In less than 2 years, so-called 'social media' has become a key item when planning a marketing campaign for pretty much any entertainment product or service; many media companies as well as the producers and creatives themselves have blogs, YouTube channels, Twitter streams and Facebook profiles. Add other buzz-words such as 'mobile' and 'real-time' to the mix, and the noise becomes deafening.

Gerd will cut through the hype and digerati garble to get to the bottom of some very important questions, such as: what are the core principles of social media and why is a connected, always-on audience so different? Why will the traditional, centralized, top-down, push approach fail with these new audiences, and what will work better? What does it really mean to 'engage with the audience', to have 'conversations not monologs' and to market through the users, instead of to the consumers...? 

Drawing from examples and cases from around the globe, Gerd will present the latest key trends in social media, explore how they could apply to television, film and interactive content, and point towards the real opportunities in the next 2-3 years.