This story from the BBC’s Click has me more bemused than anything else.
From the story:
Graham Steele travelled from Australia to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York to find out about changing trends on the net.
His motivation was getting help to update the site he runs, itineraryshare.com, so it matches the new generation of websites in terms of design, applications and interactivity.
Why would you need to go all the way to New York to find out this information? Sure, Web 2.0 Expo is a pretty slick conference to attend and all the cool kids go, but really…
I can think of a good half-dozen people, not including me, that Graham Steele could have found to give him advice without travelling. Let’s see… Laurel Papworth, Trevor Cook, Lee Hopkins, Bronwen Clune, Michael Specht, Gavin Heaton, James Dellow, Chris Saad, Kate Carruthers… Need I go on?
Notionally, we’re all competitors, for a loose definition of the term “competition”, but we’re all also friends, at the very least professionally and often personally. I’m sure that in the spirit of Twitter Agency, cluetrain and eating our own dog food any of us would be happy to team up for work as well if a client wanted depth and diversity of opinion.
The Australian social media/social network/Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 strategic advice market is getting progressively richer and there are many good people to be found. The epicenter is certainly Sydney, but I think that’s a population issue more than anything else – there are people I can think of in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne as well as me in Canberra.
Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is having you on.
Hat tip to Laurel for tweeting the original story.
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Classic case of its better over there, as in Overseas. Always pays to look in your backyard first.
However often it can be a lack of engaging the right network of people to be able to find the community you are looking for. Hence people will gravitate to the extreme high profiles they know about.
I’ve seen this time and time again with people looking for resources without realising the people they need to speak to are right in front of them.
I wonder whether it’s more fun justifying a tax-write-off trip to New York than a tax-write-off bus fare to meet up with any of the local experts.
I agree that the services Graham was looking for might be available in Australia – but I think it’s worth noting that you’re commenting on an article, written by a UK paper, on a conference held in New York. I’d suggest the publicity alone would make that worth it – wouldn’t you?
Justin, yes, Graham Steele has grabbed himself a bunch of undeserved publicity.
Although I’d agree with your tweet – he’s probably there for the person-to-person networking, which is smart.
Absolutely it’s all about the people you meet – but the publicity doesn’t hurt either!
Hey there. I have just skyped Stephen about this story. I have over 20 years of international, high end TV production experience, and lived in NYC for 12 years, and was going to the USA for a few reasons, and decided to go to the expo whilst there and actually learned tonnes of stuff from some really cool, smart people. I would agree with what Mr Kerr-Stevens says… Pretty amazing PR?? Cheers for the comments and would love to hook up with any of you guys.
I think Stephen hits the nail right on the head with “but I think that’s a population issue more than anything else”. The US has at least 15 times the population of Australia, in fact the equivalent of the entire population of Australia lives within 50 miles of NY. Also NYs proximity to other high population countries and other factors make it a great place for concentrating lots of knowledge and experience.
Given the opportunity why wouldn’t you take advantage of that? Seeking knowledge from people outside Australia does not equate with people in Australia have nothing worth saying?
Fair’s fair – I, like other Aussie social network/web 2.0 strategists, consult to New York companies. We were even able to have @PaullYoung transported from Australia to NY for crimes against The Social Web. Heh.
Umm, don’t tell him I said that. *whimpers*
By the way if that is the conference that Shel Israel (Naked Conversations) was speaking at, then he mentioned an Australian woman who went to Saudi Arabia to teach social media to Arabic women. Me, in other words.
Next time, have Twitter take up a collection and send us, Steven, we’ll have a wow of a time, and report back through our blogs and Twitter on the experience.
… Stephen. not Steven. I shoulda stuck with how I think of you …. TRIB.
https://www.aimia.com.au/i-cms_file?page=2470/NY_Digital_Media_Mission_Brochure_final.pdf
Ah that explains a lot – AIMIA call social media “a bandwagon” (search the term) and don’t play well with non-interactive but social media consultants.
We do have the odd event that ain’t to bad here too I hear
http://webdirections.org
http://www.tourcms.com/blog/2008/10/14/what-would-you-change-with-the-itinerary-share-site/