City to host international social media conference
MUMBAI: Cynics sniff at the perils of social media, but for those who swear by the power of this medium, there’s reason to rejoice. From Monday to Friday, Mumbai will host the first Indian edition of Social Media Week (SMW), a five-day global social conference, currently in its fifth year. Besides Mumbai, nine other global cities, including London, Los Angeles and Barcelona, will simultaneously host the September version of this bi-annual conference.
“Despite low internet penetration rates, with 120 million-odd internet users, India has been on the radar for a while,” says Hemant Soreng, co-founder of R Square Consulting, the integrated marketing services agency that is organising the festival in India.
So when Crowdcentric, the New-york based strategy firm and the brains behind SMW approached Soreng’s firm, they mutually agreed on Mumbai for the conference’s maiden Indian session.
“We chose Mumbai over Delhi and Bangalore because besides being the country’s commercial and entertainment capital, it is also a more vibrant city,” says Soreng.
From Monday onwards, six city venues — including performance club Blue Frog, the National Centre for the Performance Arts, and, surprisingly, Mantralaya — will host more than 100 events. Most are free, but require online regis trations.
“It took us five months to pu the schedule together,” says R Square co-founder Rohit Varma “But the response has been amazing. When we approached the Mantralaya, for instance, we were pleased to receive a positive response. I think the governmen has realised the importance of social media as a channel to reach out to a larger audience.”
On the menu are panel discus sions, art and creative-writing workshops, social events and musical performances by flau tist Sriram Sampat and Urdu singer-songwriter Winit Tikoo among others.
As with other participating cities, Mumbai too has followed the community-driven crowd sourced format, allowing peo ple to apply online as speakers hosts, sponsors, volunteers and participants.