Global perspectives on social media

A week-long feast of knowledge opportunity awaits you next week in over 20 cities around the world when Social Media Week kicks off on February 13.

This bi-annual professional development event offers you a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. The organizers say it attracts more than 60,000 attendees across thousands of individually organized events, with half a million connecting to the conference online and through mobile.

One of the cities involved is London where over 150 events are taking place during the week, most of them free to attend (thanks to sponsors).

I’m participating as a speaker and presenter in three of those 150+ events, all of which look as though they’ll be fully booked any minute now – if you’d like to be there, this is the moment to check availability and sign up:

Wednesday February 15

1. 08:30 to 12:30: Social Business Immersive by Like Minds
   One of seven presenting; my topic: “Brand communications in a social world: the rise of open and transparent dialogue to manage your reputation and drive opportunities publicly to do business.”
2. 15:00 to 17:00: “The Future of Social Business” panel discussion with JP Rangaswami, Euan Semple, Jon Ingham, Neville Hobson and Delphine Remy-Boutang. This will be a moderated open discussion and debate on social business current trends, best practices and how social media is driving change in the way organisations will do business in the future.

• Location: Like Minds Club, 8 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5BY.
• Details and Register: http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=1135 (morning); http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=1130 (afternoon) (Both events free to attend.)

Thursday February 16

1. 08:30 to 17:00: Making Social Part Of Your DNA by Klaxon Marketing
   Presentation (at 11:50) jointly with Kerry Bridge of Dell UK titled “The long haul; top tips learnt over the years on how to really make social work for your business.” Especially useful if you’re a small or medium-size business.

• Location: 6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB.
• Details and Register: http://www.socialmediadna.co.uk/agenda/ (This is a not-for-profit event so your full ticket price goes directly to the event’s charity partners CRY and Mind.)

These are but three of the London events you can experience. Among the many others available, these five – one from each day – look like standout sessions:

• Monday Feb 13: Mind the Gap: Avoiding a Social Media Skills Crisis (13:00-15:00)
• Tuesday Feb 14: Ogilvy Keynote: The Insidious Plot to Socialise The Enterprise (11:00-13:00)
• Wednesday Feb 15: Me! Me! Me! The Battle for Attention: Brands, Publishers and Social Networks (13:00-15:00)
• Thursday Feb 16: Social Media, the Olympics & BBC – Preparing for London 2012 (17:30-19:30)
• Friday Feb 17: Google / Google+ What’s going on and how it impacts your business! (09:00-12:00)

And if you can’t physically get to any event, you can enjoy many of them via live video streams by Livestream (who will be streaming events from other SMW cities as well).

There are also hashtags for each city – London’s is #smwldn – so you can join the conversations on Twitter.

Enjoy your week of perspectives!