Recap: Digital Henley Networking Event – Getting Social

The excellent 3rd Digital Henley Event took place this week on Wed 27th Jan, superbly organised by Redberry Digital via Meetup.

Around 100 delegates (is that the right word…maybe participants is less formal?) packed into the function suite at The Red Lion Hotel in Henley to hear industry experts present on the evening’s theme of ‘Getting Social’.

Over the course of the evening there was plenty of time for networking, and in between, 2 Keynote speakers (30 mins each) and 3 Microslot speakers (10 mins each) entertained and informed the delegates/participants (you decide).

I tried to summarise the key takeaways [see below] although maybe ‘memorise’ would be more appropriate, since for once (shock, horror!) I didn’t have a good ‘ol fashioned pen & paper with me….there are still some occasions when ‘Old School’ trumps ‘Digital’!

Keynote Speakers

Myles Dyer – ‘Youtube as a Vehicle for Social Change’

If content is King then context is God

• Global reach of Youtube allows the world to be treated as one community; e.g. no excuse for missing 24 hour telethons!
• If broadcasting globally, think globally in terms of causes; e.g. UNICEF rather than a local charity

Paul Smyth – ‘Mobile in the Developing World’

Every person in China is on web chat

• Screens look very different in Asia v West = cluttered, lots of flashing lights (Asia) v streamlined & ordered hierarchies (West)
• The modern Customer Journey – Search / Evaluate / Buy / Advocate – has many digital touchpoints

Microslots

Charlie Lawrance – ‘Twitter: The most Misunderstood Social Nework’

Is 10,000 characters too muc…..”

• The need to maintain Twitter’s share price v going against Twitter’s very own DNA
• ‘Read More’ option wouldn’t be so bad
• People now tweet to complain to companies (they answer much quicker) so a 10,000 character option would allow for companies to solve customer problems on Twitter without having to take the conversation elsewhere

Rob Barnes – ‘Personalisation Beyond Automation’

Software is eating the world Marc Andresson

• Tech companies are increasingly jettisoning other businesses to move into software; e.g. HP mooting selling PC division
• Could be restated as ‘Mobile is eating the world’?
• Our concentration span is now officially 8 seconds v goldfish 9 seconds, so mobile content needs to be eye-catching to stand any chance!

Omer Sawelbeit – ‘Cloud and Social are all you need to go Big’

• The ‘Takeaway Pizza’ diagram describes the different elements of the Cloud far better than a lot of complex jargon!

Next Digital Meetup : Wednesday 4th May