So tell me about Macmillan Cancer…
Macmillan Cancer Support is all about improving the lives of people affected by cancer. We provide practical, medical, emotional and financial support.  So as well as providing nurses and occupational therapists, we can come to your house and help with the gardening or carry your shopping and we even offer support if you’re struggling with the financial impact of cancer.

How did you get involved with Twitter – how do you use it for Macmillan?
I got involved because a couple of friends were using it and it seemed an easy way top keep in touch with them.  Both use social media as part of their work, so I saw first hand just how useful it can be for an organisation.  It took a while to get our heads round how to use it for Macmillan, but I think we’re getting there – it’s just part and parcel of being an organisation on the web these days.  We send out updates on campaigns and fundraising events, we encourage people to join in and we try our best to respond to everyone who @’s us, especially those who are fundraising.

What was the idea behind the Shoreditch Twitnic?
I’ve been to a couple of the Shoreditch Twits and really enjoyed them, so when they were trying to come up with a June concept, I suggested making it part of our Big Picnic event.  We encourage people around the country to raise money for Macmillan by hosting picnics and getting their guests to donate money in exchange for some food or drink.  We also have loads of sales promotions in Somerfield, so if you go into your local one, you’ll find loads of products where a percentage of the profits are donated to Macmillan.  We were lucky in that Somerfield are great supporters of ours and they provided all the food and drink for the Twitnic.  Big Picnic goes on till the 14th July, so if anyone else wants to get involved, they can log on, register their details and get lots of tips, ideas and themes.

And you’ve got something else planned for Shoreditch as well?
We do, it’s called The Brick Lane Festival and it’s happening on the 13th August 2009.  We are basically taking over some venues on Brick Lane and the surrounding area and putting a bunch of bands on.  We’ve already announced that Frank Turner, The Chapman Family, Spycatcher and Jersey Budd are playing and we’re going to be announcing loads more in the next two weeks.  I’m even tempted to get up and play myself!

We’re really excited about the event as it’s the first time we’ve done anything like this.  Tickets are only £20 and all the bands and venues are doing it for free, so all that money goes to people affected by cancer. You can buy tickets and check for more bands being added here.

Do you see more charities turning online in today’s climate?
I do, but I think it’s just something that every brand/organisation is doing, not just charities.  For us, it’s obvious you have to have some presence on the web, not just in terms of PR, reputation management but also fundraising and raising awareness of the services we provide. It’s a great way to connect with your supporters and get real time feedback on what you are doing right and what people aren’t responding to. Because of the climate, we’re all told by experts that it is a cheap and easy way to work, but I think with charities (particularly smaller ones) our greatest resource is people and their time, so while there are all these new things to try and experiment, we can’t replace all the things that already work.

I’ve found that I could spend all day on Twitter/Facebook/Justgiving sites talking to supporters, but all the offline/print/broadcast work we also do would suffer and they are equally important to reaching people. I think it’s vital that we remember that there are many people who need us that aren’t on the net.

But you’re relatively ahead of the pack, what advice would you give to the third sector  to get involved to this?
Firstly I’d state the obvious; that listening to what people are saying about you before diving into the conversation is important. Whether it is Twitter or forums or Facebook, you need to be patient and really look at what people are saying (and not saying) before you start to approach them. You’ll have a greater understanding of what the mood/culture is and that in turn will help you approach people online in a more friendly, less corporate way.

Every organisation has a personality that comes from a mix of their public face and internal culture. Try and find your voice and personality in everything you do.

Try everything that’s free! If you don’t like Twitter, or don’t see the value in it, there is probably another tool out there that will suit your needs.  The worry for me is that charities will see Twitter (because of the media spotlight) and if they don’t like it, will write of Social Media altogether.

Anything else we should know?
We have lots of different ways you can get involved with supporting Macmillan, from trekking in South America, to picnics, to marathons, to coffee mornings or just shaking your tin outside a supermarket.

G20 – Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999 to bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. Also a model number from car manufacturer Infiniti.

G20 Summit – On 2 April 2009, world leaders from the G20 countries – representing 85% of the world’s output – will meet in London against the backdrop of the worst international banking crisis in generations.

G20Voice – 50 of the world’s most interesting and influential bloggers will be your eyes and ears at the G20 Summit. They come from 22 different countries, and between them represent a global audience of over 14 million readers. Some are ‘professional bloggers’, others are ordinary citizens who have become well known through their blogs.

G4 – successful vocal troupe made famous by ITV’s The X Factor television programme in 2004 in which they came second. Also a type of Apple Computer.

We20 – was inspired as a public initiative to run alongside the G20, creating a bridge between the G20 leaders and you. I’m not entirely sure, but I think We20 aims to provide the platform for people like you and me to come up with plans to help save the global economy. Help.

We7 – is an ad-supported music download and streaming site launched in 2007 and supported by ex-Genesis frontman, Peter Gabriel. [disclosure: We7 used to be a Shiny Red client]

G20meetsWe20 – Post G20 Summit meetup which should be a good chance to hear what some G20Voice bloggers, including Vikki Chowney and Lloyd Davis, thought of the summit, and probably play some table football as well.

G-Wiz – electric car produced by Indian company Reva – famously beat a Mustang in a drag race once the Top Gear crew got their hands on a few extra batteries.

Right, that should be clear then?

If the game’s not your thing, no problem, the event’s more social than sporting, but we’re very grateful to the Tipped folk for bankrolling the spinning and flicking addiction that some of us will bring to the bar.

So we’re going to head there early, grab our tokens and set up camp around one of the babyfoot altars. And - reflecting the lack of organisation and formality of the event – there probably won’t be a tournament, or an overall winner, or a prize. But then you probably knew that anyway. But having said that, this Twit’s set to be the biggest yet, so it’ll be great to see a whole bunch of faces (old and new) there. If you’ve not done so already, why not leave a comment to let us know you’ll be there.

I was going to post about the blogger meetup yesterday, but I was out partying with these people - one of whom is a BB9 “competitor” with a deal to promote men’s make-up.. (he was wearing guyliner). Company Magazine’s 30th Birthday party isn’t exaclty social media, but it was free drinks, massages and a whole host of beautiful people – so with an invite courtesy of Melanie Seasons, I couldn’t turn it down.

So this week did see the latest in a long line of ever growing Blogger Meetups in London. Run by Andy Bargery, this month’s event was courtesy of Smirnoff Vodka (via Rax at Splendid). The meetup was hosted at the Diageo bar and was hailed universally as a successful meetup and a genius piece of blogger relations.

After being treated to several Moscow Mules, each blogger was then taken through the process of creating their own tailored cocktail which had been specially created by mixologists based on the content and personality of the blog such as the Ice Cream 4 Everyone cocktail.

So why is this so great? Well it’s really well thought through (not just free drinks), it’s personalised (the though that went into individual cocktails was really impressive and shows real investment in each blogger), it shows us something that we don’t know much about, and it makes a perfect excuse for an in depth blog post.

It probably won’t make me change my vodka order, but bags of kudos to the team for organising it – hopefully more brands will see the value of this type of activity with bloggers… already there are posts out there, so it’s good to see folk I caught up with there writing in agreement. 

Here are some other write-ups and pics from Lolly, Melanie, Willem, Annie Mole, Hayley and Yael (love the NYC crew!)

There are already a load of posts from last night’s Harvest Twestival. You can find a complete list here, but here are a few links to make an easy Friday post:

• Jazamatazz - mainly for the cute picture
• Twestival photos on Flickr
• Sizemore’s take on the event – great to meet the man in real life finally
• Poppy D’s 12Seconds clip – yes, she is that good looking in the flesh 

Since my last post was a little on the negative side, it’s time to lighten things up and talk about some of the sool stuff that was on show at IBC. So here’s a run down of my picks of the show:

Accedo: These guys (from Sweden) put stuff on your TV that isn’t TV content – usually games and interactive services – but at IBC, they were demoing a service wher social media applications such as YouTube, facebook and flickr to the TV screen. While it can be argued that things like Windows Media Centre do that already, Accedo’s slant is that they’re not simply replicating the web experience, but actually optimising the application for the TV platform. From what I’ve seen, this really comes to life for media heavy apps like Flickr, where you can present high quality slideshows on the big screen.

However, for some of the more communication based web-apps, you’d want to combine the TV experience with the online experience. Inuk Networks, the company behind student IPTV service Freewire used the show to talk about what they call “a truly converged triple-play IPTV service incorporating television, voice and PC applications within one interactive interface” Round the corner, expect to see “Lewis is watching Prison Break” as an automated Facebook status update, and things like updating your twitter feed or sending social network messages from within your TV’s EPG. Inuk’s Nick Ruczaj also told me that they’re planning to open up the Freewire API to let folks build their own widgets which will add interaction to the viewing experience. in my opinion, IPTV apps would be a great place for budding developers looking to get a foothold in the world of media convergence.

Speaking of which, Qualcomm had some interesting concept demos which looked at using 3G blended with its MediaFLO technology to get the Inuk-esque interactivity on mobile phones. It was nice to watch, and while it’s a concept at present, I think the issue here is going to be screen real estate. Only devices like the iPhone are really going to be able to deal with that much information on screen in a useable way. But with plenty of device manufacturers replicating the big screen interface, it won’t be long before concepts become reality.

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to visit Amsterdam for the annual International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) which brings together nearly 50,000 visitors from the world of TV. From traditional broadcast to exciting applications such as mobile and IPTV, the exhibition and conference is a window into all that’s going on in video and radio entertainment. But the broadcast model has never sat comfortably with the wild web – issues of rights management, content protection and the internet’s natural disposition for breeding disruptive technologies have led to these two media channels into prickly relations in the past.

Now, Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV, has added fuel to the fire, telling conference attendees that “Google and YouTube are just parasites, they just live off our content is what they do. As long as we can create the content, the content is the keys to the castle for us going forward. The day they start spending one billion pounds a year on content is the day I’ll start worrying.”

Grade is confusing professional content with social media content, showing a huge lack of understanding in terms of why people use TV and why people use YouTube. I’m with Shane Richmond on this one, who rightly states that “Online video is not about replicating traditional broadcast TV and it’s certainly not about cannibalising ITV’s meagre audience, which is a drop in the ocean in internet terms.”

The consumer values content above all else and is far from worried about where it comes from. It’s a fact the music business has found difficult to swallow, and the TV industry is equally reluctant to get on board. Fortunately, companies like Shiny Red client APRICO are out there getting content owners to sit up and take notice. APRICO’s software means that consumers can watch programmes from traditional TV sources as well as internet content – like the ever popular Rocketboom – all in one channel, personalised to a particular interest. Once again, content is king… we just have to recognise that its kingdom is a cross-platform one.

This week I’m off to IBC in Amsterdam with Shiny Red Client Aprico. My background is entrenched in the digital video world and after a year of working in my current role, it’s actually a nice and refreshing change to get back into the TV field. However, the worlds of web and TV have been converging for years, with this journey being closely followed by folks like Julian Clover and it’ll be interesting to see the impact of social media on the exhibition. I – for one –  will be looking for innovations that bridge the gap between online and broadcast, so will be dropping by a couple of stands including Miniweb and Akamai, if there’s anyone you know about and think I should stop by, do let me know.  Expect a few tweets from the show and maybe some qikking too (qik channel here).