I spent the first two days of last week at the excellent Digital 2015 conference held at the magnificent Celtic Manor Resort. It was a well organised, attractively staged event with a plethora of speakers and sessions on a variety of digital topics. The good thing about events like these is that you can spend some of the time seeking out content that is not directly connected with one’s own speciality.
The main areas of discussion were Digital Skills, Digital Entrepreneurs, Digital Innovation and Digital Showcase. I had the great pleasure of delivering a morning of Master Classes on the use of Twitter for Business under the Digital Skills banner.
A couple of the stand-out moments for me were both days’ keynote speakers. On the first day Ian Livingstone, co-founder of the Games Workshop spoke with huge passion about the need for youngsters to be equipped with the skills to operate in the digital age. He talked about the value of “play in learning” and the fact that “collaborating is not cheating”, if only my Geography teacher had appreciated that in 1976. It was an eye-opener to realise that the modern education system is lagging a long way behind digital trends and innovations and that the curriculum as it stands needs to be changed urgently if the digital skills shortage is to be addressed.
On the second day, Anthony Vanky from MIT showcased some of the work his “senseable” Lab at the University is doing to understand how the proliferation of digital devices and telecommunication networks are impacting urban living and how we manage our cities accordingly. It was fascinating looking at studies showing real-time examples of how digital innovation is being used to study the relationship between cities, people and technologies.
The Cyber Security sessions I attended showed how it’s possible for Governmental websites to be taken down from an android mobile device and how many websites at any given time are being “defaced” by web activists. It’s extraordinary to realise that any site at any time can be damaged beyond repair or recognition with a few lines of code from a device as small as a mobile phone.
There were terrific sessions too by the people from Google, Nudjed, S4C and BBC Wales.
I thoroughly enjoyed my part of the event as well and should thank everyone who came along to my Master Classes. I covered “Twitter for Business”, why it’s a good platform to use, the benefits of using it, how to craft an effective profile, in fact I wrote a blog on that very subject “It’s All In The Profile” just a few weeks ago, and a few examples of when it’s all gone a bit wrong. Everyone went away with some “Top Twitter Take-Aways” (that’s the radio person in me, we love alliteration).
It was good to talk to a few who had come along afterwards and I truly appreciate the kind comments at the event and on Twitter afterwards.
Those which especially pleased me were the ones which noted a “common sense” approach to using the platform. I like to think that I talk about Social Media communication is a straight-forward way without resorting to some of the unnecessary buzzwords and “science” that others purvey.
As I wrote in another blog “They Blinded Me With Science”, in the first instance it’s about communication, through effective communication you can inform, entertain, showcase, impress and yes of course, market.
A thoroughly enjoyable two days full of terrific content and interesting people. Let’s hope Digital 2016 is an even bigger and better event.
The Endless Enigma 