Press Release: London's Business Community Connects for Social Media Week 2010

London’s Business Community Connects for Social Media Week 2010

PRESS RELEASE: London, UK, Thursday 28^th January 2010

A diverse range of events, covering everything from music, property, politics and charity through to recruitment, will be held next week from 1st to 5th February for Social Media Week London. A global initiative that sees simultaneous activity in New York, Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo, Social Media Week aims to identify and advance social media practices and policy in the corporate, public and non-profit sectors.

Organised in London by Chinwag, the UK digital community, Social Media Week has drawn the support of industry bodies such as the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) and British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) and generous support from sponsors including Meebo & icrossing and a wide range of companies which are organising events as part of the schedule.

Over 20 debates, panel discussions, presentations and socials are running over the course of the week, many of which are free to attend, bringing together experts in social media strategy and practice with those interested in or already deploying these new communication channels in different business sectors.

Full details are available on www.socialmediaweek.org/london and some event highlights include:

• PR Breakfast Briefings, hosted by Porter Novelli, 33 Digital and Speed Communications
• Real Time Web for Good, hosted by media140
• Optimizing Your Social Graph, sponsored by Meebo and hosted by the IAB
• Measuring Social Media, hosted by Chinwag Live
• A Conversation on Social Recruitment, hosted by BraveNewTalent
• Twespians, a tweetup for theatre folk, hosted by twespians.co.uk
• Monkeys tweetup, hosted by Jemima Gibbons, author of Monkeys With Typewriters: Myths and realities of social media at work

 Important topics that will shape business practice in 2010 will be debated by experts in their field. Key speakers across the schedule include Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning, EMEA, Facebook; Dr. Sue Black, Head of the Department of Information and Software Systems in the the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Westminster;  Jaz Cummins, Web & New Media Manager, Amnesty UK; Robin Grant, MD of We Are Social; Raj Kotecha, MD, CreativeContentAgency.com / Lovesoul.TV and many more.  The range of debates will include the challenges and opportunities for brands connecting with consumers on a mass scale, how enterprises can take advantage of social media throughout their business, where the ROI is in social media, the importance of picking your battles online and how charities can take advantage of these new technology tools for good.

Chinwag CEO Sam Michel said: “It’s great to see just how many businesses have picked up the mantle and organised events for Social Media Week London. If proof was still needed about just how deeply social media has infiltrated both our professional and social lives, the broad range of topics and huge level of interest shown in Social Media Week provides it. “

Toby Daniels, Founder & Executive Director of Social Media Week said: “Social media's impact has been profound, creating a global business community that is unprecedented in scope. Social Media Week 2010 is our attempt at embracing this phenomenon and we hope will function as a global platform for conversation, connectivity and learning." 

Many of the London events were fully booked within hours of being registered on the site, but new ones are still being added to the schedule. Please visit http://smw-london.sched.org/ for the latest updates.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

About Social Media Week

Social Media Week (www.socialmediaweek.org) is an annual conference that takes place simultaneously in multiple cities around the world. The aim is to identify and advance uses of social media in the corporate, public and non-profit sectors.

The second annual conference takes place between February 1st - 5th, 2010 simultaneously in New York City, Berlin, London, San Francisco, Toronto and São Paulo. The five day conference will explore the profound impact that social media has on culture, business communications and society at large.

The week-long, international Social Media Week conference is designed as a series of localized events, which city partners are responsible for organizing.  Over the course of the week and in each city, programs will span a variety of formats, ranging from talks, presentations and panel discussions, to interactive workshops, seminars, networking events and drinks receptions.

About Chinwag

The Chinwag community is a focal point for digital media practitioners in the UK and beyond. Founded in 1996, it has grown into a community media company that publishes websites, discussion forums and blogs supporting the people and companies who work in the digital industry. 

Since July 2008, Chinwag have worked closely with the UK Trade & Investment in organising the Digital Missions, which help UK digital SME's to expand their businesses abroad, forge partnerships with US companies and seek investment from overseas. They also publish Chinwag Jobs, the leading recruitment website for digital marketing, media, technical and design positions. http://chinwag.com 

For further information, please contact:

Julia Elion at Chinwag
Tel: +44 774 990 5923   
Email: juliachinwag [dot] com
Site: http://chinwag.com