Searching for a venue for UAE Social Media Day 2011

I am a strong believer in social media (in case you hadn't noticed) and I thought that as the second year of helping to bring the community together, I wanted to see if we could find a slightly bigger venue since The Shelter was not available.

Our requirements were quite specific (though simple I thought). Social media, as far as I was concerned was about linking to the community and this is defined differently for everyone. For me - its about everyone in UAE connected in one form or the other. So having discussed it with fellow tweeps - @wildpeeta, @alexandermcnabb and a few others - we thought we would continue last year's theme of promoting small businesses - give them a fillip as it were and show them what social media was about and how it could help them. So to sum up - here is what we needed:

• a venue that would accommodate around 250 -300 people (we figured that if we had around 200+ last year, we should have as many if not more this year since there were many more adopting social media

• have free wifi

• allow small businesses to show their products/services and sell if anyone is interested

• And above all - to be free

Last year - in true social media style - no money changed hands (okay there were small expenses my company absorbed) but in principal there was no money exchanged. Everything was crowdsourced through the social media community and that included promoting the event, finding a venue, photography, recruiting volunteers to update on social media, and all the many tasks that needed doing. And this year we did the same.

We researched venues and spoke to people based on suggestions from them and after much to-ing and fro-ing we finally settled on WildPeeta - for just one reason. He understood exactly what I needed and he believes, like I do, that its about giving the community the opportunity to express themselves as freely as possible.

So I thank Monarch hotel, Hilton Jumeirah, and Kempinsky Dubai for their time and their offers. Perhaps they will join us to see that what I was looking for was not entirely impossible.

I have fun working with the community (despite a few snide comments) but next year - I think its someone else's turn to organise and take over social media day. And I'll just volunteer. Any volunteers?

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Ashish Panjabi - Blogging with Training Wheels: Humanizing the Petrol Crisis

via ashishpanjabi.blogspot.com

I have to agree with @apanjabi the human cost to this crisis seems to have escaped the authorities while they're commenting on the weather!

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Google can be so anal

Image via CrunchBase

As a compromise between open source and the proprietary Microsoft, I thought I would use Google Apps. Its free, relatively open source and it means that I don't have to make a radical change during a busy time. 

Guess what - you have to jump through hoops to get something that simple. Oh and the most annoying thing, I can't use my existing email and need to set up a new one because I use it to access some google apps with it already.

I know this is not making sense but I'm just too annoyed with niggly stuff...

Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

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A Social Business Example….Taxi Edition : Never Stop Marketing

Following up on yesterday’s post on Envisioning the Social Business, here’s a quick example from my recent stay at the Courtyard Marriott in Mississauga, Ontario.

Now, you could easily dismiss this example as “obvious,” “doing right by the customer” or just “good customer service,” but since this type of story is the exception rather than the rule, it’s worth sharing.

I stopped by the front desk on my way to the exercise room at 6.30am and asked to arrange for a taxi.

“Where are you going?”

“To the Microsoft offices.”

“Sir, our shuttle can take you there for free.”

“Great! I’ll take it at 7.30 please.”

Returning at 7.30am, I went outside and found….nothing.

I went back to the desk clerk and inquired.

Now, let’s hit pause here…

What kind of reaction could you possibly expect at this moment?

Would you be ready for some type of confrontation?

I’ll wait.

Ok, back to our story.

The attendant (now a different person) said, “I’m sorry sir, it seems like the shuttle has left and I apologize for that.  You can take a cab and we are happy to pay for it.”

That was it.

No issue.

Now, it’s not like the $10 (that’s Canadian) was going to break me, but it was a SOCIAL move in that, “we said we were going to do something, so we’ll do it.”

No “I need to talk to my manager.”

No “I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to wait.”

No “I didn’t know about your request for the shuttle.”

Did it cost them $10? Yes.

Was it worth it to make sure that I would FEEL good about them?

I think so.

What’s the ROI on it?

No idea.

The Lesson: Empower everyone in the organization to put themselves in the customer’s shoes and ask “how would I feel in this position and what resolution would make me feel good?”…and then, most importantly, to do something about it.

via jer979.com

Oh my goodness - this is so true and so rare. I think business owners don't empower their employees enough and too many employees are afraid to make these decisions and take responsibility for it.

I hope this post will help a few employers and employees to pause and think about their customer and not just the wallet!

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