“Startups, small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business”

Next step is for us to find speakers. If you have anyone in mind who you have heard speak before, or perhaps has a really interesting story to tell, please let us know. We are especially keen to get speakers from outside of the normal pool, and perhaps a couple of people who have had bad experiences with social media and digital PR.

Gavin Heaton, well known as Servant of Chaos, and a Social Media practioner within his own organisation will MC a Panel of experts discussing the topic.

The panel will include Dr. Glen Fuller, Assistant Events Manager at Gleebooks, and Napoleon Biggs the Hong Kong Based founder of Web Wednesday from Fleishman-Hillard.

We expect another vigorous yet respectful debate.

Questions might include;

• how can you turn a lone cheerleader into a Mexican Wave?
• how do you get buy-in from the CEO as well as opt-in from the overworked frontline team?
• Can you effect change on multiple fronts at once, or is it a case of picking your battles?
• Is using social technologies to share knowledge internally the most effective way to demonstrate their potential?

Feel free to add more in the comments section below!

In addition to our top-notch panel, we are delighted to announce our Charity Partner for this months Event.

This month’s donations  will go to Fictillimanjaro. Evan Smith is climbing Mt Kilimanjaro to help raise funds for the Humpy Dumpty Foundation and is using Social Media to document his efforts

The Humpy Dumpty Foundation purchases vital medical equipment for children’s hospitals right across Australia and now also in East Timor. Check their website to see more about their work.

Tickets for Digicitz 4 are available now for just $10, half of which will be donated to the Humpty Dumpty Foundation.

About our Panellists

Gavin is the author of Servant of Chaos, one of Australia’s leading marketing blogs. He is the co-publisher of the ground-breaking collaborative marketing book, Age of Conversation. Gavin has worked in agencies, but is currently holed up on the client side.

Gavin is an in demand speaker on topics around Social Media, Marketing and Community. Recently has spoke at the following events:

• MarketingNow! – lead generation, community and social media
• ADMA – diving into social media
• AdTech – the relevance of twitter

Napoleon has worked for 17 years in media in Asia, 13 years on the Internet, 4 years in social media, 9 months in Fleishman-Hillard and 2 days in Sydney.

As the founder and host of Web Wednesday, an independent networking community for Asian digerati, with monthly gatherings in Hong Kong, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, Napoleon is more accustomed to moderating than speaking.

He heads up Digital Integration across Asia Pacific for Fleishman-Hillard and is based in Hong Kong.

One of Napoleon’s key topics will be “Will Social Media Kill the Corporate Intranet?”

Company intranets are typically clunky and badly structured. It’s an ongoing challenge to get users to effectively engage with them, share information, brainstorm ideas, and find relevant content. Will social media become a more effective way to share ideas and manage knowledge within your company?

Our MC’s

Our Panellists

What’s Hot?

Next Up

Don’t Wait!

(You may need to use headphones for this video. Sound is a little quiet at points.)

Thank You

Firstly, as you know we canvassed for donations last night. And are delighted to announce that last night we raised $640 from the attendees.

Humble is a word which comes to mind when we wrote that number.

We thank you wholeheartedly for generously donating almost $1000 over two events. And we want to be sure you are aware about what we are doing with those donations.

Thanks to those who took the time to come and see us afterwards to discuss opportunities for investing those donations in worthwhile causes. We’ll be following up with you in the next few days to plan our strategies. Once we do that, we’ll be updating you all with the details of where your donations are working.

The Future

When we first asked for donations at Social Media for Social Good, our rationale was partly to ensure we weren’t out of pocket and partly to share your potential generosity with those less fortunate than us. As we felt we were hosting these events for everyones benefit, we felt sure we could cover our minimal costs from those donations and, depending on your generosity, make substantial donations to charity on your behalf.

We realise, however, the arbitrary nature of how we have asked for those donations can’t continue. So for future events we want to change tack.

Partners for Social Good

We would like to ask you and any other interested parties to suggest charities or NFPs we should consider partnering with at each event. Remembering, we would like to reserve some of the donations for Kiva, as we talked about last night.

There is a forum topic on the subject so we can canvas your opinions. Once we get your feedback we’ll add a poll here so you can decide who you think we should partner with in advance of each event.

Partners for Successful Events

Secondly, and while we would love to continue to put our hands in our pockets ourselves and/or ask for donations at the door, we are asking now for sponsors to cover costs of events.

We suggest that sponsorship could be in kind. For example, generously providing Lighting and Video services as the wonderful @bluntnate has done for each of the first three events. Or in Dollars. For example, supporting the panellists and other contributors with food and drink for the evening.

Areas of opportunity to partner with Digital Citizens events we currently see are;

• Sponsor the Panellists
• Sponsor the Bar
• Sponsor Food
• Sponsor the Venue (bearing in mind we love the Burdekin!)
• Sponsor the networking
• Sponsor the streaming feed
• other suggestions

Pay your own way

Alternatively, you might think we should just ask for a small fee at the door. We then use that money to pay for some of the above with the remainder to go to charity. The facts are though, for us to do that involves setting up bank accounts. To set up bank accounts we need to register as some sort of organisation with the ATO/ASIC/etc. and each one of those registrations costs money.

Keep in Touch

Everyone who attends our events is a stakeholder and we’d love your views on the above. You are always free to get in touch with us individually or by commenting on this or any other post or topic.

Again, many thanks for your support up to now and if we don’t talk to you in the next few weeks, make sure you come and say hello on the 15th of June when we do it all over again

Speakers included Karalee Evans, Mark Chenery, Nic McKay and David Hood, and was moderated by Alan Jones.