Social Media Week, February 2011
Strategic considerations and lessons learned
1
Chris van der Walt
Strategic Communications Advisor
United Nations Global Pulse
Monday, May 9, 2011
#openun #smwnyc
FEBRUARY 7-11, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Why Social Media Week?
• Free!
• 9 cities
• 30,000 participants
• 600-plus events featuring 1,800 speakers
• 80,000 unique viewers watching events live via
Livestream.com
• SMW provides great venues. In our case:
• The Paley Center for Media
• Google Headquarters
3
Monday, May 9, 2011
Strategic considerations for GP
• free!
• a whole day to fill
• opportunity to position Global Pulse as a thought leader
• opportunity to increase awareness of the project within
the UN
• opportunity to attract partnerships: technology, innovation
and PR
• opportunity to mainstream our ideas about
real-time technology and social media to a global
audience
Monday, May 9, 2011
Challenges
• one month to organise - yikes!
• how to design a compelling event about
relevant issues that the public will want to
attend?
• how to design an event that allows deep
engagement with ideas but ultimately
aligns with Global Pulse’s positioning on
the issues?
5
Monday, May 9, 2011
Strategy
1. Develop a compelling narrative arc.
2. Design a provocative/sexy title.
3. Sell the concept to Social Media Week
4. Invite a mixture of high profile speakers and
subject matter experts (not just UN!!)
5. Engage a good moderator(s).
6. Brief speakers and moderator thoroughly.
7. Tie it together with keynote from Global Pulse
Director, Robert Kirkpatrick.
6
Monday, May 9, 2011
Develop a compelling narrative arc
1. Demonstrate the maturity of the real-time
ecosystem
2. Highlight the evolution of actors and
relationships in the space
3. Not just communications tools - demonstrate
the paradigm shift occurring in the use of
social/mobile tech
4. Discuss the implications of the paradigm
shift for international organizations
7
Monday, May 9, 2011
Programme
• The Future of Real-Time report
Presentation by PSFK
• Panel discussion: The evolution of the crowd
How can we move to a more a dynamic and nuanced understanding
of different kinds of “crowds” and how and when to engage with
them?
• Keynote
• Panel discussion: Real-time field operations
Is real-time citizen engagement the engine of relief and
development in the 21st century?
• Panel discussion: Institutions in the age of real-time
How must local, national and global institutions adapt to succeed in
the real-time world?
8
Monday, May 9, 2011
Design a compelling title
9
Provocative
Monday, May 9, 2011
Design a compelling title
10
Sexy
Monday, May 9, 2011
Invite (smart) high profile speakers
Panel 1: The Evolution of the Crowd
• Mr. Nadim Mahmud (Research Director, Co-founder, Medic Mobile)
• Mr. Shaun Abrahamson (Founder, Colaboratorie Mutopo)
• Mr. Ivan Sigal(Director of Global Voices)
• Mr. Mark Belinsky (Co-Director, Digital Democracy)
• Ms. Soraya Darabi (Co-founder, Foodspotting and Digital Strategist)
• Mr. John Crowley (Camp Roberts/ Harvard Humanitarian Initiative)
11
Monday, May 9, 2011
Invite (smart) high profile speakers
Panel 2: Real-time Field Operations
• Ms. Corinne Woods(Director, United Nations Millennium Campaign)
• Ms. Katrin Verclas (Co-founder and Editor, MobileActive.org)
• Mr. Sean Gourley (Research Fellow, Oxford University)
• Mr. Jihad Abdalla (Emergency Officer and GIS focal point, Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF)
• Mr. Nigel Snoad (Senior Information Management Officer, OCHA)
12
Monday, May 9, 2011
Invite (smart) high profile speakers
Panel 3: Institutions in the Age of Real-time
• Mr. Robert Orr (ASG for Policy Planning, United Nations)
• Mr. Clay Shirky (Adjunct Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU)
• Mr. Richard Tyson (Co-founder and Principal, Helsinki Group)
• Mr. Zia Khan (Vice President, Strategy and Evaluation, Rockefeller Foundation)
• Mr. Carne Ross (Founder, Independent Diplomat)
13
Monday, May 9, 2011
Engage a good moderator
David A. Brancaccio
Journalist. Host of the Public Radio business
program Marketplace and the PBS newsmagazine
NOW.
14
Monday, May 9, 2011
Brief speakers and moderator thoroughly
• background materials
• speaker/moderator bios
• 30 minute interviews for each (crucial!!)
• explain narrative arc
• elicit speaker areas of interest/conflict
• outline seating arrangement
• outline speaker order
• answer any questions
15
Monday, May 9, 2011
Promote
• Channels
• GP’s twitter and facebook
• blogs
• Social Media Week channels
• Content
• speakers
• invite speakers or others to kick off discussion in advance with blog posts etc
• hashtags
• livestream links
16
Monday, May 9, 2011
On the day(s)...
• Catering
• Live tweet
• Blog
• Photographer
• Video interviews
17
Monday, May 9, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
19
Monday, May 9, 2011
20
Monday, May 9, 2011
Outcomes
• really compelling discussions
• new partnerships
• helped to mainstream real-time/social/
mobile technologies in public discourse
around Global Pulse
• Social Media Week keen to partner again
• gave UN staff hope...
21
Monday, May 9, 2011
Lessons learned
• don’t try to do this with only one month of
lead time...
• speaker preparation pays off!!
• pay attention to gender balance on panels
• a little bit of controversy is a good thing...
• leave plenty of time for questions
22
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thank you!!
www.unglobalpulse.org
@UNGlobalPulse
www.facebook.com/UNGlobalPulse
http://www.youtube.com/unglobalpulse
23
Monday, May 9, 2011