Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Tomorrow,  H+K Healthcare takes centre stage in Soho Square, with H+K Strategies‘ first-ever sector-specific Demystifying Digital (#HKD2).  With a formidable list of participants and speakers from major platforms as well as industry leaders from the public and private sector, the event is poised to make a real difference to our understanding of what’s possible and where we should be heading with healthcare digital communications this year. Kantar Health and Orital will talk about how patients and physicians really use the internet, Google will help us understand how we can make the most of Google+ and key note speaker, Kai Gait, Former Digital Commerce Marketing Manager, GSK will share specific examples of how to add value to our work with healthcare communities through digital initiatives. If you’re not able to come along tomorrow, don’t forget to follow #HKD2 on Twitter or check out the blog for a post-event summary.

We’ll be back on the blog after the event to let you know how it all went!

I always regret not going home for Thanksgiving, as it is one of the my favorite days of the year. No gift pressure. Just food, family, friends and football. I’ve resisted the urge to spray some pepper on the turkey below because today is about the best of America and my country’s roots as a nation made strong by immigrants from all lands. Now that I am one myself, this really hits home. I did however balance the sweet sentimentality of this Rockwell painting with an old favorite Thanksgiving theme video embedded below. People here in the London office didn’t quite get the appeal, so it might be an American thing. You’re welcome.

Norman Rockwell: Thanksgiving

Well, Internet Week 2011 is over and from what I can tell, it was jam packed five days with a diverse array of events. Although hashtagged as #IWE (E for Europe), it seemed fairly London media industry centric, to the extent that the Hospital Club was the official HQ. In unconference style, anyone can hold an event during the week. Simultaneous offerings mean you have to make choices as to what to attend (as you somehow squeeze a few sessions into your work week). It also means we are extremely grateful to all the folks that flocked to the WPP Stream London breakfast, hosted here at H&K. Titled Always on Events: How the Internet can help you build a year round community for your real life event, our theme seemed a natural for both IWE and Stream.

It is not always easy to hold a true Discussion, vs a standard presentation where the speakers do all the talking. But I was delighted that many of our participants jumped right in to debate the different aspects that help a community stay together after an event is over. Because it is the interaction between attendees that is the real secret to any event’s success. My co-leader was Rob Blackie, the MD of Blue State Digital London. His five tips for events that rock made a great wrap-up. Let us know if you have any to add. Lots to think about for Stream itself, IWE and your special event as well.

Any real life event — be it a pop concert, an unconference like WPP Digital’s Stream, or a breakfast session during Internet Week — creates an automatic community. Most event communities, though, are ephemeral. Once the crowd goes home, that group of interacting people disappears.

I started to think about this when we expanded our Demystifying Digital conference from a single event in 2010 to an ongoing platform. And, as a volunteer director for Stream, I have seen firsthand how an annual event can grow into an always on community. TED, Cannes Lions, Burning Man — these cult happenings connect people all year.  Some of their success is organic; some is due to smart community building by the organizers. Given the much heralded ability of the Internet to build communities online, it seemed a natural topic for a Stream Local Discussion. How do we use the social net to fan the interaction sparked by a real life event into an ongoing, connected society? Join our IWE session on 08 November and share your experience and techniques.

I’m excited to be here at our office in Copenhagen polishing my presentation for tomorrow. This is our third full day D2 conference of 2011 following on the London event in June. We are blessed to once again have top shelf speakers from Facebook, Google Mobile, TNS, Wikipedia and especially welcome a new addition: Google+. In an input survey we are doing with our clients to structure the next conference, we had more clients asking to learn about Google+ than any other platform.

Follow #HKD2 for snippets from the day. We will be posting some of the presentations afterward. My short but sweet talk below to get the ball rolling. It explains what we mean by Demystifying Digital; feel free toping me if you want the voice over.

Thursday was one of our big events of the year. Demystifying Digital—affectionately known as D2—is an ongoing, invitation-only H&K EMEA program that brings social platforms and our interactive communication experts together with brands. The content is geared to to live up to our goal of ‘demystifying’ and to offer H&K clients practical, hype free information.In other words, ‘news we can use’.  (I think too often the digital brotherhood falls into the trap of every religion where a layer of mysticism ensures the need for a guru to translate.)

The funny thing about a private event, though, is of course it is also public. We taped, pix and tweeted the day. Tony Wang, the head of Twitter’s new London office, was one of our speakers and in his honor I collected some of the #HKD2 tweets via Storify.

(More presentations and video content to come over the next week.)

The terrible scenes in Japan have rightly dominated the media landscape over the weekend, but I thought it was worth highlighting this piece from Saturday’s (12th March)  Financial Times, by Alastair Campbell on London’s role as PR Capital of the World.

Alastair argues (full version here) that London can rightly be regarded as the international centre of reputational management, due partly to its geographical location, but also due to the maturity (I use the term in its broadest sense) of the British press and media landscape. His remarks come in response, in part, to recent accusations that some British PR firms apparently do little more than help despots from around the world buff up their images (which of course is nonsense).

Alastair also goes on, quite rightly, to highlight the role social media is playing in developing a new dimension to the role of international communications – as social networks and therefore new communication relationships become more widespread, it is harder for central governments to simply shut down this comms process. The events in Egypt and Libya are of course the most recent examples of this.

I’ll leave you to read AC’s comments in full, though offer this final thought. If PR companies help their clients (whether they be overseas governments or not) understand the nature of the 21st century communications landscape, and the need for multi-dimensional engagement with all of their audiences, and demonstrate that, actually, transparency is the way to go forward, isn’t that a good thing?

@ThomasCrampton and Sir Martin talking about the state of digital at #streamasia [twitpic]
- @jasonoke

Now, I am partial to Ignite, but this is the can’t miss session at Stream. Like his talk last fall, this isn’t a documentation of all Sir Martin had to say, but rather what his audience here found most worth tweeting (that I was able to capture). So it is a tad agency-centric.

Never a bigger audience or more attention for the post lunch graveyard shift. An hour with Sir Martin.
- @jonnylang

Sir Martin Sorrell on stage @ #streamasia. It’s been a bumper year for WPP.
- @JonathanNguyen

Update: Here’s an offstage interview from the event where Sir Martin talks more about social. Check what he says about PR agencies.

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As the river of tweets flood in from Austin, I’ll be part of a more intimate stream. Stream Asia to be exact. Now in it’s fifth year, the invitation only WPP Digital unconference Stream was founded by Sir Martin Sorrell and Yossi Vardi. Today is the kick-off for the first one to be held in Asia.

While the appeal of SXSW is undeniable, I am so privileged to be here that I can’t be at all jealous of friends gathering in Texas. Both locations will have the high energy of a revival meeting, as is common with camps of people who view digital as a religion.

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The answer of course, is no, it didn’t, although some mainstream commentators are getting a little excited about it. There’s no doubt that new media and digital channels like Twitter and Facebook certainly played an incredibly influential role in the events in Tunisia and in the downfall of President Mubarak, but a little perspective is probably needed.  

Social media is invaluable as it offers a new spectrum of platforms, or channels, for communication with either local, regional or global networks. Not easily shut down and offering immediacy transparency and exchanges of information, it allows an easy flow of information, both good and bad.

Charlie Beckett, Director of the POLIS think tank at the LSE offers some words of wisdom on the subject here. He argues that when looking at the Middle East, social media could actually now be a really useful indicator, or even predictor, of political change. He also rejects the causal link arguing real important pre-conditions for any revolution will always be socio-economic.  

Mr Twitter himself, Biz Stone, also argues that social media plays a supporting role but not a starring one. “How a revolution comes to be is a mystery to me. It’s important to credit the brave people that take chances to stand up to regimes. They’re the star. What I like to think of services like Twitter and other services is that it’s a kind of supporting role.”

As I write this piece, Colonel Gaddafi is now refusing to stand down in a defiant speech being shown live on Libyan state television (shown in UK thanks to the BBC!).  So let the social networks in Tripoli play their role – but just please don’t call your next born ‘Facebook’.