Simon Mainwaring:#140conf LA meet-up: Social media inspiring social change

This week I had the pleasure of speaking at Jeff Pulver’s #140conf meet-up in LA. It was held in the Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd (which is why I start by kissing the stage floor to honor the Comedy Gods).

The event was remarkable because of the great information that was shared but even more so because of the spirit that inhabited the room. The event Jeff and Eric Greenspan put together epitomized the best of social media -- smart, like-minded and well-intended people coming together to see what positive change they can create. (I explore examples of ways to do this here that may be helpful.)

After Jeff and Eric spoke (click the links to see their talks), there were two other speakers that were brilliant examples of this. Angela Shelton shared her powerful personal story that started out with her trying to make a comedy film and ending up exposing a tragic culture of child trafficking here in the U.S.. It’s little wonder that the film went on to be a social media phenomenon. Then the wonderful oncologist, @krupali shared her stories about how social media has helped to provide financial assistance to cancer patients desperately in need of treatment. We then had a spontaneous demonstration of this live in the room as money poured to the front of the room from attendees to enable a sick patient to fly across the country for life saving care. Truly inspiring stuff and I’ll post links to both their videos as soon as they’re up.

For my part, I spoke about ‘Timeless Truths of the Real Time Web’ and I thought I’d share it here. Sorry if the camera angle and sound is, well, stand-up comedy-esque. In case it’s helpful, I’ve added a breakdown of the key points below with additional links to deep dives on each topic. As always, I’d love to know your thoughts.

5 CONVERGING TRENDS

i) Social media

ii) Mobile

iii) Location based systems

iv) In-store apps

v) Social web

4 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

i) Definition

ii) Values

iii) Purpose

iv) Dialogue

3 RULES TO REMEMBER

i) Find the human in the technology

ii) When you own the relationship you own everything

iii) The successful companies of the future will be distinguished by the quality of listening.....Simon Mainwaring