Social Media is Unleashed!

What a terrific evening!

Social Media Unleashed took place last night at The Lighthouse, and it was a full house. The event was the brainchild of twintangibles and New Media Corp who, with the help of some key partners, were able to put it together in a very short time frame. We didn’t advertise it heavily but registration was busy very early on.

The level of interest in coming to the event was, I think, a reflection of a couple of things. One was the quality of speakers we managed to attract. Quality presenters covering important themes and case studies that demonstrate real examples of some of that theory actually put into practice. The second factor that made it so popular is that there is real interest in the business community in how they can engage with social media to generate value, and too few events that get to grips with that in a practical way. Our hope was that as a result of attending delegates would leave with lots of ideas, a better understanding, and no “cookie cuter solutions”. Based on the feedback we have received so far that seems to be what we achieved. Attendees have more insight, are enthused but recognise that each of their organisations needs to think through and plan their approach to using social media to generate value.  Each of their plans will be different as it will need to reflect their specific aims and needs and that they made some good connections that can help them in that process.

The keynote session, hosted by Adam Gordon of Gordon BDM, feature Richard Ward of LinkedIn who demonstrated the breadth of innovation and development on the platform and the many ways it is working to deliver value to its users. Richard was joined by Paul McComish who inspired the room with an insightful case study of how he has used LinkedIn to generate £millions of business. John McLaren shared some laser like insight of trends and strategic thinking that so typically characterises Gartner‘s work, and Alan McCormack of McClure Naismith closed the opening session with a lawyers cautionary tale of some of the ever evolving legal challenges of social media in the workplace.

Some great networking and a glass of something in the cultured surroundings of The Lighthouse filled the interval before we plunged back in to hear Colin Gilchrist of Digital Face give a very expert guide to the art of managing a crisis through social media channels (slides available here) based on real experience of how he has helped clients fight those fires. Last and by no means least Richard Moir, CTO of Cisco Scotland, detailed real case studies of how a trusted and global technology firm actually uses Social Media for a variety of applications both internally and externally facing.

To cap it all the whole programme was captured on film by a team from moviecom.tv – the Video Social Network based here in Scotland, and a team of budding journalists from City of Glasgow College.

Now for those that didn’t get there, and those that might want to revisit the content of such a packed evening we are doing our best to make some of the material available to a wider audience. Of course the challenge with such insightful speakers for such recognised and high profile organisations is that it takes  a bit of time to get all the clearance and releases required. I am a bit worried about some of my gaffes getting out there on the web, but I guess I can overcome the red face if it means sharing such great material from the speakers.

As and when we get it we will let you know. But next time make sure you book your place early.

Finally it only remains to say – if you enjoyed it let us know, if you want another let us know, if you have any particular aspects of Social Media you would like us to deal with let us know.

twintangibles and New Media Corp would like to thank the following organisations that contributed to making the event happen – give them a round of applause.

The Lighthouse

LinkedIn

McComish Group

GordonBDM

Gartner

MCClure Naismith

Digital Face

Cisco

Moviecom.tv

Glasgow Chamber of Commerce

City of Glasgow College