19-23, 2011 and, most importantly, details on how you or your company can Get Involved in the global event.The initial lineup of seven confirmed locations announced in April included returning cities Milan, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, and São Paulo, plus new entrants from Rio de Janeiro and Moscow.  Today we are adding four additional cities, beginning with returning city Los Angeles, and new cities Vancouver, Beirut, and Glasgow.

With these additions, SMW September 2011 will take part in eleven cities across four continents, offering a great diversity in both geographic and cultural locations.  There is still a possibility that one or two more cities may be confirmed, but as of today we are not accepting any new city applications for September.  If you wish to apply to host in February 2012, you can do so here.

Social Media Week Timetable
Following on from today’s announcement, here’s an overview of some important dates and milestones between now and the September conference:

• May 11: Get Involved Announcement - “Get Involved” in SMW September 2011 (sponsors, media partners, speakers, event hosts, venue providers, etc.)
• June 14: Event Submission – Local Event Proposal Submission Opens (submit an event idea, or theme or topic that you would like to see covered)
• July 6: City Agendas Announced – Initial Programs in Each City To Be Shared (early look at the agenda’s and program outline in each city)

Note: These dates and milestones are subject to change.  We will provide more detail in the coming weeks/months.

Over the next two and a half months each of our Social Media Week cities will begin activating their communities and kicking off the ideation process around the events, themes and topics that they want to cover during the week.

In the past, our partners around the world have brought incredible creativity to their events and helped to shape programs that are both diverse from a content standpoint and also exciting from an experiential perspective.  Some of the most exciting and fulfilling of these collaborations include: SMW Rome kicking off with a commandeered train ride and event from Milan to Rome train sponsored by Ferrovie della Stato (the Italian Railways); the Ogilvy-hosted Ideas Pop-up Shop at SMW London; the virtual/global Nokia Connects web application; the SMW New York Business, Media & Communications Hub at JWT; Bonin Bough of PepsiCo’s three city SMW tour of London, Sao Paulo, and New York; and SMW Bogota’s Open Day at the Casa de Editorial at El Tiempo.

PepsiCo’s Bonin Bough speaks to Shelly Palmer about Social Media Week

As an open and collaborative platform, Social Media Week provides many additional ways to participate, including curating and hosting events, speaking and presenting, designing workshops, sponsoring campaigns, parties and mixers, facilitating interviews, providing editorial coverage, providing custom design and web development, volunteering staff and participating on the local committees and city advisory boards.

Wrap-up overview of Social Media Week Rome

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of some of the ways you and your organization can participate:

• Host an event: Join the ranks of Google, the BBC, New York Times, MTV, JWT, MoMA, Edelman, and others who have all hosted events at their space during previous conferences.
• Volunteer: Join the host committee in your city, work at the events, support the communications team, help with outreach.  There are many ways to get involved individually.
• Provide in-kind products/services to attendees: Much like Foursquare, Livestream and Mobile Roadie, your company could provide services to SMW attendees that enhance and improve their experience.
• Speaking opportunities: Do you have domain specialism?  Do you want to share your ideas with a broader audience?
• Sponsor an event: While many events will place throughout each city during the week, sponsored events receive additional promotion and curatorial assistance from the local and global SMW teams, giving your brand or organization even more opportunities to connect and engage with an audience of hyper-social influencers.
• Sponsor SMW Globally or Regionally: Want to reach an even broader or global audience? Unveil a campaign or series of events across multiple destinations? Get the highest level of visibility and dedicated support from SMW with a global sponsorship.

Of Social Media Week, Bonin Bough, Global Director of Social and Digital Media for PepsiCo, has said, “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—with PepsiCo employees contributing to discussions and idea exchanges on three continents and there, demonstrating the depth and breadth to which digital media is permeating our company.”

With nine cities and 30,000 worldwide attendees participating in February 2011’s Social Media Week, it seems almost hard to believe that Social Media Week can continue to grow with each successive outing; but with eleven cities on-board for September 2011 and a global community that grows larger by the day, all signs indicate the next edition will be the biggest Social Media Week yet.

Social Media Week Global Wrap Up Video (February 2011)

If you have any questions about Social Media Week or getting involved, please contact Ben Scheim at ben@crowdcentric.net for more information.

To register, simply visit socialmediaweek.org, pick a city and click on schedule.

There are nine cities participating in Social Media Week–powered by global headline sponsor Nokia–this February. Registration will be going live over the course of today in New York, London, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Istanbul, and São Paulo. Please note that Toronto and San Francisco will be going live with registration later in the week and in each city, more events will be added over the coming weeks.

The initial agendas began to take shape in December, and anticipation has grown as each city’s continues to share more of their program. Now, with four weeks to go before Social Media Week begins, we are proud to begin our pre-release of a limited batch of tickets for the events that have been confirmed so far.  For all of you early adopters out there chomping at the bit to secure your opportunity to participate in the largest, most inclusive and unique event of its kind in 2011, now is the time to choose which events you will be attending.

Learn More About Registering For Events

So, to cut to the chase, you might be asking now: How do I find out what events I can register for today? To see what is going on in your city and to sign up to reserve your place, simply choose your local SMW city from the banner at the top of this page and then click on your city’s “Schedule” tab below (or it might say “Agenda” or “Programme” if you are in Rome, Paris, or São Paulo).

From here, you will see a display of all the events currently confirmed on that city’s Social Media Week calendar. Then just find the event you want to register for, click through, and Voila!, you will be signed up and registered for the event thanks to the power of Amiando, official SMW Scheduling and Event Management Partner. You’ll note that some of these events are still not open for registration, but the rest of the schedule will follow within the next two weeks.

A sampling of some of the exciting activities taking place around the world include:

• WikiLeaks on Online Civil Disobedience, presented by Personal Democracy Forum (New York)
• Tips to Build Brand Relationships Amidst the Social Media Clutter, presented by MTV & Text 100 (New York)
• Idea Shop Social, hosted by Ogilvy Group UK: free 90 minute sessions at a secret location to be announced this week (London)
• Internet, Attack to the Power: The World after Wikileaks, featuring Pirate Bay Cofounder Peter Sunde (Rome)
• Navigating China’s Online Space, hosted by impactasia (Hong Kong)
• Direct Channel: Company vs Consumers, featuring Fiat and other brands (São Paulo)
• User Experience (UX) in Mobile Social Networking, hosted by Galatarasary University (Istanbul)
• Gamify Me: How Game Mechanics are Infiltrating Brand Marketing, hosted by JWT (New York)

Check out each city’s schedule to learn more!

Why do I have to register for each event individually?

We get asked this question a lot.  As you will notice when looking over the schedules each event is unique in its own right and focuses on a specific topic or theme.  We believe that by encouraging people to register for specific events, we will attract a more committed, engaged and targeted audience.  Also, it’s worth noting that more than 95% of Social Media Week events are completely free to attend and while we do not charge, we do expect our attendees to think carefully about which events they wish to attend and register accordingly.

How Do I Add MY Event To Social Media Week?

It’s important to keep in mind that while a huge amount of programming in each city is now confirmed and scheduled, there are still opportunities to add events and get involved in other ways everywhere.

As an open and collaborative platform, Social Media Week provides many ways to ‘Get Involved’ including curating and hosting events, speaking and presenting, designing workshops, facilitating interviews, sponsoring events, providing editorial coverage, and volunteering to participate on the local host committees.

There are opportunities for every organization and individual to get involved this February, on both a global and local level:

• Host an event: You could join the ranks of Sony, New York Times, MTV, Drop.io, JWT, Razorfish, MoMA, Porter Novelli, and others who have all hosted events at their space during previous conferences
• Volunteer: Join the host committee in your city, work at the events, support the communications team, help with outreach.  There are many ways to get involved individually
• Provide in-kind products/services to attendees: Much like Foursquare, Livestream, Pegshot, Mobile Roadie, your company could provide services to SMW attendees that enhance and improve their experience
• Sponsor an event: There will be at least 500 events taking place across the all the participating cities.  Through these events, your brand can connect and engage an audience of hyper-social influencers
• Speaking Opportunities: Do you have domain specialism?  Do you want to share your ideas with a broader audience?

Follow the links below to learn more (event teams in parantheses):

Get Involved: Globally

Or Get Involved Locally! (city organizer in parantheses)

• Get Involved: New York (Crowdcentric)
• Get Involved: London (Chinwag)
• Get Involved: San Francisco (FutureWorks)
• Get Involved: Paris (La Netscouade)
• Get Involved: Rome (Augmendy)
• Get Involved: Toronto (Entrinsic)
• Get Involved: São Paulo (SixPix Content)
• Get Involved: Hong Kong (Impactasia)
• Get Involved: Istanbul (McCann Istanbul)

Support from corporate partnerships, both globally and locally, allows Social Media Week to provide hundreds of free events worldwide for its audience of hyper-social influencers. In addition to global headline sponsor NOKIA, other global supporting sponsors of Social Media Week including PepsiCo, JWT and Meebo.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.  For real-time updates follow @socialmediaweek on Twitter and get notified when new events are added to the schedule by signing up to our mailing list here.

Of this announcement, Chinwag said:

Yesterday, we put out a press release announcing some juicy tidbits of what’s in store for Social Media Week London.

The board in the office that we use for tracking confirmed events is slowly, but surely, being covered in luminous sticky notes. Actually, not that slowly. There’s still time to get involved, check out the website for more details.

Of the forty or so events confirmed, highlights include:

Behind the Scenes at the BBC – a chance to see how BBC uses social media across their programming and platforms with a chance to spend some social time with the team afterwards.

Social TV – A lunchtime discussion exploring the growth of two screens, how people watch TV and interact with a second device, how this impacts TV advertising and what social features like check-ins and TV-based apps will bring.

Public Sector Huddle – Dell and professional social network Viadeo, will host a half-day unconference exploring how social media is effecting government, NHS, councils and the public sector.

Social Media Week Measurement Challenge – social media metrics companies will be invited to measure the week’s coverage on social channels and present their findings at the end of the week, along with a panel and best practice measurement clinic.

And much more to come in the days ahead. There’s no doubt that Social Media Week London is going to be great!

Ben Scheim is vice president of partnerships and communications for Crowdcentric and a director of Social Media Week. Please reach out to him for media requests or if you are interested in discussing brand partnerships or sponsorships for Social Media Week. He can be reached at ben@crowdcentric.net.

The next iteration of Social Media Week will take place simultaneously in New York, London, San Francisco, Toronto, São Paulo, Paris, and Rome, with more cities to be added in the next couple weeks. The first five are all returning cities from February 2010 and Paris and Rome are new additions to the community.

Social Media Week has quickly become one of the world’s most unique conferences, providing a global perspective on emerging trends in social & mobile media.  In 2010, New York-based organizers Crowdcentric hosted over 450 individual events in eleven cities, reaching more than 18,000 attendees with over 200,000 users connecting through the online and mobile experience, generating millions of impressions throughout the social web.

Unlike many traditional conferences, Social Media Week strives to maintain a model where free access to content, programming and events is made possible by support from brand partners including PepsiCo, Vodafone, Nokia, Meebo and SalesForce.com.

“Over ninety percent of our content and programming is free and accessible to all attendees”, said Toby Daniels, CEO of Crowdcentric and Founder & Executive Director of Social Media Week.  “We believe that access to high-quality learning experiences, business networking and buyer /seller market places should not be exclusive to a limited number of executives and organizations that can afford it.”

The driving force behind Social Media Week in each respective city is the local city partners.  In Toronto, Entrinsic will be returning to produce Social Media Week for the second time.  Chinwag will be leading the effort in London.  São Paulo-based SixPix Content will produce the Brazilian conference.  Social Media Week San Francisco will be co-produced Swirl Integrated Marketing and Social Media Club, and La Netscouade will lead in Paris.

Paris city partner Benoît Thieulin said, “The opportunities to sit together for a moment and think collectively how social media will transform and further our relationships with the world (ourselves, the media, brands, institutions) are still rare.  It was natural to La Netscouade, as a leading social media agency, to step up and take care of introducing this global event to Paris and its flowering of initiatives on the social web.”

Milan-based Augmendy, producers of Social Media Week Milan, will also be bringing the experience to Rome.  Augmendy leads Marco Montemagno and Marco Antonio Masieri said, “We are absolutely delighted that Social Media Week Milan was such a success.  Over 5,000 people attended our ninety events during the week, with 20,000 more people visiting our headquarters, proving that 2010 is the tipping point for growth and development in the Italian web world.  We’re looking forward to an even bigger event in Rome in February.”

Beyond the Crowdcentric organizers and regional city partners, Social Media Week is made possible through its framework of globally connected organizations and individuals who contribute a significant amount to the programming of the conference.  If you or your organization would like to get involved as a city partner, event organizer, host, speaker or brand partner, please go here! Or, if you are a brand looking to reach a global audience of hyper-social influencers, either locally or globally, please contact Ben Scheim by email at ben@crowdcentric.net for more information.

Stay tuned for more exciting information about Social Media Week February 2011!

The Official Must-Have App Of Social Media Week: The Mobile Roadie Social Media Week App!

DOWNLOAD THE APP HERE FOR IPHONE AND ANDROID OPERATING SYSTEMS: http://mobileroadie.com/apps/smw

The Social Media Week App powered by Mobile Roadie will allow you to navigate through through the September 2010 experience right from your mobile phone! Through the power one app, explore and connect with all five SMW cities: Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Bogota, Mexico City and Milan.

With the Mobile Roadie Official Social Media Week app, you can:
-Via the EVENTS tab: Review the schedule for each city and see details about events
-Via the FAN WALL tab:

• Post pictures and see photos and comments posted from all around the world (let’s blown this one out!)
• Post on the SMW app global wall
• See SMW app users from around the world and find users near you

-Read NEWS via the SMW BLOG
-Follow tweets across each cities via RECENT ACTIVITY.
-Receive real-time updates on events and Social Media Week related news via push notifications.
-Via PHOTOS tab, check out the most recently posted SMW Flickr photos.
-Via UStream tab, watch streams events via Ustream.
-And much more!

We are really excited about the great power of this app and implore you all to make sure to download it and use throughout the week to stay connected to everything Social Media Week taking place around you. Find it here or by searching “mobile social media week” in the iTunes App Store.

Mobile Roadie is a turn-key platform to quickly and inexpensively build and manage mobile apps. They have built apps for Madonna, Taylor Swift, the Miami Dolphins and many more. Check them out at mobileroadie.com.

The Paley Center for Media–formerly the Museum of Television & Radio–with locations in New York and Los Angeles, is a leader in discussions about the cultural, creative, and social significance of television, radio, and emerging platforms for the professional community and media-interested public. Through their host of public programs, including PaleyFest, InsideMedia and DocFest, offer fans and enthusiasts of media the chance to see screenings of their favorite programs and listen to in-depth discussions explaining on what goes on behind the scenes. On the other side, their Industry Programs provide the opportunity for media business executives to get together to debate and discuss pressing issues facing all spectrums of media, communications and technology, through over forty annual events in their Media Council and International Council series.

For Social Media Week last February in New York, the Paley Center served host to the SMW Global Press Conference as well two panels on branding and social CSR (click for links to videos of each session). Thanks to the great generosity of the Paley Center in Los Angeles and its Executive Director Craig Hitchcock, this September they will again host three events, detailed below:

Monday, September 20, 9-11am
Social Media Week Global Press Conference

RSVP here: http://smwopeningpress.eventbrite.com/

Join Toby Daniels, Founder and Executive Director of Social Media Week; Erick Brownstein, Lead Organizer for Social Media Week LA,  and the other four Social Media Week city partners; along with Pip Marquez de la Plata, SVP of Marketing for Meebo, and other Social Media Week partners and advisory board members for a press briefing to kick off the global conference.

In addition to providing highlights for the week and showcasing what is happening in each of the participating cities, the organizers will also be making a number of very important announcements.

Wednesday, September 22, 8:30-10:30am
Hollywood Gets a Social Makeover, sponsored by the Financial Times

RSVP here: http://smwfinancialtimes.eventbrite.com/

The new ages of digital and social platforms have brought exciting changes in the way audiences interact and connect with their entertainment.  This conversation will explore how Hollywood studios and other global media companies are using digital and social media to advance their businesses and reach new audiences, seizing on opportunities and managing challenges posed by new platforms.

Matthew Garrahan, Los Angeles Correspondent for the FT, will moderate the discussion, and panelists include:

• Tom Lesinski, President, Paramount Digital Entertainment
• Jake Zim, Vice President of Digital Marketing, 20th Century Fox
• Courtney Holt, President, MySpace Music
• Ross Levinsohn, Managing Partner, Fuse Capital

Wednesday, September 22, 7:00-9:00pm
Social Entertainment Platforms, featuring FunnyOrDie.com

RSVP here: http://smwfunnyordie.eventbrite.com/

Funny-or-Die CEO Dick Glover will lead this evening event that will explore the creative, monetization and audience building strategies required to build successful social entertainment platforms.

In what will be a highly charged, fun and creatively fueled debate, Dick and five other speakers will participate in a head-to-head debate over the course of three 15-minute rounds.  Each speaker will have a chance to ask their counterpart three pre-prepared questions.  A moderator will be on hand to judge the fairness of the questions and directness of each speakers responses.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Dick Glover, CEO, Funny-Or-Die
• Seth Sternberg, CEO and Cofounder, Meebo
• Scott Ehrlich, CEO, Agility Studios
• Larry Tanz, President, Vuguru Media
• And more to come!

Please check out these events as each–especially the two panels–should be truly fantastic. And thanks to The Paley Center for Media for once again partnering with us on Social Media Week this year!

Consisting of one part talent show, one part non-profit and many parts social media, Twelethon.com will wrap the mission of raising funds for a downtown Los Angeles Inner-City Arts organization around the dynamic concept of a creative content hub throughout Social Media Week this September 20-24. Inner-City Arts, site of the SMW Opening Party on Monday evening, has been an oasis of creativity and learning in the heart of LA’s Skid Row since 1989, and Social Media Week LA is very enthusiastic about working with them on this project.

Beginning September 13th, people from all corners of the social media landscape – celebrities, activists, bloggers, artists and more – will be invited to record and submit their personal interpretations of the Twelethon’s tagline, ‘Express Yourself: Creativity Matters.’  Submitted videos can be up to three minutes in length and will display the variety of ways people express themselves creatively; from a tap dance to a short film to a few jokes…even finger painting with their kids. Amateurs and professionals alike will commingle on Twelethon.com with both recorded content, livestreamed performances and an ongoing live feed from the event’s Creativity Room in Hollywood.

“Creativity inspires creativity and we’re hoping for a snowball effect of creative expression, ultimately inspiring people to support Inner-City Arts with a financial donation,” explains Erick Brownstein, founder of The New Agency and lead organizer of Social Media Week Los Angeles. “The beauty of the Twelethon and social media in general is that it can provide an open platform inviting participation from the young and the old, the famous and the aspiring, the talented and the…inspired.”

Adds Inner-City Arts President and CEO Cynthia Harnisch: “We are thrilled to be working with Social Media Week Los Angeles on Twelethon.com. Our organization was founded on a belief in the power of creativity and innovation and the Twelethon beautifully captures that spirit.”

‘The Twelethon site is produced and powered by the generous efforts of LA city partner Simian/Volta Media. You can check Simian out at gosimian.com.

Please take the time to find out more about this project at Twelethon.com and we encourage you to contribute in whatever way you are able. For more information, please contact SMW LA coordinator Dawn Sinko at Dawn@TheNewAgency.com.

Ben Scheim is vice president of partnerships and communications for Crowdcentric and a director of Social Media Week. Please reach out to him if you are interested in discussing brand partnerships or sponsorships for Social Media Week. He can be reached at ben@crowdcentric.net.

Social Media Week Milan pleased to announce that the Italian edition of the venerable tech magazine WIRED will serve as one of the media partners for Social Media Week in Milan, Italy. WIRED Italia, the U.S. of which is considered by many to be “the bible of the internet”, has been helmed by Richard Moon since its birth in 2009. This year, the Society of Publication Designers has named the it one of sixteen titles vying for the honor of “Magazine of the Year.” WIRED uncovers stories, ideas, and people who change the world in technology and communications, a perfect fit for Social Media Week. See the Social Media Week Milan team’s post on this announcement here (in Italian).

The US edition of WIRED supported Social Media Week in New York and San Francisco last February and both the Milan and global SMW teams are very excited that to have WIRED Italia on-board this September.

Ben Scheim is vice president of partnerships and communications for Crowdcentric and a director of Social Media Week. Please reach out to him if you are interested in discussing brand partnerships or sponsorships for Social Media Week. He can be reached at ben@crowdcentric.net.