June 25, 2013
The team have just returned from a week of handling the social media for our client IBM and their #SmarterCommerce conference. We worked hard, partied harder and didn’t sleep much. What else would you expect when in Monaco? It was long nights and social media collaboration heaven!
True, we will miss the social media buzz. It started from the moment people began to arrive for the conference – using Foursquare to check-in to hotels and airports – building to a crescendo during the real-time re-enactment of key note speeches by the likes of Karen Brady, Sir Terry Leahy and David Nour…but I will particularly miss the buzz of walking into the events room each morning. So full of people excitedly going about their business of organising hotels and coaches, sorting out IT, reviewing photography, editing video, finalising catering, and everything else it takes to host such a large scale event!
Having finally recovered from the late nights I reflected on why it went so well (in a Quantum of Solace, you might say). It boils down to this: teamwork and tolerance.
We were welcomed with open arms by event agency GPJ, so from the off we felt part of the bigger team. Crucially, these guys know what they are doing – they were so professional and so well organised, despite the pressures of running a massive event with over 2,000 delegates – that it was like watching a well-oiled machine, with a sense of humour!
Teamwork meant social media was beautifully integrated and tolerance meant there was a real synergy between colleagues. Social media became a source of news and intelligence, “Guys, Twitter says the traffic is bad and holding up the coaches” or “Wifi has dropped in Breakout Room 13”.
The team was able to act on the information immediately. Social allowed rapid communication with delegates; from mass messages about venue changes, down to answering queries from individuals about when lunch is served. Even with photography, we worked closely with Sean Ebsworth Barnes to have top quality images turned around quickly for the insatiable social media machine!
And even after a hard few days social media-ing, you could always rely on the IF social media team (above), @ashappyasannie, @KateAEglinton and @AlexandraSarahB, to be the last on the dance floor at the James Bond theme party (and the first down for breakfast)! After all, You Only Live Twice!
© Sean Ebsworth Barnes “James Bond.” Photo. June 2013