Social Media Week’s Second Annual Conference in New York Doubles in Size and Is Expected to Reach More Than 3,000 Attendees

Archive for January, 2010

Social Media Week’s Second Annual Conference in New York Doubles in Size and Is Expected to Reach More Than 3,000 Attendees

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Social Media Week’s second annual conference launches on February 1st, 2010 and will take place simultaneously in New York City, Berlin, London, San Francisco, Toronto and São Paulo.

The scope of Social Media Week New York has doubled in size from its inception in 2009, with more than 70 events currently scheduled over the course of the five-day series. Headline events in New York include “Branding the Future with Social Engagement,” sponsored by Pepsi Refresh; “Social Media & the Haiti Disaster,” hosted by The New York Times; “Understanding Social Graph Optimization,” sponsored by Meebo and hosted by JWT; “The Future of Space & Time and the Proliferation of Location-based Media,” hosted by Wired & McGraw-Hill’s Digital Innovation Showcase: The Impact of Social Media in Higher Education.

Other seminars throughout the course of the week will cover the impact of social media on topics including arts & culture, sports, healthcare, education, entertainment, music, fashion & beauty, news, politics and brand communications. The events will take place in some of New York’s most prestigious venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Conde Nast building, The New York Times headquarters, IDEO, JWT, The Paley Center for Media and the Time & Life Building.

“The breadth and diversity of Social Media Week events across all the participating cities is a reflection of social media’s role in modern society,” said Toby Daniels, founder and executive director, Social Media Week. “The growth of social media has become so profound that it now has an impact on nearly everything around us, from reforming the way doctors communicate with patients to the way teachers interact with their students. Our hope is that Social Media Week will promote the effective uses of social media and also help advance our understanding of how to leverage it for future benefit.”

Activities in New York kick off on Monday morning with the opening press conference. Presenting speakers include the Paley Center for Media’s Chief Operating Officer Christy Carpenter; Pip Marquez de la Plata, chief marketing officer of Meebo; Frank Cooper, PepsiCo’s chief engagement officer; and the CEO of New York-based digital agency Deep Focus, Ian Schafer.

“Social Media Week is one of the premier events in the space and provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of social media on business and culture today,” said Stephanie Agresta, executive vice president, global director, digital strategy & social media at Porter Novelli. “As global media partner for Social Media Week, we are delighted to help draw people to the events worldwide and, ultimately, facilitate ongoing conversations about this incredibly valuable and constantly evolving communications vehicle.”

Pip Marquez de la Plata, chief marketing officer of Meebo added, “As social media continues to evolve, we believe it’s critical to bring people together to discuss its potential for publishers, brands and consumers. Social Media Week is on outstanding outlet to do just that.”

For more information on Social Media Week and to find out how to register for events in each city visit http://socialmediaweek.org.

Here’s a quick list of a handful of events that still have capacity:

3D and the Future of Home Entertainment, hosted by Sony WonderLabs

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

The Official PressLift Launch Party
RSVP here: http://smwnycpresslift.eventbrite.com/

Crowdsourcery Potions 101: Why Some Marketing Potions Fail and Others Thrive, Hosted By JWT
RSVP here: http://smwnyccrowdsource.eventbrite.com/

The Role of Social Media in Digital Storytelling, hosted by SMAC
RSVP here: http://socialmedia.rfistudios.com/

Social CRM & Lead-Generation on Twitter for Business Teams (Webinar)
RSVP here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/740396969

The Future of Social Media in Higher Education – Hosted by McGraw-Hill Student Innovations
RSVP here: http://mcgraw-hill-socialmedia.eventbrite.com/

The Beauty of Social Commerce: An Interview with Ted Rubin PLEASE EMAIL andrea.Abrahamson@Mutopo.com TO REQUEST AN INVITATION

The Suxorz: The Worst Social Media Campaigns of ’09
RSVP: http://suxorz10.eventbrite.com/

Tags: RSVP, schedule, sociamedia
Posted in News

Social Media Week NYC Registration is Open!

Monday, January 18th, 2010

We are proud to announce that registration for Social Media Week is now live.

You can RSVP for events here: http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/schedule

Included in the program are over 35 individual events, covering topics such as healthcare, sports, music & news to brand marketing, politics, and arts & culture.

Here’s a taste of what’s on offer:

Panels & Presentations:

Branding the Future with Social Media, sponsored by Pepsi Refresh
Hacking with API’s in the Cloud, hosted by Drop.io
Networked News Gatherers, hosted by Time Inc
Humanizing Social Media, hosted by IDEO
The Future of Space & Time, hosted by Wired.com
Social Graph Optimization, hosted by JWT and sponsored by Meebo
Reinvention from the Ground Up, hosted by Razorfish
PSFK presents Good Ideas Salon with Seth Godin
Designing Social Interfaces, hosted by UltraLight Startups
Putting The Social In CSR, a ThinkSocial/Media Council event, sponsored by Pepsi Refresh
Digital Culture NYC: Breaking Down the Walls, hosted by MoMA

Parties & Mixers

Social Media Week presents Opening Night Celebration, sponsored by Meebo, Pepsi Refresh and Diageo
Tweetup, hosted by Mediabistro
Digital Cocktails: Keys To Social Media Success
Digital Divas with Social Diva
NextUp NYC, hosted by Mashable
Exploring Music’s relationship with Social Media, hosted by SoundCtrl
OBLITERATI: Social Media Week
Social Media Week Official Closing Party sponsored by Meebo, Pepsi Refresh and Diageo

To register for events, simply visit the New York website, select Schedule from the top navigation and RSVP for the events you wish to attend. We will be adding more events over the next couple of weeks, so make sure you check back for updates.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU MUST RSVP FOR EVENTS INDIVIDUALLY. REGISTERING THROUGH *SCHED DOES NOT ADMIT ENTRY.

Thanks to our global headline sponsor Meebo and supporting sponsors Pepsi Refresh and Pepsico and our amazing roster of event partners, the majority of events listed are free to attend.

Want to participate in Social Media Week beyond simply attending?

There’s still time. You can still register your own event, register to speak, or even volunteer if you would like to help out during the actual week itself. Check out http://socialmediaweek.org/getting-involved for more information.

Thanks again to all of our wonderful supporters, including the global and NY Advisory Boards and planning committee. Without their vast efforts & energy, Social Media Week would not be possible.

Posted in Uncategorized

Social Media Week NYC: Initial Agenda of Events

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

After months of collaboration we are delighted to release the initial agenda for Social Media Week NYC. In addition to what you can see here, we also plan to add at least another fifteen events to the program over the course of the next few days.

You can view the initial agenda here: http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/schedule/

PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION OPENS FROM JANUARY 18TH.

Attendees will be given a full two weeks to register for events. Registration will be on a per event basis, allowing you to build a personal program that is specific and relevant to you.

If you want to receive updates you can follow @smwnyc on Twitter. If you would like to be notified when registration goes live, please email info@socialmediaweekny.com.

Thanks to Social Media Week’s Title Sponsor Meebo and Supporting Sponsor Pepsico and Pepsi Refresh, almost every event hosted during Social Media Week will be free to attend. Thanks also to our Media & Communication partners, The New York Times, Mashable, PSFK, 360i & PressLift and of course to our fantastic Advisory Board for helping to put together Social Media Week NYC.

Tags: launch, mashable, meebo, nyt, pepsi, pepsico, presslift, psfk, schedule
Posted in News

The Jigsaw Puzzle Approach

Friday, January 8th, 2010

I was speaking with a friend the other day and he asked me how things were going with the preparations for Social Media Week. Having answered this question numerous times in the past few weeks, I have begun to develop an analogy that best describes the process and experience of planning a very complex, distributed conference.

Planning Social Media Week is a bit like working on a giant jigsaw puzzle, only that rather than the puzzle being a standard size, with a set number pieces, it is more amorphous and constantly growing, and in some cases the pieces keep dividing into smaller pieces.

The reason for this is because the number of people, partners and collaborators involved in organizing Social Media Week runs into the hundreds and the total number of venues will be around fifty and the number of attendees will probably top 2,000. However, despite how wonderfully complex this makes planning process, the rewards as you start seeing the jigsaw’s picture emerge is incredibly gratifying.

So, why did we develop such a complicated model? There are three main reasons:

Removing the burden of an expensive venue, reduces the cost of hosting the conference, allowing us to allocate sponsorship revenue towards production, which in turn allows us to keep attendance free for almost all events.
We wanted to take advantage of the cities underutilized, iconic and interesting space, that traditionally is not used for conferences. Here in New York we are benefiting from space in the New York Times, Wired, Time Inc and IDEO, among many other wonderful venues. The other cities are all doing the same.
Distributing the conference over multiple locations allows us to host many more events, which in turn helps us reach more people with a more diverse range of topics.

In addition to reducing costs, utilizing alternative space and designing a broader program, the model behind the team for Social Media Week is also structured differently. Rather than take a top down approach, we instead build a team made up of key influencers in the space, who bring a range of experience and understanding to the conference. The program of events and the overall format is very much a reflection of the thirty or so people involved, and of course a reflection of the wider community who are also instrumental in helping to build the program of events.

The reason for sharing this was motivated in part because as we move towards the launch of the conference there are many people asking about the how everything works, when the schedule will be live and when it will be possible to register for events. Understandably, people are frustrated when only three weeks out there is not a publicly available agenda. The reason for this is simple. It’s not ready yet. It will be, very soon, but it’s not yet. It would like to be notified when it is, please send an email to info@socialmediaweekny.com or if you want information on another city, you can reach them through their site.

I hope however, that through sharing how the program comes together, people will be more patient and understand that despite this rather unorthodox approach, the quality of events, the learning experience and the opportunity to connect around emerging practices and trends in social media will more than make up for any frustration felt in the build up.

Tags: conference, newyork, planning, socialmedia
Posted in Uncategorized

A new voice for Social Media Week NY

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

For too long we have been hiding in the shadows of the much larger and more dominant @socialmediaweek Twitter handle, but no more! It’s time for us to break out on our own and develop our own voice and our own unique personality, which was a long-winded way of saying that we have a new Twitter handle.

Follow @smwnyc for updates on the New York conference.

Posted in Uncategorized

New York

SEPTEMBER 24-28, 2012

LIVE!

New York

Archive for January, 2010