The document discusses United Nations Global Pulse's participation in Social Media Week in February 2011. It outlines the strategic considerations for participating, challenges in organizing an event in one month, and a strategy of developing a compelling narrative, provocative title, and inviting high-profile speakers. The event included three panel discussions on real-time technology topics and lessons learned centered around speaker preparation and promoting discussion.

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Social Media Week,
February 2011
Strategic considerations and lessons learned
Chris van der Walt
Strategic Communications Advisor
United Nations Global Pulse
Monday, May 9, 2011

2. FEBRUARY 7-11, 2011
#openun #smwnyc
Monday, May 9, 2011

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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
Monday, May 9, 2011

4. 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

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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?
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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.
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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
Monday, May 9, 2011

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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?
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Design a compelling title
Provocative
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Design a compelling title
Sexy
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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)
Monday, May 9, 2011

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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)
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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)
Monday, May 9, 2011

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Engage a good moderator
David A. Brancaccio
Journalist. Host of the Public Radio business
program Marketplace and the PBS newsmagazine
NOW.
Monday, May 9, 2011

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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
Monday, May 9, 2011

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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
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On the day(s)...
• Catering
• Live tweet
• Blog
• Photographer
• Video interviews
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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...
Monday, May 9, 2011

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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
Monday, May 9, 2011

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Thank you!!
www.unglobalpulse.org
@UNGlobalPulse
www.facebook.com/UNGlobalPulse
http://www.youtube.com/unglobalpulse
Monday, May 9, 2011