Tag: Eli Pariser

Registration NOW Open & Last Call on Early Bird Discount

Posted on by Nicky Yates

Social Media Week is just over a month away. And, as the saying goes, never put off until tomorrow what you can do today—which is register for the events you’d like to attend! That’s right, as of today, attendee registration is open.

Powered globally by Nokia and MKG, this year’s event explores our always on, always connected world through the theme, The Future of Now.

New York will host hundreds of events led by more than 200 unique speakers (including Eli Pariser, Robin Chase, Cindy Gallop, Harper Reed, and Jeffrey Colen), all under one roof at our new Campus at Highline Stages in the Meatpacking District.

We hope you’ll join us. Simply check out the schedule, filter according to your interests and goals, register for the events that pique your curiosity, then share with your friends.

Don’t want to have to choose? (We know, we hate decisions too.) Purchase a pass! Holders of this golden ticket, so to speak, enjoy exclusive benefits, unlimited access to all official events throughout the week, and are sure to deepen their SMW experience. Plus, today is our LAST day to grab our 20% Early Bird Discount.

Sign up soon! Like a 7AM SoulCycle class, spots won’t be open for long.

The Present and Future State of Media, Featured at SMW NYC

Posted on by Nicky Yates

Many have touted 2013 as the year that changed publishing and media. From listicles taking over our news feeds to the growing dominance of native advertising to Upworthy’s staggering growth numbers (which have outpaced even that of the New York Times), last year we witnessed a seismic shift in the industry.

We’re diving deep into these at SMW NYC, and you’ll be able to know what lays in store for media in 2014 with event like these:

Distribution is Key

Few companies have scaled quite the way BuzzFeed has, especially with its range. It truly is the epitome of a digitally native brand and a perfect case study, which is why we’re bringing in CEO and Founder, Jonah Peretti for a conversation on original and branded content, data analytics, mobile apps, and which social platforms are most important for BuzzFeed’s model.

Later in the week, BuzzFeed will be sharing specifically on how they have emerged as king of content distribution. Social is the new starting point for how we discover, consume and share content. But good content doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll go viral. So, Jonathan Perelman, VP of Agency Strategy and Industry Development at BuzzFeed, joins us to explain how content and distribution can work successfully together. If your brand is engaging in content marketing on any level, this conversation is one you can’t miss.

Harness the Power of Social

If it’s not BuzzFeed clogging up your newsfeed, then you’re seeing the world’s fastest growing media brand, Upworthy. Upworthy curates meaningful content on social, economic and societal issues that is then massively shared by the site’s community. Upworthy.com routinely breaks its own traffic records and has more views than the New York Times, FOX News or BleacherReport — meaning, Founder and CEO, Eli Pariser, knows how to harness the power of social media. He’ll be on hand at SMW NYC to share his secret sauce and where Upworthy as a media entity is heading.

Get Mobile

Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. Adults now get their news on Twitter, with 85% of those consuming it on a mobile device. This means media organizations are more than ever needing to address this change. So, we’re featuring a debate between publishing industry leaders and an interactive audience discussion centered on the future of digital, mobile, and social platforms for news organizations. At the end of this event, we’ll all have an understanding of how outlets can make the most of mobile and social platforms and what journalists and editors need to know.

Overall, we’ll be presenting a solid look at the present state and future of media, along with a focus on leaders you can look to. All we need is you.

Get your pass today here and join us for a serious look at media.

A Reason to Unplug

Posted on by Nicky Yates

The Future of Now looks at the balance we all need in life, using tech to enhance our humanity and reconnect. And the holidays remind us of the need for this.

We’re thrilled to be hosting numerous sessions during SMW14 that are geared directly toward this. We have Erica Dhawan sharing on connectional intelligence. When almost everyone has at least the capacity to link up with people, power, ideas, information and faraway resources, how do we connect better, faster, more efficiently. It’s a deep look at the power of our relationships.

We also have Upworthy’s Eli Pariser sharing how you can encompasses using community to truly effect change with content. As the king of viral, he understands the distinct reasons we share and the revelations that has for us and our networks. We’re even getting a little granular during the week with a Masterclass that looks at how tech can help us combat the health and physical aspects of staring at a screen all day.

We know the week holds something for everyone. And we want you to be there with us, our creative partner MKG, and Nokia at Campus at Highline Stages.

Our 20% Early Bird Discount is still in effect (only until January 8th, though!). Plus, if you purchase on Tuesday, we’ll donate 20% of all our Pass sales to benefit Bpeace, an organization that helps entrepreneurs expand and scale their businesses to lead to stability and peace in post conflict countries.

This means you save $80 off your Insider Pass, give $80 to help entrepreneurs, and score a $50 gift card to BOND with your Insider Pass on Tuesday.

We wish you a wonderful holiday season and hope to see you in February!

Eli Pariser: Building the Fastest Growing Media Site Of All Time

Posted on by Nicky Yates

For those who crave a way to share their passion for social change, Eli Pariser and Upworthy are common names. Eli established Upworthy with Chris Hughes of Facebook and Peter Koechly of The Onion with the goal to make important content as viral as Charlie biting your finger.

And it’s worked. Upworthy is the fastest growing media site of all time, bringing the “awesome”, the “meaningful” and the “visual” all together.

Upworthy isn’t Eli’s first venture though. Eli is a true veteran of the Web. He formerly directed the liberal grassroots organization, MoveOn, working as a catalyst for citizen-driven change. Under his stewardship, MoveOn grew 10 times larger and collected more then $120 million in small donations. Eli realized the power of organizing individuals to take small actions for change, tripling the organization’s member base and creating a political shift in the 2006 elections.

“We really need the Internet to be that thing that we all dreamed of it being. We need it to connect us all together. We need it to introduce us to new ideas and new people and different perspectives. And it’s not going to do that if it leaves us all isolated in a Web of one.”

In 2011, after noticing that social media and search engines were eliminating some friends’ posts from his feed and only showing him search results tailored to his tastes, he sounded the alarm on the increasingly narrow lens that social media algorithms and search networks are creating in the name of ‘personalization’ in The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You. His TED talk on the topic has been seen more than 2.5 million times.

Shortly thereafter, he co-founded the company that encompasses both – using his community–organizing expertise to help combat the narrow lens of social media and search algorithms. Upworthy curates meaningful content on social, economic and societal issues that is then massively shared by the site’s community. Upworthy.com routinely breaks its own traffic records, seeing more than 46 million page views in October 2013, and garnering more views than the New York Times, FOX News or BleacherReport.

Join us to hear what he has to say grassroots organization, his experience growing organizations, and the future of Upworthy. Grab your pass now here.