Social Media Week London

Social Media Week LondonSocial Media Week returns to London 23-27 September 2013, joining a host of other cities across the world in a hectic week of panel discussions, presentations, meetups and loads more. 

Event submissions are now open, get involved as a speaker, smwatchinwag [dot] com (volunteer) or find out about smwatchinwag [dot] com (sponsorshop opportunities).

Check out last September's full schedule. Keep up-to-date with Social Media Week London on Twitter & Facebook and of course the blog

Want to take your business global? Find out how how to use social media, online communities and collaborative tools can help build your company’s international business. Hear from international experts, case studies & quiz UKTI, Nokia, Hailo, the FT and more. Plus a free networking lunch and time for one-to-one Q&A.
Join us for the SMWLDN Global Keynote, a fireside chat with Alex Balfour, the at the centre of the digital delivery of the massively successful London Olympics and Paralympics Games. Opening this Sep’s Social Media Week and hear about the trials, tribulations and successes behind the digital success of the games.
McKinsey Global Institute principal Michael Chui discusses the potential value in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises. He'll be joined by an expert panel who'll reflect and discuss the dramatic changes 'social' is making inside the enterprise.
The rise of social media and social technology has demonstrated its power to revolutionise industries. In a very literal sense, the power to connect and collaborate is quite literally changing the world. Mobile technology and social networks enable groups to self-organise campaigns to gain worldwide momentum.
Join us for a very exclusive breakfast and brunch to discuss the latest experiments and techniques from the masters of behavrioural economics – and how as digital natives, we can leverage these to take over the world.
The explosion of social has been tremendous, as Facebook closes in on one billion consumers and Twitter approaches 200 million, not to mention emerging platforms like Google+, Instagram and Pinterest. Join experts from Oracle, Maersk, MediaCom, We Are Social, Starcom, IPC and Luxury Hotels of the World and find out more...
#SMWLDN Families in the UK spend around £187B a year yet not much is known about the complicated decision making dynamic that goes into how that money is spent. This session will look at who in the family makes what decisions, how the members of the family influence each other and what role social media plays in inter-family communications.
Facebook approaches its 1 Billionth user while under the spotlight as never before. A few years ago Facebook was one of many social networks. Now it’s the world’s most important social media platform. On Tuesday at 9am in Unruly, our panel will discuss Facebook’s future.
The food business is in a constant state of flux whether it’s the rush for Michelin stars or shiny food trucks or the latest pop up restaurant. Its marketing is no exception...
Did you know that on average you need to connect with prospective customers seven times before they actually buy from you? That’s an expensive way for you to grow your business. What if we told you that there was another way?
Did you know that on average you need to connect with prospective customers 7 times before they actually buy? That’s an expensive way to grow business. What if we told you that there was another way? Sound interesting? Then join us and we’ll take you through how to create your own Engagement Marketing plan and turn your customers into your fans.
The Oracle one-to-one Social Surgery sessions will run from 12pm-1pm. They will give organisations the opportunity for one-to-one social media health checks with leading Oracle's team of social strategy experts.
After selling-out tickets for this event on Tuesday, we're happy to announce that we will hold it again at Facebook Headquarters on Wednesday 26th September. However, this time, we have some new speakers to give additional insights and strategies for proving the success of social marketing within your organisation.
#SMWLDN Kids are inherently social and are very active on many social media platforms; therefore they are a hugely important part of the social media landscape. This discussion will focus on what kids are doing on networking sites, how and why they are so engaged with each other and the platforms, and look at the psychology behind these behaviours.
Digital media has gone through more revolutions in the last decade than other forms of media have experienced across their lifetimes. From web 2.0 to commoditisation of display advertising to sweeping changes of social media. How do the world's leading digital strategists handle the brand challenges? Join our expert panel for this discussion.
How has social media changed the way brands approach CSR and sustainability initiatives and what will the future hold? What challenges and opportunities to brands face as they use new methods? Our panel will include brand marketers and experts who have seen the potential, join the discussion...
If you’re a writer, editor, blogger, videographer, designer, producer or otherwise involved in the creation of cool stuff online then you need to come along to Content Creation Collective: Secrets behind social content on 26th September aboard the HMS President (1918), in association with Social Media Week.
When Facebook unveiled Open Graph and made it possible for apps to automatically share what you’re listening to, watching or reading, it divided opinion. “Frictionless sharing” is a great way to discover new stuff from friends but some think it’s Too Much Information. Come along and join the debate...
Are you unsure which combination of Pins, Tweets and Likes will give your small business a bang for its buck? It’s a conundrum that’s facing many owners as they fight to juggle the time spent between marketing their business and actually running it.
Are you unsure which combination of Pins, Tweets and Likes will give your small business a bang for its buck? Register today, come along and don’t forget to come along with your questions, thoughts and challenges. Our panel is waiting to help you navigate the right mix of social ingredients.
Hundreds of graduates, jobs seekers and experienced workers looking for that next challenge will be flocking to the Careers Day to meet the likes of Nokia, Financial Times, Imagination, Tempero, News International and more, so don't miss out. REGISTER NOW - it's free!

Yesterday, we put out a press release announcing some juicy tidbits of what’s in store for Social Media Week London.

The board in the office that we use for tracking confirmed events is slowly, but surely, being covered in luminous sticky notes. Actually, not that slowly. There’s still time to get involved, check out the website for more details.

PRESS RELEASE

Social Media Week London Confirms 40 Events
Industry Invited to Join Key Players to Collaborate on Events

London, UK – Monday 13th December 2010: The organisers of Social Media Week London (7-11th Feb 2011) today confirmed over 40 events for next February’s conference and revealed a taste of what’s in store including a behind-the-scenes look at the BBC with TV, Radio and Online showcasing how social media is used across their programming and platforms.

Following the success of last year’s Social Media Week London, the 2011 conference will explore the impact of social media across our everyday lives from business through to arts and culture.

Events

Plans are well underway with events curated by the Social Media Week London advisory board and numerous partners. Today, organisers released a sneak preview including:

Breakfast briefings from leading London agencies that will take place across the week helping identify the opportunities, the challenges and best practice in social media for business.

An Agency Open House will see agencies throwing open their doors to showcase their work and meet the industry. 77 Agency, 1000heads, JWT, LBi, Ogilvy and Unruly Media have already confirmed their participation with more to follow.

Professional social network Viadeo will be co-hosting a series of seminars and networking events throughout the week centred around focal points of social media including the public sector, social advertising, social recruiting and the tech sector.  These events will be co-hosted by key players in each field including Dell & BraveNewTalent.

Partners

In addition, confirmed event partners include giffgaff, Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK), media140, TechMAP and The Hub and venue sponsors eOffice and Paramount.

Media partners include New Media Age and the Financial Times.

Sponsors

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.

“Nokia’s vision is to connect people to the who and what matters, anytime, anywhere” noted Craig Hepburn, Global Director, Digital, NOKIA. “We see Social Media Week as an opportunity to be involved in the new ways by which consumers connect with each other and to brands through real-time conversations.”

“JWT is heavily involved with Social Media Week on a global level,” said 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.”

Social Media Week takes place from 7th-11th February 2011 simultaneously in ten cities around the world: Hong Kong, Istanbul, New York, London, San Francisco, Toronto, São Paulo, Paris, and Rome. In 2010, 450 events took place in 11 cities with over 18,000 attendees and 200,000 users online. The London event included 35 events taking place across the city with over 3,000 attendees.

The lead organisers for Social Media Week London event is digital community Chinwag where Sam Michel and Mellissa Norman will co-direct. “We expected strong interest in next year’s event, but we were surprised and delighted by the level of involvement from across the industry. We’ve already confirmed 35 events, that’s as many as the whole of last year’s Social Media Week. The collaborative nature of the events means more people can get involved in the events whether producing, hosting, presenting, volunteering or contributing ideas and there’s still plenty of time for everyone to get involved”, said Chinwag CEO, Sam Michel.

Schedule

The preliminary schedule for Social Media Week London will be published in early January 2011 with registration opening shortly thereafter. Delegates can register for schedule information via email and, of course, social media at:

http://socialmediaweek.org/london/schedule

Get Involved

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/london/get-involved

Contact

For press enquiries, please contact Sam Michel on +44 (0)20 7183 2923 or email samatchinwag [dot] com.

Photo (cc) Benjamin Ellis.

Lightbulbs by joe goldberg

One of the best things about working on Social Media Week is that moment when a connection leads to to something fruitful.

As the number of enquiries to the Social Media Week London crew ramp up, we’re in the enviable position of being able to connect brilliant people, who are working together on some great events.

There’s some exciting stuff coming up, but you’ll just have to wait for that news. It’s worth it, trust me!

Anyway, I digress.

As is my current habit, I was watching my usual diet of TED talk videos on the way in to the office a couple of days back, in an attempt to block out the hell of rush hour on London’s tube.

What popped up on my iPhone was a talk from British author Matt Ridley, “When Ideas Have Sex“, of which the central notion is that human growth has only been possible because ideas have been shared.

His talk covers a wide range of topics and is well worth watching (see below), but the one story that stuck with me was Matt’s premise that “no-one knows how to make a computer mouse”. He explains,

“Sure some people know how to get oil or metal out of the ground, some know how to turn that oil into plastic, or the metal into circuitry, some know how to mould that plastic into shape, and some know how to put the bits of plastic and metal together into what we know to be a mouse, but there’s no-one on the planet that does all of those things”

The premise certainly fits with my experience with the development of Social Media Week and the way ideas grow through collaborations. So much so, that Collaborate, Connect, Contribute has become our mantra.

Enough from me, check out Matt Ridley’s much more eloquent TED Talk…

Matt’s website is The Rational Optimist and you’ll find him on twitter @mattwridley.

Photo (cc) joe goldberg.

Pueblito PaisaIt’s almost Christmas, and therefore a fantastic excuse for a festive themed Chinwag Shindig.

With Social Media Week London hoving into view in February, we thought it’d be great to bring together the community that we work with across Chinwag.com, Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and, of course, Social Media Week.

Nothing too formal, just a friendly knees-up on 8th December, so put the date in your diaries now. We’ll be providing a merry drink or two, so you’ll just need to bring along some festive cheer.

Some of the Social Media Week advisory group will be about and it’ll be a great chance to meet, network and share a beverage or two with an interesting bunch of folks from London’s digital scene.

Santa costumes are optional.

Space is limited, so please make sure you RSVP to get in.