Next week sees the return of Social Media Week to cities around the world. What’s it all about? The blurb:
Reflecting the global impact of social media – and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, economic, political and social change in developed and emerging markets – Social Media Week is one of the world’s most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries.
Weber Shandwick will be taking part in several of this cycle’s participating cities, including New York City; Washington, D.C., and Cologne, Germany. Here’s a selection of how we’ll be celebrating:
NYC: Melanie Notkin, the bestselling author behind the powerhouse blog Savvy Auntie, will be visiting our New York office for an internal lunch (which we’ll share across our global network via web conference). Melanie will talk about how she’s built her social media empire and what’s on the horizon.
On Wednesday, I’ll be participating in a panel on agencies acting like start-ups, sharing examples of some of the award-winning, innovative apps that Weber Shandwick has developed for clients and our teams. I’ll also be talking from my background as a Silicon Valley veteran about why I decided to join an agency, and how our team is able to leverage an entrepreneurial spirit inside a global company with significant resources to catalyze creativity and results for clients.
Washington, D.C.: Weber Shandwick will be hosting four Social Media Week events in our office in D.C. The panel on social politics will feature speakers from Twitter, Facebook, Google, and O’Reilly. The politics and technology panel includes contributors from ABC News, the Huffington Post, and Politico. Social media innovations in the developing world will be the topic of our third panel, and our own Joel Daly will be speaking on the ethics of social media in the workplace on the fourth panel.
Cologne, Germany: A social media happy hour in our Cologne office will highlight emerging trends and technologies that are having a big impact on how digital and social media is evolving, as well as a discussion of where brands can maximize returns on all these new tools and platforms.
We’ll be blogging updates from Social Media Week around the world, so if you can’t join us at any of our events, check back here for recaps and photos!