Hill+Knowlton Strategies

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.

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.

I am getting excited about our contribution on Protecting Reputation on Tuesday, but am also planning to take advantage of the smörgåsbord of events across London. Which ones are you going to? Tweet me if you’ll be at any of the sessions below.

My dance card starts mid-day Monday with Apps Go Social. This panel discussion will look at the trends in mobile apps, especially the connecting point of social, local and mobile. Timely stuff (and oh, lunch is thrown in — yum).

Wednesday is a big day, kicking off with the ever more mega topic of Facebook. Hosted by agency We Are Social, I’m especially interested in the case study on Tesco Clothing.

That afternoon, a couple of retail sector clients will join me at the Social Sales panel hosted by the wonderful Chinwag. It has a great lineup, with the exploding Groupon as a highlight.

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Never in living memory has there been so much conversation about communication. Marketing and Technology both had plenty of industry conferences in the past. Since they’ve mashed up, it feels like we are all now in the event business. Speaking, attending, following. *Exhausting*. You can even track the trends just by watching the new titles roll out from professional event companies like Haymarket and DMG.

Always on hashtags
But there is a lovely twist to this all you can eat symposium smorgasbord. Several of the more grassrootsy events are true communities rather than trade shows. More Burning Man, than ad:tech.
For most events, the hashtag comes and goes. Twitter search won’t pull up tweets more than a few days old. With serial events like #media140, #140conf, and the aptly named #LikeMinds, the hashtag is always fresh. Not only are they based on a series of conferences, they have meetups, tweetups, and lots of @ing in-between. It’s lovely.

Active attendees
Private, participatory events, like WPP’s Stream, share this belief that the community makes the unconference. Mega events, like the ever more popular SXSW,  take it to the people via their Panel Picker. While SXSW is not until March, the blogosphere is alive with buzz right now as we all canvas for votes from our peers. Me too. More on that next post.

With luck I will see y’all in Texas, but it could be equally inspiring to meetup right here.

What happens when you get a bunch of 30-somethings raging against the dieing sporting light, and a bunch of confident 20-somethings with it all to prove?

The result is a sporting contest for the ages. And so it was last Wednesday afternoon as H&K’s finest Lads, Dads and everything in-between emerged from the 4^th floor to contest a heavyweight footballing battle at London Bridge.

Or at least that’s how it should have been but for an alarming drop-out rate amongst the physically fragile Dads – the result being that we ended up with Lads vs Dads(& Lads).

But enough of that and onto the game which started at a frantic pace with the muscle-strewn Roberts snapping around the heels of the Lads in his imposing red wifebeater, and Whitlock demonstrating all his semi-pro skills with a couple of nifty turns. It was the Lads who struck first however, rifling the net with a crisp strike after only a few minutes. The Dads were undisturbed though, sticking to their tight, controlled passing game with the cat-like Sutherden barking the orders from the back like the Peter Schmeichel he clearly wished he always could have been.

Honours remained close throughout, with excellent solo efforts from Jones and Bell cancelled out by a net-ripper from chief lad Battersby and a mazy, Kaka-esque run from Woods ending with the ball in the net and the man himself seeking a high five at every turn.

With time running out, bodies shattered and sweat dripping from every limb (plus the Dads’ goalkeeper struggling to keep the score), the call went out for ‘next goal wins’. The Lads, sensing victory, launched a last bombardment but were repelled by the twin rocks of Ben ‘Edgar Davids’ Curson and the go-go gadget arms of ‘keeper Sutherden.

Renewed, the Dads assaulted the opposition goal with everything they had, forcing bodies, balls and buttocks to be thrown in the way by the exhausted Lads. And it was then, when the fire of the Dads seemed to have finally been extinguished that Pythagoras struck his cruellest blow.

Chambers, clearly desperate for a pint more than his soul was worth, allowed a harmless shot to bounce off two walls and into the path of a grateful, surprised and utterly clinical Roberts, who took revenge for all over-30s everywhere by gleefully burying the ball high into the gaping net.

7-6 to the Dads and cue the gloating. Until next time…

We do quite a few events for clients here at H&K. But the two day D2 conference is the biggest I have ever been involved with. Both for the power of the speakers on the agenda, and the wonderful range of clients and guests attending. I am not really nervous, because we have done so much prep, but I do hope my part goes well. I get to follow the opening keynote from Sir Martin Sorrell. Ok, so maybe I *am* a little nervous.

You should follow #HKD2 and @HK_London to see more content as it gets posted from the event.