Social Media Week NYC is underway, educating the faithful with concrete lessons and priceless tips. All week long panels and parties are being held citywide at many of our favorite bars who are already heavily imbedded in the social sphere. On Tuesday night the LocalBozo.com team made our way to Idle Hands Bar, a seriously social Avenue B watering hole for the Social Media Week event titled, “Doing It Live: The Integration of Social in Live Events.” The sold out, standing room only event was produced by the innovative team from TBA Global.

At 6pm we descended the stairs into the popular basement craft beer and bourbon bar. The bar was completed packed with social media fanatics sipping beers, tweeting and networking with each other. After a few beers and business card exchanges later, the highly talented panel of social media and event planning experts took to the stage for what would be a highly exciting and extremely informative conversation. The span of the event was to convey how our virtual lives are now interwoven with our real lives due to this popular form of media. The “Doing It Live” panel would set out to discuss the powerful role this convergence plays in live experiences and events, where social media generates awareness and drives brand impact both inside and outside of the event. The highly esteemed panel would included: Ben Hindman (SplashThat), Bridget Carey (CNET), Shawn Busteed (TBA Global), and David Adler (BizBash). And the panel was moderated by Lauren Drell of Mashable.

With a huge smile upon her face, Lauren Drell kicked off the panel with introductions from each guest. And with little time to spare the conversation began. Instead of a traditional question and answer format, Ms. Drell set up a topic and the panel just started to riff on it. Ben Hindman of SplashThat wasted nary a moment to discuss hard nosed facts pertaining to the connection between the social and live event world. Mr. Hindman did not mince words as he stated the importance for events to occur with a natural flow with a defined message. In a humorous and quite true way he said that many events and or parties will not be exciting. But it is the job of the producer and their social media team to put up pictures that make everyone in attendance look as awesome as possible. When prompted about things producers should avoid, he said to never send out post event surveys because no one is going to want to do paperwork. Amen to that!

CNET’s, Bridget Carey made it clear how imperative it is for each event to choose every tweet and hashtag wisely in order to convey a clear and efficient message. Ms. Carey would go on to say each event hashtag must be kept short and concise so your guests can easily spread the message onto the virtual social sphere. TBA Global’s Shawn Busteed would back up this idea of establishing clear lines of communication in a way that appears to be a no brainer, yet so many of us are guilty of doing the opposite. Shawn opened a lot of eyes and minds in the house by telling all to only use the social media sites and Apps that apply to your event. Basically, don’t waste your time. If you ask me he hit the nail right on the head.

Social Media Week is an extremely valulable resourse to anyone who has embraced this budding form of media as a career and newbies alike. Our outlet is growing everyday, but it is important for us to attend such events simply for the act of learning how to be better. We encourage all of you to head over to their website and see what appeals to you.

 - Jay Rubin