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