I’m attending two major conferences in the next month, in different parts of the world and for very different reasons.

Craig Wilson & Guy Kawasaki at SXSWi 2009

Its easy to dismiss conferences these days, probably because there are so many of them, especially around marketing, social media and tech. I’m fairly confident I could fill up most of my year attending all the industry conferences that hit my inbox. On top of that there are the regular social media and tech get-togethers, like Social Media Club and Digital Citizens. The options are endless, and for many who attend numerous events each year it is easy to become complacent and dismissive of the content. For industry “veterans” much of the information is considered basic or already familiar.

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A few years ago we all arrived at the office to discover it had been ransacked. Windows smashed and half the computers stolen. Fortunately all our work had been backed up and insurance covered the theft, but it was a major disruption to the business all the same. We had to order new equipment, reinstall programs and get back up to speed on the projects that were in play at the time. All-in-all I reckon we lost at least a week’s productivity.

One thing business owners must constantly ask themselves is “what would happen if…?”

What would happen if a key person left?

What would happen if a key client left?

What would happen if the office was broken into / burnt down / flooded?

At least these days I feel we have the last questions solved. Office disruption would be greatly reduced at Sticky due to the fact that we predominantly use applications and systems in the cloud.

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A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• The number of members of LinkedIn with the title vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in 2005-09. Source: The Economist

• Five months after it was launched, users of Blippy – a Twitter-like service that broadcasts what people buy – share $1.5 million in transactions every week. Source: Washington Post

• Research pegs the total U.S. social media audience at 127 million. Source: Ad Week

• Around 20% of all online transactions now take place over so-called alternative payment systems – bypassing banks and credit cards. Source: Wired Magazine

• By 2020 the internet will add $3.8 trillion (£2.5 trillion) to the global economy, exceeding the gross domestic product of Germany. Source: BBC News

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We’ve just posted a new position available at Sticky. This is an excellent entry level opportunity based in our Newcastle office for a digital native looking to break into the industry.

Blue chip clients, interesting work, fun environment.

Don’t dawdle, this position will go fast. Visit the agency site for details.

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Friday 15 October 2010 is Blog Action Day – and this year’s focus is water. To participate in Blog Action Day, you simply register your blog and then write a post.

WHAT can you write about? Here’s where Age of Conversation comes in!

Coincidentally, our chosen charity for this edition of the Age of Conversation is Charity: Water, who are also one of the participating partners for Blog Action Day. So what we’d like you to do is to help us with a Bum Rush on the Amazon charts – generate sales for AoC3 and raise money for charity: water.

By writing about Age of Conversation 3 and our chosen charity you manage to promote Blog Action Day, charity:water and help sales of the book. Its win-win all round.

Or just buy the book anyway. Its a great read and is chock-a-block with amazing advice and insights from some of the world’s leading marketers. Buy one for the kids, buy one for you grandma and buy a few for your office.

• Kindle Version
• Paperback Version
• Hardcover Version

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.

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Earlier this year we were involved in the publication of the collaborative marketing book Age of Conversation 3: Its time to get busy.

Join the Age of Conversation

The book has gained plenty of attention but this Friday 15 October we want to dial it all the way up to 11 with a concerted online effort of promotion and sales.

Friday is Blog Action Day – and this year’s focus for Blog Action Day is water. To participate in Blog Action Day, you simply register your blog and then write a post. BUT what can you write about? Here’s where Age of Conversation comes in!

You see, our chosen charity for this edition of the Age of Conversation is Charity: Water, who are also one of the participating partners for Blog Action Day. So what we’d like you to do is to help us with a Bum Rush on the Amazon charts – generate sales for AoC3 and raise money for charity: water.

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.

Amazingly, just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years. An average water project costs $5,000 and can serve 250 people with clean, safe water – so purchasing a copy of the Age of Conversation 3 really can make a difference to someone’s life!

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Generation Z are true digital natives

Two years ago I explained “Why my kids will be the death of traditional media” whilst I watched my sons effortlessly move between their armoury of digital playthings.

Two years later and they are even more web savvy and connected. My eight year-old now blogs from his Posterous site, displaying the latest videos he shot on a Flip Camera, edited himself on iMovie and posted to YouTube. He creates his own video games using Sploder and embeds them into his blog, which in less than a month has attracted thousands of views.

His friends are also digital natives who all chat online after school and rarely watch free-to-air TV. They download music and apps to their iPods and never turn on the radio.

Which brings me to a new study by Habbo Hotel, the world’s largest virtual community for teens, into Generation Z and their expectations for the future digital economy. The survey of more than 49,000 Australian children aged 11-18 found that the majority (55%) of respondents believe that the digital world will make traditional printed books, newspapers and magazines extinct, whilst, only 38% disagree.

Here are the major findings:

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A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• It took Facebook 5 years to garner its first 150 million users but just 8 months to double that number. Source: The Economist

• An average of 247 billion email messages per day were sent in 2009. Source: Pingdom

• The average Internet user in the US watches 182 online videos in a month. Source: Pingdom

• During the iPad launch, Apple announced it had recently sold its 250 millionth iPod. Source: BBC News

• Yahoo Mail has 106 million monthly users worldwide. Source: The Economist

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These days we take social media for granted. For many of us its just become a natural part of our day and even our work. Its fast, its dynamic and it can be highly stimulating.

But what if we couldn’t use social media?

Social communication is one of the biggest challenges for people with autism. Now autism charities in more than 40 countries are joining forces to launch a global campaign challenging the world?s 4.5 billion social media users to shutdown their networks just for one day.

The Communication Shutdown campaign encourages social media users to make a donation and receive a charity app, or CHAPP, that will signal their support and intention to opt out of Facebook and Twitter on 1 November.

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Google TV is on the way and could be one of the biggest interruptions to traditional media ever. Its all about total media convergence. The best of the web, TV and social networking all through the dominant household screen. It’ll be interesting to see how Google TV catches on and whether the big players in Australian media will be able to thwart its growth.

This first video is an introduction to Google TV while the second video demonstrates apps for Google TV.

Game changer? Quite possibly.

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