Month: June 2010

Reflections

(SWE) The World Summit on Media for Children and Youth 2010 last week was amazing—Karlstad, Sweden lived up to its happy sunny name and the people I met were simply incredible.

The overall organisation, venue, wifi, hotels, food, entertainment etc. was superb. My two “Social Media For All” sessions were well attended and received some lovely feedback.

As for the content of the conference itself, well the programme promised more than it delivered I’m afraid.

Speaking to the many delegates there seemed a consensus of opinion on the lack of energy and dynamism from the session speakers plus an over-emphasis on traditional media models/practices. The last summit in Africa also had hundreds of young people (compared to about 30/40 at this one).

So for what it’s worth here’s my five top tips/suggestions for the organisers of the next World Summit in Bali, 2013 :

• decide between youth participation or a youth presence : it’s hard to create legitimate youth participation at such a professional-focussed event, therefore, making the decision either way is better than trying to serve two masters (remember, a teachers conference is not less due to no student involvement but separating the young participants from the main event is not participation). The youth who were involved were fantastic though and I was lucky enough to help them out with their website, Global Youth Media Council, check it out plus their final presentation to the conference

• fold social media into the event : like streaming the sessions (using Ustream or CoverItLive, update the Facebook page or Twitter presence regularly to offer insights and ongoing commentary, create a Twitter list of people attending the conference (like I did), go public with the hashtag more than a week before the event (reread the tweets from the #wskarlstad2010), upload the presentations to SlideShare etc

• book speakers on their talent not titles : my major gripe with most conferences this one. It’s a constant juggle for organisers to land high-profile speakers and ensuring the audience will not be treated to a head-down-read-from-the-script session (maybe introduce the Pecha Kucha style format into some of the sessions)

• multi-media it up : mix in every medium going to reflect the current media landscape; TV, film, radio, print, web, social media, gaming, geo-location, music, crowd sourcing/funding, performances, open source, mobile, unconferences etc.

• book me as a main stage speaker : cheeky I know but valid nonetheless. Seriously, if you want someone to offer energy, fun and insightful discourse on the current mediascape then I guarantee I’ll deliver (or your money back)!

All of the above given with respect, no expectation and a smile.

Thanks again to this years conference organisers for the opportunity to participate—it was great!

Here’s some stuff I created from the conference : Continue reading 6th World Summit Part Two

Celtic cousins

(IRE) We love delivering our Internal Events as it means cross-departmental delegates and organisational-wide impact.

Today we’re with South Dublin County Council, serving them a contextualising presentation on the (social) media landscape changes and then five different masterclasses, totally bespoke and specific to their needs.

The best thing about MediaSnackers is they don’t just tell you about platforms and projects—they show you. The fact that they are blogging, tweeting, photo sharing and recording all through the event enhances the message and immediately gives participants the ability to see it in action and participate.

Within 24 hours of our recent internal event with the MediaSnackers I saw great changes! Blogs started appearing, twitter feeds picked up, ideas began to circulate. The fear and apprehension that had surrounded the use of social media in our organisations had been diminished. People are playing, having fun and ‘clicking the button’!

I doubt any other company could have delivered to such a diverse group of organisations, ages and abilities and inspired everyone to action. The internal event was definitely the best way to kick start our journey into social media and has opened up new areas for further exploration and training.

Carolyn Jones

MediaSnackers Internal Events