Successful Meetings Magazine

Some scary food for thought from the above article:

“So what happens when you do something like that? Facebook delete you. They erase you from the digital earth. All pictures that he was tagged in seems to be gone (I can’t find one single picture with him on there right now). He’s no longer in my list of friends. Facebook didn’t send out a notice saying that my friend was erased. I actually found out that he was gone from Facebook when he didn’t show to the moving in party at Flattr, when someone there told me he never received an invitation. It was weeks after, and I had invited him to another thing he didn’t show to either. I now know why.

Like everybody else today, I invite people via Facebook to events. If they’re not on there, they won’t get invited, it’s too much hassle, and “everybody is there” with few exceptions. This means that if Facebook deletes a friend from your online catalogue, you might actually stop hanging out with them offline as well. This is not acceptable. In a democracy we break monopolies and we allow for trials to happen (some of them are actually fair as well). On facebook, we’re being treated as goods.”

I’ve been watching Twitter for Volcano related tweets lately in order to stay on top of the situation and was curious when a few #TEDxvolcano tags appeared in my feed.

According to the TEDblog, some of their members who were stranded in London due to the Volcano decided to make the best of it and put together an impromptu event that is being live streamed to the rest of the world:

Stranded by the ash cloud, inspired by the just-concluded Skoll World Forum, and temporarily headquartered in one of the world’s greatest cities, a group of entrepreneurs, thinkers, tinkerers and creatives is throwing an unprecendented TEDx event: TEDxVolcano.

Put together in 48 hours by TEDster Nathaniel Whittemore with the support of TED, TEDxLondon, The Hub, Sandbox Network, Assetmap and many others, TEDxVolcano will feature a wide range of thinkers and doers stranded by the volcano, plus inspired audience participation and a few ash-induced surprises. Also: the extraordinary sounds of London-based, global-minded musician Susheela Raman.

The list of speakers includes:

• Cara Mertes, director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program
• 2006 TED Prize winner Larry Brilliant, president of Skoll Global Threats Fund
• CBS travel correspondent Peter Greenberg
• First Round Capital’s Chris Fralic
• Skoll Foundation executive director Sally Osberg
• Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech and MacArthur “genius” fellow
• Rita King, CEO of Dancing Ink Productions
• Matthew Bishop & Michael Green, author of Philantrocapitalism and The Road from Ruin
• and Jim Berk, CEO of Participant Media

It’s set to start at 6pm UK time, and we’ll be RT’ing it live from @TEDNews — hashtag #tedxvolcano — and posting photos from Robert Leslie and others as soon as they come in.

Watch the live stream HERE.

I love that when faced with an unforeseen obstacle, people will still find ways to come together and exchange ideas and knowledge. I also love the spontaneity of the whole thing and how in 48 hours people came together to launch what is sounding like a pretty awesome event.

Luckily, I am stranded in Toronto so for me, it’s like an extended vacation. I’m looking forward to hanging out with family and friends and finally blogging some pieces I’ve had in the pipeline for a while. (Read: I’m SO not complaining!) However, I would like to head back, eventually, and if you or someone you know has been affected by these developments you might find the below map useful.

View Volcanic ash closes European airports in a larger map

View Volcanic ash closes European airports in a larger map

Luckily, I am stranded in Toronto so for me, it’s like an extended vacation. I’m looking forward to hanging out with family and friends and finally blogging some pieces I’ve had in the pipeline for a while. (Read: I’m SO not complaining!) However, I would like to head back, eventually, and if you or someone you know has been affected by these developments you might find the below map useful.

View Volcanic ash closes European airports in a larger map

View Volcanic ash closes European airports in a larger map

My sister spoke at Ignite Toronto a few weeks ago. Ignite Toronto is an awesome series that “captures the best of geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on a diverse range of topics.”

About The Talk (from Riwa):

I know two things:

1) People hoard their good ideas to the detriment of progress and 2) ‘copycat’ has been unfairly pegged with some seriously negative connotation. But what if the ideas we imitate inspire social change? What if opening them up to replication makes them cooler, smarter and more effective? I’m testing my own, working theory on this as we try to morph a good idea (the environmental health clinic) into one that can be copied and implemented by anyone – and I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned.

My Thoughts:

I love this presentation because after watching it I found myself noticing all sorts of way in my work environment where people hoard their ideas to the detriment of progress. I have done this myself. I also once worked with a guy who hoarded the little coffee machine capsules in his drawer and it used to drive me insane. (Not to mention that depriving people of caffeine in an office is NEVER a good idea.)

I kept thinking about the ingrained behavior that have shaped us as a species. We are dealing with two opposing instincts, hoarding and imitating that have both been essential to our survival and evolution. The irony is that while we imitate our competitors while trying to hoard our own ideas for innovation and keeping them secret.

In particular, idea hoarding is also a direct result of how we reward individuals for their contributions within organizations versus establishing a more collaborative environment. After all, saying you’re ok with copy cats is fine until a promotion is missed or someone else gets an accolade.

xClinic

However, maybe if we expand beyond the individual and look at how entire industries (like Ri’s pharma example) are hoarding ideas we can see some more interesting solutions. Riwa has been working with a very cool idea called xClinic:

The concept approaches health from an understanding of its dependence on external local environments; rather than on the internal biology and genetic predispositions of an individual. It directs attention to root causes rather than symptoms. The idea is that by building awareness, initiating behavioral change through action, and ameliorating your own local environmental health, you improve the health of humans and improve the local environment around you. The more people who participate, the greater the cascading effects.

Read more about xClinic here. Riwa’s musings can be found on her, Left & Write.

The theme this year is the Power of Connecting so I’ve been thinking about how Art Institutions are coping within the digital media space. I was surfing the web when I stumbled upon the YouTube Choir (Via Mashable):

American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre spliced together nearly 250 submitted YouTube videos to form an online choir performing “Lux Arumque,” and then posted the assembled piece on YouTube.

Whitacre used social media — his blog, a FacebookFacebook page and YouTubeYouTube — to assemble and audition singers for his piece. He sent the sheet music out so people could submit videos featuring them singing individual parts. He then sifted through the videos and edited the audio parts together to form a very professional-sounding choir.

Ok, so first of all: AWESOME.

In 2008, I blogged about YouTube creating the world’s first online collaborative orchestra. (I can’t believe it’s already 2010, but that’s besides the point.) One of the reasons I am so fascinated and passionate about digital media is because platforms like YouTube are providing new ways for people all over the world to creatively collaborate and most importantly: entertain me endlessly.

The Evolution of Art:

Today, many of these art institutions are concerned that with so many ways to stay entertained that we will forget all about our most valuable cultural pillars. They worry that young people don’t care about the Arts anymore and that they are in danger of just fading away.

When I see this it gives me hope. This shows me that technology can fuse with Art and help it evolve and become something so much more. I watched this video and thought to myself, what an amazing experience to participate in a musical piece and know that other people are contributing their own talents from around the world. Even as a viewer, I was entranced at the harmony and flow of this video and how it redefined my interaction and understanding of this space.

Shift to Creation instead of Promotion:

I am also happy to this opening up the web to new types of content products instead of various marketing strategies. I am happy we are moving beyond the advertising stage and beginning to explore the ways these technologies can impact the institutions themselves. Here’s to a new period of creativity, innovation and growth that will allow us to experience classic pieces of art in new and amazing ways.

I’m still poking around for more examples of similar initiatives so if you see anything interesting do send it my way!

Watch them explain the campaign in their own words:

Why I love this campaign:

1) Use what you have:

There was no need to develop a fancy application or create a complicated web presence. They used two existing features that most users were already familiar with: tagging pictures and the sharing functionality.

2) Clear strategic objectives:

They knew what they wanted to accomplish: get people talking about the launch of the store and spread the news to their online network. The entry barrier to participate was very low. Anyone could easily and quickly be a part of the campaign.

3) A realistic campaign life cycle:

They set a clear deadline (12 days) and the end point for the campaign was clearly communicated to all  members. As more organizations execute social media strategies our attention spans will continue to shrink. I think many organizations have a misguided notion that they have to build a long lasting community of people who will remain engaged with the brand for months.

I can see where this perspective comes from considering building an online community of active members take a lot of time and effort and companies want to see some bang for their buck. However, as Ikea proves you can have an effective campaign with a shorter life cycle that is just as effective in getting the job done. I do want to point out that I am referring to specifically branded campaigns and not Ikea’s overall web presence.

4) They incented the right actions:

It really makes me laugh. People love getting things for free. Whatever it is, if it’s free someone will happily take it. AND they’ll tell their friends about it. Ikea was able to move the online discussion beyond the boundaries of one photo album and into the digital common space by counting on the fact that people will gloat about their free loot. And it worked like a charm.Whether it was announcing that they won something, or encouraging their friends to take part it made sense for people to talk about the campaign.

Well done Ikea!!

Many thanks to my friend Kimmo Kuortti, Director of International Relations at the University of Oulu in Finland for sharing this wonderful video with me!

A small highlight:

In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes businesses and organizations make when it comes to social media and branding?

The most common mistake I see are businesses who think they need to be doing every new thing. They are all over the place simply because they feel like they should be without necessarily considering how much value it’s adding to their overall strategic objectives.

Your best bet is to really sit down and think your strategy through. Where are your consumers naturally congregating online? What are they doing there? How would you like to engage with them?

These thoughts have to be carefully considered before entering this space, otherwise you end up wasting valuable time and money, not to mention potentially irritating potential customers as well.

You can read the rest of the interview here.