I will be taking a double red eye to South Africa to speak at a conference called WTF at the University of Technology, Capetown campus. Yes, the letters stand for what you think they stand for.
I will be just one of 40 speakers, but I am the first American that they have flown in for the annual WTF. It will be the first time I have set foot on African soil. Attendees will include business and social media community members, but there will probably be more students than I have previously addressed.
I’ve read a great deal about So. Africa’s painful and inspirational history. What is is that these students are among the first South Africans to have been born and raised after the ugliness that was Apartheid ended.
I’ve asked the producers for insights and suggestions about attendees. I want to know what I can say that will be useful, interesting and memorable. I’ve received the same instructions as the other 39 speakers:
“Say whatever you want. Just wow them.”
At first that seemed like a daunting task. As a business speaker, just keeping them awake has been sufficient in many cases. But Wowwing is an entirely different thing.
Then in dawned on me: I’m a story teller. And social media is filled with stories that wow people every day. Social media is much bigger than the business stories I often limit myself to.
So, I’ve been looking at some of the stories I’ve gathered over the last five years and there’s an abundance. A few I’m sure I will tell:
- Isaac Mao, China’s first blogger who has been followed, banned from leaving the country and otherwise frustrated. He produces BloggerCN.com and annual event that the government keeps moving further from blogger centers. This year the event was held in a large cave. It was well-attended and I’m told everyone had a ball.
- Laurel Papworth and Australian who went to Saudi Arabia to help a group of Muslim women start a social network.
- Janis Krums the kid who was taking a Ferry from Manhattan to New Jersey when a jet plane skidded onto the river he was crossing and he took the most memorable twitpic in history before joining rescue efforts on the freezing river.
So, I’m confident that I can wow folk with drama and world-changing events of social media. I’ll note that there is a wow factor that an immigrant factory worker’s son, could wind up speaking on a dais in South Africa because of social media. I’ll also talk about the wow factor that everyday people everywhere are using social media to talk with each other all over the world, and in so doing, they are bypassing bosses and governments, media and assorted gatekeepers to talk with each other and discover how much they share in common with people who look and speak differently.
But there is more and that’s where you come in. So far, all I have to talk about is what Wows me.
I want to share with them what wows other people about social media. Please tell me your favorite story. Please send me stats that amaze you. Tell me about an incident that changed you or your work.
What wows me also is the help I get from friends on social media.
Please leave a comment here, or email me. You can usually find me hanging out on Twitter, where I continue to get wowwed left and right.
