The world’s foremost experts and influencers of social media from across the globe — including politicians, diplomats and authors — will gather in Mumbai for the country’s third and the city’s second edition of the Social Media Week (SMW 2014). To be held between September 22 and 26, the theme this year will be ‘Social Media for Social Change’.
The organisers have announced a diverse list of speakers including diplomats and political experts such as head of News, Politics & Govt @TwitterIndia Raheel Khursheed, Indian Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt Navdeep Suri.
The list also includes representatives from the country’s largest corporations and experts in social media such as Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly, president and country head of OgilvyOne Worldwide (India) Vikram Menon, co-founder of 1+99 Experience Consulting Anaggh Desai, chairman of Manipal Group Mohandas Pai and Forbes #1 Social Media influencer and co-founder of the Huffington Post “Twitter Powerhouses Series” Sean Gardner.
Organisers said the event will see the speakers delve into their own experiences to share their knowledge and insights through various sessions, including those on managing diplomacy through social media, social media and politics and building a career in social media. “I’m very excited to see organisations and brands from different industries coming on board to curate sessions and make it the biggest crowd-sourced festival. I look forward to the five days of social media festivity. I’m quite sure that there is a lot more awaiting the audience,” said Rohit Varma, founder and managing partner, R SQUARE Consulting Services Pvt Ltd.
SMW 2014 will take place in 12 cities simultaneously — Berlin, Chicago, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Mumbai, Rome, Rotterdam, São Paulo, Sydney, Toronto. All the high-powered events will be streamed live for audience across the globe. The SMW schedule is live at http://socialmediaweek.org/mumbai/schedule/ now.
The event is aimed at focusing on the way digital India thinks and functions and links to social change. “We are looking forward to engaging with marquee speakers at this platform, which connects people across borders and backgrounds; this year’s theme of the impact of social media on social change, will definitely bring to light, some interesting perspectives on how digital India thinks,” said Nikhil Dey, president (public relations) at Genesis Burson-Marsteller.
The rapid growth of the initiative is reflected in the interest it has generated in sponsors, partners and speakers — with companies such as Microsoft (City Support Sponsor), Germin8, Unmetric, KPMG, UL and Wrangler coming forward to support the event.
While elucidating the manner in which Social Media Week acts as a platform for dissemination and sharing knowledge, C V L Srinivas CEO GroupM South Asia, said, “After a successful opening year in Mumbai and Bangalore in 2013, SMW is lining up an exciting fare this year. As social media channels proliferate and become meeting grounds of brands and consumers, SMW provides a great platform for enhancing knowledge and sharing best practices.”
In addition, SMW has partnered with leading media and integrated communication agencies, including The Express Group, Social@Ogilvy, Chlorophyll, UB, TiE Mumbai, BlogAdda, The Indian Networker, Construkt festival, mXm India, PageTraffic, AVID Learning, Yellow Seed Content Solutions, April broadcast, DMA (Dgital Market Asia), Plush Plaza, Fratelli wines and Steerttalk, to organise the event in India.
