Author: Ben Scheim

Making Your SMWNYC Event Unique This February

Posted on by Ben Scheim

Are you submitting an event to take part during Social Media Week this February in one of our twelve locations around the world? Consider the following for some thoughts on how to make your event sing and rise above the crowd during the week.

Let me cut to the chase–in a sea of awesome SMW content, there’s one surefire way to make your event rise the top, and that’s to innovate the form of the event beyond the basic panel format.

To wit: in 2011, there were over 1200 events that took part during Social Media Week, and the vast majority of them were panel sessions. There’s no doubt that the panel format has been battle-tested and does work, but it’s also sort of the lowest common denominator and asks the least planning and preparation of its participants. For more on this topic, see the following inspired post by Toby Daniels last summer outlining how and why it’s good to think beyond the panel.

Here are a few examples of events from the past that worked well that did a little to go beyond the panel format:

UNEXPECTED VENUES

Here’s a global example, and one of my favorite Social Media Week ideas yet, this event in SMW Rome last February really shows how a smart idea can pick up steam and carry a freight train’s worth of impact when executed well and by the right folks (pardon the puns).

“Journey to the Center of the Net”, organized by Augmendy, SMW city partners for both Rome and Milan,took the idea of a pre-SMW kickoff event and put it rails. Many SMW cities host pre-week launch events as press conferences, lunches or virtual events, but Augmendy had the ingenious idea to go above and beyond all of that with a cross-country blast that managed to combine all of the above plus networking, high-speed travel and multiple SMW city connectivity.

How did it all happen? For ”Journey to the Center of the Net”, the Augmendy team worked with SMW Rome sponsor Ferrovie Dello Stato, aka the Italian Rail, to commandeer a high speed train heading from Milan to Rome for an SMW journey like no other. This event pulled in leaders and luminaries from the Italian tech, media and press and invited them to take the three hour trip across SMW cities to connect and learn more about social media “in Italia”. This event featured an immersive cultural speed dating experience where attendees rotated on 10 minute shifts of meeting face-to-face with other train attendees. The event then wrapped with a press conference at the Central Station, where SMW Rome held court throughout the week.

PANEL NOT PANEL

Facebook-building brand KickApps organized an energetic session in New York last February at JWT for the Advertising & Marketing Hub called “Social Strategy Cage Match: Offense vs. Defense” that focused on social strategies taken by brands. The conversation saw an array of agency leaders split into two different teams and were given a series of scenarios where each team had to come up with an “offensive” (proactive) or defensive strategy. By utilizing this unique format, it turned what would have been an interesting panel into an awesome and exciting event that both shared ideas and gave a window into the thinking processes of some of the world’s pre-eminent agency experts.

MAKING LEARNING INTEGRATIVE

Enabling audience participation in learning is another way to create significant and memorable event experiences. One such example was an event organized by IDEO in February 2010 called “Humanizing Social Media” that sought to explain the framework of the social web functions by integrating attendees into the event itself.

IDEO’s invited guests into their office and created an event posing the following question: as people grapple for meaning in an increasingly connected world, how can we bring the “human” back into social media? By creating an environment that asked attendees to wander around, interact with, and interrogate each other, it played with the idea of social connection in its most basic, human form, yet still within the context of today’s methods of communication. Like few other event experiences, everyone came away with the feeling that they’d learned and had fun in ways non-standard to the events they typically attend.

So what can your brand do to take part in Social Media Week New York this February? Brainstorm and think big! If you know already, go here to submit your event or get involved, or contact us if you want help talking through an idea.

More Scenes from Day Two of Social Media Week New York

Posted on by Ben Scheim


Meebo COO Martin Green speaks at the “The Social Web – Have We Arrived?, Breakfast Hosted by Meebo” at the JWT Hub

More scenes from day two of Social Media Week….


Brian Morriseey from Adweek, Gerard Grech, global head of content distribution at Nokia, Martin Green, COO at Meebo and Chris Phenner, vp of business development TBG speak at the “The Social Web – Have We Arrived?, Breakfast Hosted by Meebo” at the JWT Hub


Groups work on health related social media projects at the “Health, Tech, Food, sponsored by Luminary Labs” event at the Paley Hub


Groups work on health related social media projects at the “Health, Tech, Food, sponsored by Luminary Labs” event at the Paley Hub


Benjamin Palmer holds his talk titled “Humanizing Brands: It’s Only Taken 192 years” at the JWT Hub


Adam Ostrow, editor in chief of mashable takes part in the “Publishers as Technologists” discussion at the JWT Hub February 8, 2011 in New York.


Kristina O’Neill, Executive Editor, Harper’s Bazaar, Stephen Gan, Creative Director, Harper’s Bazaar, Co-Founder & Editor of Visionaire, Laura Brown, Features Editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Ruben Toledo, artist, at “How Art & Fashion Connect In The Social Media World: Are Fashion Photographers The Next Warhols?”, Hosted by Hearst


Kristina O’Neill, Executive Editor, Harper’s Bazaar, Stephen Gan, Creative Director, Harper’s Bazaar, Co-Founder & Editor of Visionaire, Laura Brown, Features Editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Ruben Toledo, artist, “How Art & Fashion Connect In The Social Media World: Are Fashion Photographers The Next Warhols?”, Hosted by Hearst.


Rajat Paharia, Bunchball, Gabe Zicherman, author of “Game-Based Marketing”, Samantha Skey, chief rewards officer from Recycle Bank, and Demetri Detsaridis, general manager of Zynga New York take part in the discussion “Gamify Me: How Game Mechanics Have Infiltrated Marketing-What’s the Next Play” at the JWT Hub


Keynote Speech by Piers Fawkes, Founder and President of PSFK,.and Scott LaChut senior consultant PSFK at “Open UN: Engagement in the Age of Real-Time Hosted by United Nations Global Pulse” Hosted at the Science and Technology Hub at Google


Surprise appearance by wrestler King Kong Bundy at the “Social Strategy Cage Match: Offense VS. Defense, Hosted by KickApps” takes place at the JWT Hub February 8, 2011 in New York.


Ned Russell, Managing Director at “Convergence: How Social Commerce and Mobile Change the Way We Make Decisions and Shop”, Hosted by Saatchi Wellness


Benjamin Palmer holds his talk titled “Humanizing Brands: It’s Only Taken 192 years” at the JWT Hub February 8, 2011 in New York


Meebo COO Martin Green interviewed by Ellie Rountree for #NokiaConnects

Scenes From Day One Of Social Media Week NYC February 2011

Posted on by Ben Scheim


David Eastman, JWT Worldwide Digital Director & CEO North America

Day one of Social Media Week New York was an astonishing success–check out these scenes from events across the day and make sure to check out what’s to come over the rest of the week. Many events are still open for play–see the full schedule of events here. And be sure to check out our five Content Hub pages to find events in specific fields of content!


Toby Daniels, Founder and Executive Director of Social Media Week, at JWT


Bill Clifford, VP, Global Ad Sales, Wild Tangent, Keith Katz, VP of Marketing, Open Feint, David Eastman, JWT Worldwide Digital Director & CEO North America, Manny Anekal, Director of Brand Advertising, Zynga Games, Josh Shabtai, Emerging Media Strategist, JWT (L to R) on Feb 7th, 2011 during Social Media Week.


Danielle Greenberg, director of nutrition and scientific affairs at PepsiCo, Eric Mittenthal, media relations director IFIC, Elizabeth Shepard, executive director of Delish.com, and Daniel Pellegrom, Pepsico sustainability communications speak at the Social Media and Nutrition Advocacy: Guidelines Spur Online Conversations at the Hearst Tower February 7,


The Red Bull Space on Feb 7th, 2011 during Social Media Week.


Mike Lazerow, CEO, Founder, Buddy Media, James Smith, CRO, Flixter.com, Monique Ware, VP Digital, BET Networks, Steven Horn, VP Programming, Metacafe.com, Ed Douglas, Assoc. Editor, Film Critic, ComingSoon.net, Marcelo Guerra, VP Digital Media Marketing, Showtime Networks, Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Editor, UGO.com at the Red Bull Space on Feb 7th, 2011 during Social Media Week.


Gran Turismo demo at The Red Bull Space


The Content and Conversations talk takes place at the Time Life building February 7, 2011 in New York.


Jessica Robinson, associate director of consumer engagement at Kraft Foods, Dave Hanley, principal of Bayan Branch, Kimberly Miller, vice president of consumer marketing at Time Inc., Dan Fletcher, associate editor of special Projects at Time.com, and John Cantarella, president of digital news group and Time Inc. take part in the Content and Conversations talk at the Time Life building


Randall Rothenberg, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Time Inc.


Macallan Cocktail Hour at the New York Stock Exchange on Feb 7th, 2011 during Social Media Week.


http://c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000I9Imu1jidUM/s/640/600/DSC-9451.jpg
Jaime Punishill, Global Head Wealth Online at Thomson Reuters, Paul La Monica, Assistant Managing Editor, CNNMoney, Robert Harles, Global Head of Social Media at Bloomberg LP, Howard Lindzon, Founder and CEO of StockTwits and Managing Partner of Social Leverage.at the New York Stock Exchange

New Events Added to Social Media Week New York Schedule & Full Registration Now Available

Posted on by Ben Scheim

We are now less than two weeks away from Social Media Week February 2011–powered by global headline sponsor Nokia–and things are shaping up fantastically well.

Two weeks ago, the global announcement was made that Social Media Week February 2011 was opening up registration to its nine cities worldwide and then last week we announced that we were adding more events and opening up more tickets to cope with demand.

Today we are excited to announce that we are adding more sessions to the program and that we have released all remaining tickets for those events listed on the site.  As we continue to respond to demand we will be adding additional events leading up to February 7, so please check back once in a while to see what’s new and ensure you follow @smwnyc for real-time alerts.

CONTENT HUBS
There are over one hundred events scheduled to take place during Social Media Week New York with fifty or more taking place at our five Content Hubs.  Last week we launched the Hub landing page, which gives a breakdown of each Hub and everything we’ve got in store there. For those of you who are new to the Hub concept, here’s a breakdown of what’s on offer:

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
We can’t stress enough how thrilled we are with the content of Social Media Week New York this February, thanks to our incredible advisory board and host committee and the numerous event partners and content curators we have been collaborating with. Many exciting events were covered in last week’s post, but below is a smattering of some events we’ve added since then. Follow the links to each to learn more!

For the full schedule and to sign up for these and many more free-to-attend events, check out the rest of the Social Media Week New York Schedule.

ALSO JOIN US ON FACEBOOK FOR REAL-TIME UPDATES, NEWS AND SPECIAL OFFERS.

More Events Open For Registration At Social Media Week New York!

Posted on by Ben Scheim

By all measures, last week’s global announcement that Social Media Week February 2011–powered by global headline sponsor Nokia–was opening up registration to its nine cities worldwide and the subsequent message here on the SMW New York blog welcoming every one to check out what’s happening and come register were a tremendous success.

In the past seven days, we’ve had an amazing 2100 sign-ups for people to attend events in New York, including many event sell-outs of pre-released tickets (don’t worry if you missed out, more tickets will be released in many cases). That will surely be only the tip of the iceberg, as we came out of the gate with just a little more than one-third of our expected total content for the February 7-11 week.

And grow it shall. The initial offering of events included just over fifty open for sign-up. Today we are opening another thirty, bringing our total to around 80 open for registration now, with another thirty to forty in various stages of confirmation. With any luck, there should be 140-150 spread out across New York, in the five Content Hubs and other venues around the city.

If you’re wondering how you’ll know that an event has been added to schedule going forward, just search hashtag #smwnycnew on Twitter, where updates for all new events will be posted.

CONTENT HUBS

Of these expected 140 events, over sixty of them will be taking place our Content Hubs. Please check out our new Hub landing page at http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/hub/, which gives a breakdown of each Hub and everything we’ve got in store there. The Hubs are listed below:

Business, Media, and Communications Hub, hosted by JWT and co-sponsored by YouTube
People & Society Hub, hosted by The Paley Center for Media and sponsored by PepsiCo
Art & Culture, hosted by Hearst Magazines
Entertainment, Gaming & Sports, hosted by Red Bull Space
Science & Technology, hosted by Google

The schedules are filling up at JWT, Paley Center, and Hearst, and Red Bull Space and Google expect to make the majority of their schedule available in the next few days. Please check out our new Hub landing page here at http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/hub/, which will give a breakdown of each Hub and everything we’ve got in store there.

EVENTS

So what’s on the docket for the week? Included among the many events taking place this February in New York are exciting offerings by our following global and local sponsors:

Global Sponsors

  • Five events by JWT at the JWT-hosted Business, Media and Communications Hub — see the Hub page to read about all five
  • A presentation by Meebo at the JWT Hub on “The Social Web – Have We Arrived?”
  • Three panels by PepsiCo at The Paley Center for Media’s People and Society Hub and other locations to be announced

Local Sponsors

Plus a smattering of other events open for registration now!

Check back here for more information to follow in the coming weeks as we approach lift-off on Feb 7!

Pre-Registration for Events Opens Today For Social Media Week New York!

Posted on by Ben Scheim

As it is now just one month away from the launch of Social Media Week February 7-11 2011, we are pleased to announce that pre-registration will open today for select events taking place in Social Media Week New York.

To register for events in SMW NYC, simply visit socialmediaweek.org/newyork/schedule.

Registration worldwide will also open across the other cities participating in Social Media Week–powered by global headline sponsor Nokia–this February: 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.

Social Media Week Content Hubs in New York will be hosting 10-20 events each and include: Science and Technology Hub, hosted by Google; Business, Media, and Communications Hub, hosted by global advertising agency JWT; People & Society Hub, hosted by The Paley Center for Media; Music, Gaming & Sports, hosted by Red Bull Space; and Art & Culture, hosted by Hearst Magazines.

Content curators in New York include: MTV, Financial Times,  New York Times, Frog Design, the New York Public Library, Edelman, the Barbarian Group, Saatchi Wellness, 360i, GOOD, The Personal Democracy Forum, Morris & King, Deep Focus, Publicity Club of New York, Fenton Communications, Wholefoods, Foodspotting, DotBox, Comedy Central and many more to be added.  Confirmed speakers include JWT’s David Eastman; Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley;Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg; John Winsor, founder and CEO of agency Victors & Spoils; with many more to be announced.

A sampling of some of the exciting events taking place in New York include:

Check out the rest of New York’s schedule to learn more!

Learn More About Registering For Events

It has been a month since Social Media Week New York’s initial agenda was released in December, and anticipation has grown as more of their program has developed. 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.

As stated above, to register for events in SMW NYC, go to socialmediaweek.org/newyork/schedule. 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.

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 New York 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 over 120 events taking place in New York and at least 500 events taking place across the all the nine 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 link below to learn more:

Get Involved: New York

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 JWT and Meebo. Local sponsors include YouTube, Time Inc., Sapient Nitro, Convio, Microsoft Advertising and Lucky Magazine.

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

Hub Spotlight: Art & Culture, Hosted by Hearst Magazines

Posted on by Ben Scheim

Following posts before the holiday regarding the People & Society; Science & Technology; Business, Media & Communications; and Music, Gaming, and Sports Hubs, today we would like to announce details for the fifth and final Hub, Art & Culture, which will be hosted by global media leader Hearst Magazines at their offices in New York.

Hearst Magazines is a unit of Hearst Corporation (http://hearst.com), one of the nation’s largest diversified communications companies with interests in magazines, newspapers, digital media, business media and television. As one of the world’s largest publishers of monthly magazines, Hearst Magazines publishes nearly 200 editions around the world, including fourteen U.S. titles and twenty magazines in the United Kingdom, published through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited. Hearst Magazines is a leading publisher of monthly magazines in the U.S. in terms of total circulation (ABC June 2010) and reaches 73 million adults (Spring 2010 MRI).

Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, is dedicated to creating and implementing the digital strategy for Hearst’s magazine brands and other sites which serve the company’s consumer audience. The unit has launched, re-launched or acquired 24 websites and 10 mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, Popular Mechanics, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and Seventeen, as well as digital-only sites such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; TheDailyGreen.com; MisQuinceMag.com; RealBeauty.com; social shopping site Kaboodle.com; and consumer health site RealAge.com. Hearst Magazines has published more than fifty apps and digital editions for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the Droid platform, including enhanced digital issues, utilities, special content and games based on its popular brands. The Company will unveil a physical App Lab in the first quarter of 2011.

Events will be hosted in Hearst Tower, Hearst Corporation’s stunning global headquarters. Using the original 1928 Hearst International Magazine Building as the base, this 46-story glass-and-steel skyscraper is the first landmark New York City skyscraper of the 21st century. And beyond the beauty and utility of the building, Hearst Tower is also a pioneer in environmental sustainability, having been declared the first “green” office building in New York City.

GET INVOLVED IN ART & CULTURE HUB

The Art & Culture Hub will bring together some of the leading individuals and companies in the spaces of media, art, entertainment, and lifestyles.

Themes & topics covered will include:

  • Art
  • Food
  • Tourism
  • Literature
  • Design
  • TV/Film/Radio/Drama
  • Fashion
  • Luxury

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it provides a flavor of some of areas we will be covering.  If you would like to suggest themes and topics that we should be covering, please let us know.

If you or your organization is interested in curating a session and helping to shape the programming at the Art & Culture Hub, we would love to hear from you.  Sessions are typically two hours in length and can include a series of talks, a panel, a workshop or seminar.  We encourage our guest curators to think creatively about their sessions and consider designing an experience that moves beyond traditional conference formats.

To submit a session idea, please visit the event registration page and reference which Hub you are interested in, in your application.

If you are interested in sponsorship or media partnership opportunities, we have some really exciting ways for brands to participate  in the experience and contribute to the programming. For more information please contact: toby@socialmediaweek.org

The Art & Culture Hub is brought to you by Social Media Week organizers Crowdcentric & host Hearst Corporation.

About the Hubs

Social Media Week Hubs include: Science and Technology Hub, hosted by Google; Business, Media, and Communications Hub, hosted by global advertising agency JWT; People & Society Hub, hosted by The Paley Center for Media; Music, Gaming & Sports, hosted by Red Bull Space; and Art & Culture, hosted by Hearst Magazines.

Hub Spotlight: Music, Gaming, and Sports, hosted by Red Bull Space

Posted on by Ben Scheim

Following previous posts regarding the People & Society, Science & Technology, and Business, Media and Communications Hubs, today we would like to share details about the Music, Gaming, and Sports Hub, which is hosted by Red Bull Space at their center in New York.

Red Bull Space, located in the heart of SoHo, is owned by the Red Bull beverage company and is a home for unique and innovative events and ideas, from large scale art installations and photo shoots to private tastemaker events and music acts.

Social Media Week is proud to be working with Red Bull Space and the exciting events that will take place there .

GET INVOLVED IN MUSIC, GAMING & SPORTS HUB

The Music, Gaming, and Sports Hub will focus on entertainment and everything exciting happening in each of those three spaces.

Themes & topics covered may include:

  • Music Culture
  • Music Writing
  • Concerts/Performances
  • Sports/Extreme sports
  • Sports Tournaments
  • Mobile/Social Gaming
  • Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG)

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it provides a flavor of some of areas we will be covering.  The agenda will be released in January, however if you would like to suggest themes and topics that we should be covering, please let us know.

If you or your organization is interested in curating a session and helping to shape the programming at the Music, Gaming, and Sports Hub, we would love to hear from you.  Sessions are typically two hours in length and can include a series of talks, a panel, a workshop or seminar.  We encourage our guest curators to think creatively about their sessions and consider designing an experience that moves beyond traditional conference formats.

To submit a session idea, please visit the event registration page and reference which Hub you are interested in, in your application.

If you are interested in sponsorship or media partnership opportunities, we have some really exciting ways for brands to participate  in the experience and contribute to the programming. For more information please contact: toby@socialmediaweek.org

The Music, Gaming, and Sports Hub is brought to you by Social Media Week organizers Crowdcentric & host Red Bull Space.

About the Hubs

Social Media Week Hubs include: Science and Technology Hub, hosted by Google; Business, Media, and Communications Hub, hosted by global advertising agency JWT; People & Society Hub, hosted by The Paley Center for Media; and Music, Gaming & Sports, hosted by Red Bull Space. As we mentioned in our announcement, we are also launching a fifth Hub which will cover Arts & Culture, the location of which we will share in the coming week or so.

Social Media Week Announces Five Content Hubs in New York, Invites Industry to Help Curate Program

Posted on by Ben Scheim

We are now two months out from Social Media Week this February 7-11, and a LOT is going on. Following yesterday’s announcement that Nokia will serve as global headline sponsor of Social Media Week, today we are pleased to announce a new twist to the week for our third weeklong event in New York: five distinct “Content Hubs,” reflecting key areas of focus for conversations on the societal impact of social media.  These five physical hubs will host daily programming and cover these themes: People and Society; Art and Culture; Business, Media, and Communications; Science and Technology; and Music, Sports and Gaming.

With today’s announcement, we are also releasing a very preliminary version of the schedule of events for New York, as well as select sponsors and keynote speakers.  Many events are still TBD and of course there are many more to come, but please take a look to get a sense of some of the exciting things to look forward to in February. The preliminary schedule can be found here:  http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/schedule.  Registration for these events will open on Tuesday, January 11, 2011.

CONTENT HUBS

The locations of four of the Hubs have been confirmed already with Google hosting the Science and Technology Hub; global advertising agency JWT hosting Business, Media, and Communications; The Paley Center for Media hosting People and Society; and Red Bull Space hosting Music, Sports and Gaming.  We hope to announce host Art and Culture Hub within the next week.

JWT Logo

“JWT is heavily involved with Social Media Week on a global level,” said Social Media Week Board Member David Eastman, who is Worldwide Digital Director and North American CEO at JWT.  “The conference has grown in importance and stature, much as the social media space itself has.  By hosting and participating in this essential series of events, we are helping both educate the audience as well as ourselves.”

PROGRAM

Continuing the collaborative theme of Social Media Week, the New York organizers are looking to co-curate a significant proportion of the content by soliciting event ideas from some of the city’s leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields of social and mobile media.

Stephanie Agresta, Social Media Week board member and EVP and Managing Director of Social Media for Weber Shandwick said, “Social Media Week is leading the charge to globally scale the community of digital thought leaders driving this important channel.  By creating connections among influencers around the world, SMW is providing a valuable service to consumers and brands alike.”

In addition to Weber Shandwick, confirmed content curators in New York include: MTV, Financial Times,  New York Times, Frog Design, the New York Public Library, Edelman, the Barbarian Group, Saatchi Wellness, 360i, GOOD, The Personal Democracy Forum, Morris & King, Deep Focus, Publicity Club of New York, Fenton Communications, Wholefoods, Foodspotting, DotBox, Comedy Central and many more to be added.  Confirmed speakers include JWT’s David Eastman; Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley; Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg; John Winsor, founder and CEO of agency Victors & Spoils; with many more to be announced.

Social Media Week New York is one of nine cities simultaneously hosting Social Media Week this year, along with London, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Toronto, Hong Kong, São Paulo, and now Istanbul, which was added to the global lineup this week.

Global support for Social Media Week is led by mobile communications giant NOKIA, with additional support from global partners Meebo, a social platform with more than 180 million users; and JWT. Other brands involved around the world include Google,Vodafone, Oi Telecommunications (Brazil) and Fiat Motors.

The strength of Social Media Week lies in the collaborative efforts of the community.  There are many ways to get involved in the conference. To participate as a brand partner, sponsor, event host, panel speaker or volunteer, please visit: http://socialmediaweek.org/get-involved.

You can see a full version of the release here: http://bit.ly/hPghw5

For all press and media inquires, please contact Ben Scheim of Crowdcentric/Social Media Week at +1-347-224-3996 or by email at ben@crowdcentric.net.

Get Involved In Social Media Week New York–February 7-11, 2011

Posted on by Ben Scheim

Social Media Week returns to New York this February 7-11, 2011 and organizers Crowdcentric are inviting individuals, organizations and brand partners to ‘Get Involved’ in the curation, planning and organization of the weeklong event. This is your call to action to Get Involved in New York’s Social Media Week!

Social Media Week New York is produced by Crowdcentric, together with individuals from leading New York media and emerging technology companies like Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer, Barbarian Group CEO Benjamin Palmer, Morris + King CEO Andy Morris, BBH Innovation Director Saneel Radia, New York Times Social Media Manager Stacy Green, and CNET.com Journalist Caroline McCarthy.  The advisory board and host committee are primarily focused on providing leadership and guidance on Content Curation, PR & Communication, Diversity, Editorial, and User Experience.  To see the full list of board members check out the advisory board section of the site.

“Social Media Week is about intellectual discussion of the evolutionary changes occurring in the ways we communicate, and how we create, share, and discover content,” said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus and SMW Advisory Board Member.  “I’m involved in Social Media Week because we all share the responsibility of moving ourselves and each other forward with the help of the platforms we participate in and have helped build.  Great ideas and inspiration have come out of each previous Social Media Week; this year’s yield will be unprecedented.”

In addition to expanding the size and scope of the program and conference experience, the organizers are also launching four “Content HUBs” focused around four basic areas of content: people and society, art and culture, business media and communications, and science and technology. Each HUB will be located at soon-to-be-announced venues featuring daily events throughout the week.

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 150 events taking place throughout the city.  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?

Go here to find about more about Getting Involved.

If you have any questions about Social Media Week or getting involved in Social Media Week New York, please contact Lauren Hurst by email at lauren@crowdcentric.net for more information.

Go here to see the press release for this announcement: http://bit.ly/aEHthq