Social Media Week, London 2013

During Social Media Week 2013 Social Media Strategist will be running a flagship event that addresses social media, communities and digital legacy.

‘Death, Digital Demise, Community & Digital Legacy’ expands some of Social Media Strategist's ongoing research and development in this area and in the advancing own "DeadSocial software".

DeadSocial is the social networking tool that enables us to say “goodbye” posthumously to our friends and family. This allows us to say to leave a legacy and bring closure to our social networking accounts in our own unique and individual way.

‘Death, Digital Demise, Community & Digital Legacy’ is an event aiming to explore society’s changing attitudes and behavior in relation to ‘end of life’ and mourning. It will be examined from the context of todays’ connected world from a number of differing perspectives. The event will feature as part of ‘Social Media Week London’ (SMWLDN). This year’s SMWLDN’s theme is: ‘Open & Connected reflecting on the global impact of social media and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, political, economic and social change’.

Death, Digital Demise, Community & Digital Legacy has been tailored to investigate the role of social media in relation to end of life and how death and bereavement is being disrupted by technology. This will occur through a series of reflective and thought provoking presentations. The evening will commence and finish with networking, music, drinks and nibbles.

Event Speakers

James Norris is the CEO & Founder of DeadSocial & CEO of Social Media Strategist Ltd. DeadSocial is the social networking tool that enables us to create a series of messages. These are saved and then only distributed across the social web (currently supporting Facebook & Twitter) upon death. James will give an overview as to how death, grief and preparing for death have changed as a direct consequence of social media.

www.DeadSoci.al

Jon Underwood founded Death Cafe in 2011 based on the work of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz. Death Café’s are places where people talk openly about death and loss in a non-judgmental setting. Tea and cakes are served as standard. Death Cafes attract people from walks of life, nationalities and creed. Since 2011 there have been nearly 200 death cafes across the globe.\

www.DeathCafe.com

Dr Aaron Balick will explore death in today’s digital society referencing Freud’s work in relation to mourning, grief and time. Dr Aaron Balick is a UKCP registered integrative psychotherapist who provides one-to-one psychotherapy in London. He is also BBC Radio 1′s resident psychotherapist on Sunday night’s ‘The Surgery’. Aaron will explore death and grief from a multitude of different perspectives in relation to our fragmented yet connected world.

www.mindswork.co.uk

Stuart Arnott founded Mindings to help those suffering from dementia and loneliness. Mindings is a tablet application that helps those who may feel lonely and venerable receive media from various social networks, SMS etc directly to a tablet or connected device. The content is then displayed in a simple and clear way. Stuart will probe why technology is often overlooked as a way to combat loneliness, dementia and end of life care. Stuart will provide practical advice on how one can combat this based on the experience he has attained.

www.mindings.com

Lawrence Darani is a terminally ill adult philosopher & existentialist. His teachings and methodologies are largely inspired by Irvin D. Yaloms approach to Death. Since being diagnosed with a lung disease Lawrence has focused many of his workshops around “what specifically is it about death that frightens us”? Lawrence taught the BACP Diploma in Counselling at an East London College and is an experienced counselor who runs his own practice. Also as an ex Community Worker. He has run many workshops on community empowerment and currently runs his own training company Bread & Roses.

http://breadandrosescommunity.co.uk/

Jack Rooke is a young artist who attempts to dissemble death and grief through spoken word. Jack will deliver a short piece in-between each speaker’s session. Jack delves into the exploration, confusion and disruption that death and fear can have on one’s life. Jack’s work draws on his experiences from his memories as a child to experiences gained as an adult. Jack is a resident artist at the Camden Roundhouse, an ambassador for the male charity CALM.

www.jackrooke.tumblr.com

Hosts, Drinks & nibbles

This event has been organised and by curated by DeadSocial. Death and end of life is often overlooked within the digital realm, the objective of the event is to evoke awareness and evoke digital enlightenment.

www.DeadSoci.al

‘Death, Digital Demise, Community & Digital Legacy’ will take place in the main hub at the Camden Collective. This collaborative working space provides desk space for a number of innovative startups, businesses and creatives.

www.camdencollective.co.uk

Drinks and nibbles for the event will be supplied by Levertons Funeral Directors. Levertons are one of London’s oldest Funeral Directors in the UK and established by John Leverton in 1789.

www.levertons.co.uk

Tickets will be available from this page from here on the 13th August. Tickets can be attained by clicking here

Press wanting to attend should email info (at) deadsoci.al for further information and be first to attain high quality images from the event.

Literature from the National Council for Palliative Care & Dying Matters will be freely available. Dr Aaron Black’s latest book; The Psychodynamics of Social Networking (released during Social Media Week) will also be on sale.

You can find & share this event on Facebook & stay up to date with developments via Twitter

Blue Badge Style launches first mobile app for stylish, less-able people

Blue Badge Style a guide for a less able, stylish lifestyle, has launched a free mobile application for iPhone and Android (Blackberry app is on it's way). The app is aimed at stylish people with mobility issues (initially in London). The application identifies 'cool' venues near your location and uses its bespoke tick rating system to grade them on style, accessibility and facilities. The team plans to expand the Blue Badge Style offering throughout the UK and then the major European cities.

Founder Fiona Jarvis explains “mobility, or the lack of it, doesn’t mean that I’ve lost my sense of style, but I do want to know what to expect before I arrive at a venue. The Blue Badge Style app means that people with limited mobility and equally importantly, their friends, don’t have to be surprised or embarrassed by a lack of accessibility or facilities at a cool venue. It’s freedom shared!”

The Blue Badge Style app has been jointly developed by Stuxbot and UCL Advances, who offered to help at a recent UCL Mobile Academy course, believing the idea to be one which would improve the lives of people with disabilities. There are plans to introduce a Text To Speech version for the Blind. The aim is for Blue Badge Style to eventually include all disabilities.

As the UK population ages, people with temporary or permanent mobility issues are on the increase. Blue Badge Style estimates from government statistics, that up to 300,000 people in London have mobility issues. Founder, Fiona Jarvis wants to tap into this to create a community of like-minded people for whom style and disability are not mutually exclusive, and encourage them to rate their favourite restaurants, bars, shops, cafes, theatres etc. on Blue Badge Style. The tick rating system scores out of 5 for each category: 1.Access, 2.Facilities and 3.Style, so that users know exactly what to expect from each venue.

Fiona explains “Most people at some point in their life will experience periods of being less able. A sense of style does not diminish when this happens. If anything, it becomes more important”. She continues, “Style is the overriding premise of the website and app, along with a positive outlook on life. With this app you can easily see the best places near you, read our review, check the Blue Badge Style rating and get directions on how to get there. We’re also encouraging like-minded people to post their own reviews. We believe that decreased mobility need not stop you from enjoying a stylish life”.

*Social Media Strategist is currently providing Blue Badge Style with marketing support & user experience consultancy

UCL & Goldman Sachs 10ksb Social Media & SEO Workshops

James Norris will be running two sessions on Thursday 14th June for UCL & Goldman Sachs 10ksb program. The two workshops have a 30 minute break in between, however many of the areas addressed overlap. If you are able to attend both we recommend doing so. The first workshop 'Growing your Business with Social Media' will address using social networks and online tools from a business perspective. This will allow you to attain an insight into your business, raise its awareness and ultimately help you to achieve your goals (such as profit, downloads, enquiries etc).

Growing your Business with Social Media – Workshop 1 Thursday 14th June, 11.00am to 1.00pm

This workshop will teach those attending how to use specific online platforms and why they may want to use each one for their own business. There will be a series of short tasks for attendees to carry out during the workshop each lasting no longer then five minutes. We encourage attendees to (ideally) bring a laptop with them. If those attending do not have a laptop they may wish to bring a tablet or a notepad.

We expect all attendees to have a Facebook and Twitter account prior to the workshop. If you do not have an account for each please create them before the start of the workshop.

…..Light lunch provided 1.00 – 1.30pm

Getting your business "found in Google" using SEO, analytics and online tools – Workshop 2 Thursday 14th June, 1.30pm to 3.30pm

James Norris will be running two sessions on Thursday 14^th June for UCL & Goldman Sachs 10ksb program. The two workshops have a 30 minute break in between, however many of the areas addressed overlap. If you are able to attend both we recommend doing so.

This workshop Getting your business "found in Google" using SEO, analytics and online tools will begin with ‘an introduction to search engine optimization’ (SEO) presentation. This will show attendees how search engines (specifically Google) works and the criteria’s in which Google ranks websites for specific terms. The presentation will help attendees to think about factors that influence a website’s performance within search engines. After the presentation a number of SEO and analytic tools will be addressed. This will be carried out in a workshop format and attendees will be able to use a variety of free tools to get an idea of how their own website is performing. If attendees do not have a website they (in some circumstances) will be encouraged to use the tools to evaluate a company who could be seen as on of their competitors.

This will give attendees the knowledge and tools required to analyse their website’s performance and help increase the amount of relevant traffic to it. We encourage attendees to (ideally) bring a laptop with them. If attendees do not have a laptop they may wish to bring a tablet or a notepad.

About James Norris

James has devised and executed a range of different campaigns for brands and organisations including Channel 4, Nokia and Glastonbury Festival. He has also advised the Labour Party (Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Ken Livingston) about the state of the startup scene in the UK and troubles new businesses face in the current climate.

James is the founder the startup ‘DeadSocial’. DeadSocial attained support from UK Trade & Investment to announce the platform at SXSW in Texas earlier this year. DeadSocial has since enjoyed early success and recognition becoming a finalist at the London Web Summit 2012 before achieving a top four position at The Next Web & Microsoft’s ‘Startup Rally’ 2012 in Amsterdam in March.

More information about James can be found at: Social Media Strategist / DeadSocial / James’ Twitter account

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