If you have been following our activities in April you will seen media140 hosting two concurrent events 15,000km apart: our three day digital festival in Perth, Australia and our journalism workshops at the International Journalism Festival. It’s been a busy month for us!
One thing emerged over all others from the media140 food & wine event. None of the roles one can have within the enograstronomy industry, from producer to importer, can ignore social media and internet any longer.
The video is in italian
Gianpaolo Paglia, wine producer and one of the Italian pioneers of communicating with his clients trough his website – poggioargentiera.it- said at the event that unfortunately many wine producers don’t know how to communicate with the public through their websites, as by leaving them static, they don’t give the client a reason to come back.
Gianopaolo thinks that as social media and blogs are the closest thing to a conversation online, they are a perfect way to keep clients informed about the wine-making process, but also to receive feedbacks on his products.
Putting one’s self at risk brings respect, he says. So he decided to send six of his wine-bottles to 100 of his clients and to post their comments, without moderating them, on his site, next the each bottle’s information. Showing his clients and those passionate about wine that he accepts critiques is like communicating on the same level, and creates a long-lasting connection.
The video is in English
From the client’s point of view, wine-blogger Ryan Opaz – founder of catavino.net – thinks the same. Ryan says that mobile internet now gives consumers a direct access to a product’s information straight from within a supermarket. If a wine hasn’t got a website on it’s label or has a badly done website the client will get a bad impression of it.
According to Ryan nowadays it’s hard to find a bad wine, so those passionate about it look at other factors like how the wine’s been reviews by other consumers, or -if producers use social media online- the the connection they establish with their clients.
The video is in italian
Samuel Sanders – of spumante.nl – works instead between producers and clients, he imports Italian wine to the Netherlands, and despite he isn’t in direct contact with consumers through his work, he thinks that internet can only help.
Samuel uses mostly Twitter to talk with his clients, he says his office is all there, inside his phone. Since he started using internet his clients know that they can contact him at any moment, and his business doubled.
According to Samuel the immediacy of Twitter shows to his clients and consumers that wherever he goes he is always immersed in the world of wine. This creates a trust that a standard work relationship could never have, and, as both Gianpaolo and Ryan think, creates such a connection with clients that it would add value to any business.
One of the critiques always done to internet is that it divides people. Attached to a computer, it’s said, we don’t communicate with those around us any longer. As all the speakers at media140 food & wine showed internet and social media help instead to create a long lasting connection between those who produce, import, and consume, giving us a chance to immerse ourselves in and appreciate their worlds.
Multimedia journalism Adam Westbrook took sometime out earlier this week to produce a special video for #media140 Perugia looking at the best way to produce audio slideshows.
A dispetto delle nubi di cenere dall’Islanda, il team Britannico di media140 ha messo insieme alcune delle migliori menti nei campi del giornalismo e social media per creare la presentazione che avrebbero dovuto dare al Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo a Perugia.
Ed eccoli, in un bunker nucleare a Rugby (la città, non lo sport!), a rispondere alla domanda: Dovremmo essere ottimisti sul futuro del giornalismo?
Gli applausi (e molti!) vanno al Dr Claire Wardle e Kate Pickering per aver organizzato il tutto, e a Christian Payne (@Documentally su twitter) per aver ospitato questo inusuale evento di Web TV.
Media140 ha provato a far vedere il materiale qui sotto dal vivo alla Sala dei Notari a Perugia, ma la tecnologia non era dalla nostra parte.
Il video è in Inglese, buona visione, e scrivi i tuoi commenti qui sotto.
Undeterred by clouds of ash from Iceland, media140′s amazing UK team have brought together some of the finest minds in journalism and social media to give the presentations they were supposed to give at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy.
Here they are in a nuclear bunker in Rugby, answering the question: Should we be optimistic about the future of journalism?
Massive rounds of applause to Dr Claire Wardle and Kate Pickering for making it all happen. The credit for having this brilliant idea belongs to Christian Payne (that’s @documentally to several thousand of you on Twitter), who also chaired this memorable, ash-inspired exercise in Web TV.
media140 tried to stream this material live into the exquisitely-frescoed Sala dei Notari in Perugia, but technology was not on our side.
Enjoy a leisurely watch here, and post your comments below.
But you can catch all the highlights from the recent event this year at the liveblog
Sydney science [rewired]
How can social media, citizen science and digital technologies enhance international collaboration on the major social and scientific issues of our time?
Barcelona
