social media week

After last week's successful Social Media Week London brainstorm - we're delighted to announce a SMWLDN Brainstorm Round 2 in preparation for next February's SMWLDN on Wed 7th Dec from 6pm - 8pm in Shoreditch or TechCity, if you're startup-minded (RSVP).

This time, the aim is to focus on how social media is affecting and impacting our day-to-day lives from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the music we listen to, the games we play, the sport (some of us, ehem) do and our families.

Plans for Social Media Week 2012 have well and truly started and some very exciting ideas have been flying around. Some events are already live in London and across the other 13 cities involved. Check out whats already planned for the week here:

http://socialmediaweek.org/schedule

Planning an event for Social Media Week can be slightly daunting. Where do you start? Do you have a panel session or a workshop? How do you invite people? Is there a hashtag for every event? Do you need to supply catering?

So many questions, so to help you plan and execute your event, along with hopefully answering all the questions you have, we've pulled together some guidelines to 'Hosting an event for SMW 2012'.

Two heads are better than one. So, 35 must be exponentially better, right?

At Chinwag, we're big fans of building things collaboratively, so we thought we'd really push the boat out for the initial planning of Social Media Week London 2012 (SMWLDN), 13-17th Feb, in case you're wondering.

On Tuesday evening, after an open invite, 35 people gathered at Ketchum PR's offices in Shoreditch to ruminate, dream and scheme on the themes for next year's SMWLDN. Analysing last year's event and taking informal soundings, the group started to explore five starting points:

Earlier this year in February, led by Chinwag, Social Media Week London included over 110 events, 12 designed by Chinwag and a whopping 95 created and delivered with love by our 54 event partners, including Dell, Dutch Embassy, British Library, BBC, Channel 4, LikeMinds, Viadeo, We Are Social, techMAP, Ogilvy and more.

44% of events were put on by digital, traditional and social media agencies, the rest were a variety of companies, organisations and individuals from all sectors.

8,500 tickets were snapped up and over 8,500 online viewers watched livestreams. Social Media Week London (#smwldn) trended every day on Twitter surfing the wave of tweets across all the events.

It's almost that time of year again - and we're back taking the lead for Social Media Week London, 13 - 17th February 2012.

Building a collaborative event is not for the faint hearted. Many an event producer has run for the hills when faced with a large committee of partners let alone trying to lead a large team of stakeholders.

If, however, you are brave and follow a few guidelines the benefits of collaboration can be mind-blowing and much bigger than you could ever manage on your own.

Here is a guide based on my learnings directing Social Media Week (SMW) the London Games Fringe & Onemedia.  During SMW we had over 53 event partners, 50+ venues, 110 events and 40 experts on the advisory board. All of this was accomplished in under 16 weeks and here is how:

The Ecology of Engagement, hosted by the Tate Britain and Total Media, took place during Social Media Week London on Tuesday 8th February 2011 at the Tate Britain.

The event looked at the basic components that constitute the eco-system of engagement and discussed how Social Media can be put to use in the Museums, Arts and Culture Sector, to successfully initiate continually engaged communities.

Below are some of the ideas generated from the workshop part of the seminar and a presentation from the seminar.

Social Media Week London generated so much coverage that it’s taken us a little while to pull together all the information. This review brings together the video, coverage and slides from Social CRM: Building Customer Love, sponsored by Nokia and Nixon McInnes.

Social Media has changed the playing field in CRM, some companies are embracing this change and using it to help develop stronger, more transparent relationships with their customers. 

The event looked at how different companies have used Social Media to develop meaningful relationships and recommendations and how you can take key steps to develop your online reputation.

Social Media Week London generated so much coverage that it’s taken us a little while to pull together all the information. This review brings together the video, reportage and tweets from Sport and Social Media, hosted by:

• Sophie Brendel, BBC’s Head of Digital Engagement (@sophiebr)
• Maz Nadjm, Ogilvy’s Head of Social Media (@mazi)
• and Dan McLaren, Adidas Social Media Lead at Carat (@danielmclaren)

The event looked at how the sports industry and the BBC are bringing social media centre stage, and featured major speakers from across the world of sport and broadcasting.

Four industry showcases were presented (Football, The Ashes, Rugby and BBC & London 2012), showcasing how sports organisations are using social media:

Just before the Sports and Social Media Panel organised by the BBC on Weds 9th February, we interviewed Adam Mountford, Producer of Test Match Special (@tmsproducer).

Social Media Week London generated so much coverage that it’s taken us a little while to pull together all the information. This review brings together the video, tweets and speaker presentations from Game On! Games & Brands sponsored by Nokia and JWT.

Traditionally two separate industries, games and social media have meshing together in a variety of ways, providing opportunities for brands.

Traditional games companies are embracing social media, social gaming market is set to hit over $1bn this year and brands are combining game mechanics and social media to drive campaigns.

Opportunities exist, all are benefiting from targeting a wider demographic, increasing engagement and create rewards and status to drive behaviour both off and online.

We caught David Rowan, Editor of Wired UK for a quick chat after the Game On! Games and Brands panel, sponsored by Nokia and JWT, on Weds 9th February as part of Social Media Week London.

We managed to grab Miguel Andres-Clavera, Head of Innovation at JWT, for a chat after the Game On! Games and Brands panel, sponsored by Nokia and JWT, on Weds 9th February as part of Social Media Week London.

After the Game On! Games and Brands panel, sponsored by Nokia and JWT, on Weds 9th February as part of Social Media Week London, we caught up with Mark Hindle, Communications Manager at Nokia UK.

Social Media Week London generated so much coverage that it's taken us a little while to pull together all the information. This review brings together the video and coverage from The "Friend" Close: Social Sales.

From lead generation to closing sales, how has the sales process been affected by social media? From peer to peer recommendations to group buying to online stores, learn from the experts in using social media as part of the sales cycle.

After Social Media Week London, we asked all attendees to complete a survey telling us about their experiences and thoughts.  As a 'thank you', all those who took the survey were entered into a prize draw.  Prizes were generously provided by our sponsors, Nokia, Kodak and Microsoft Advertising.