Breakfast with the (new media) stars

hi everyone,

it’s not every day you get to see me or anyone else who contributes to Delimiter in real life — normally we’re sequestered in our offices frantically typing away at our computers :) But on the morning of Thursday November 25th (yes, the morning of our Christmas Party), you’ll get that chance.

On that day at 8AM I’ll be participating in a panel discussion about the impact of the speed of communication and information flows on the media, communication and PR industries.

The venue will be — appropriately enough — Telstra’s Experience Centre, level 4 at 400 George St in the Sydney central business district. I’d get there a bit earlier than 8 if you want to listen in.

I think I’ll enjoy the panel greatly, because alongside me on it will be some great people — Telstra group manager of media relations Craig Middleton (a good friend of mine) and Lara Sinclair, marketing journalist at The Australian newspaper, in addition to Scott Pettet, the Sydney general manager of PR firm Lewis PR.

I don’t respect all PR practitioners, but I do Scott — he and I think alike on many things, and I think he has a very firm grip on the new media environment. And of course Craig has for many years been a key resource for Telstra — I honestly don’t know what the company would do without him. Lara’s copy is good enough that I have to read her every week on Mondays — which is the best compliment a journalist can pay another one ;)

In addition, the event will be moderated by Phil Sim, also a friend and the proprietor of Media Connect, which runs the popular ITJourno.com.au site for Australian technology journalists. The event is being jointly organised by Media Connect and Lewis PR.

The premise for the event:

The rate of acceleration of communications in the last few years has been such that the vast majority of organisations are ill-equipped to cope with this the new paradigm.

The media too, are struggling with the challenges presented by the speed of communication. In many instances, the stop-gaps, fact checking and oversight associated with publishing have been drastically scaled back, or even deleted entirely, in the name of speed to market and being ‘first’ with the news. But at what price? There have been many many instances where media, in their rush to be first, have gotten it wrong.

For example, only recently there was the Qantas QF32 crisis, in which early reports were that a Qantas plane had ‘crashed’. Speed and fact clearly do not always intersect.

If you’re interested in coming (and I think it’ll be a fascinating discussion), please RSVP to sydneyevents@lewispr.com. See you there!