NLab’s social networks conference

NLab is a lab developed by the Faculty of the Humanities of De Montfort University in Leicester, UK to connect creative businesses with writers and generate pioneering partnerships.

In June they organised a very interesting one-day conference on social networks (blog), addressing the following four future-oriented questions:

• What is a social network and how can it generate wealth for your business?
• How can social networks increase creativity and why is that important?
• How will social networks affect the future of your company?
• What can you do right now to benefit your business?

Videos are now online:

Opening address (video)
David Asch, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at De Montfort University

Social networking for small businesses – lessons from Microsoft? (video)
Steve Clayton, Microsoft International
Microsoft is hardly a small business so what can they offer in terms of advice on how small businesses can use Social Networking? Steve Clayton works for Microsoft International on their Software + Services strategy and is a veritable social network butterfly – dancing between Facebook, Twitter and his blog by the minute. Come along to hear his thoughts on how his experiences can be applied to Small Business.
Blog post

Are online social networks the new cities? (video)
Roland Harwood, Open Innovation, NESTA
Cities are the traditional meeting point for financial, social and cultural centres. How are the development of online networks changing the mode and quality of human interactions, and the economic, social and cultural activities of on and off-line communities?
[Or as worded on the NESTA Connect blog: “Cities arn’t just simply analogous to social networks, but rather some of the functions that cities provide (proximity, economies of scale, random interaction etc) are now increasingly being provided by social networks. And most importantly, we are only just beginning to see the impact on our cities and places which will be profoundly impacted by the web, just as they have been historically by other disruptive technologies.”]
Blog post

The future of work: amplified individuals, amplified organisations (video)
Andrea Saveri, Institute for the Future
New technologies of cooperation are combining to create a generation of amplified individuals – workplace superheroes. In some cases they will compete with organizational model; in others they will amplify the capabilities of organisations where they already work. But are you amplified? How will key trends shaping work amplify your work and your organization? The Institute for the Future, a long-established Silicon Valley thinktank, has identified six major drivers of change.
Blog post 1 | Blog post 2 | Blog post 3 | Presentation download

Bioteams: what can we learn from nature’s social networks?
Ken Thompson, Swarmteams Ltd
Nature’s teams, such as bees, geese, ants and dolphins, are based on a small number of fundamentally different principles than human teams. Interestingly these “bioteams” seem to bear a much closer resemblance to today’s virtual/ mobile social networks than the traditional organisation teams we all know and love. Ken will explore whether an awareness of these principles can help us get much more value out of both social software and social networks.
Blog post 1 | Blog post 2 | Presentation download

Social networking beyond the dogma: let’s make some money
Jim Benson, Modus Cooperandi
The application of social networking and social media technologies ultimately should help your business work better. How do you set goals, create campaigns, and execute cost effectively?
Blog post

Panel discussion rounding up the issues of the day
with Steve Clayton, Roland Harwood, Chris Meade, Vijay Riyait, Andrea Saveri.
Blog post

(via Nesta Connect)