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media140 Scotland Sizzle reel from media140 on Vimeo.

Last night I attended the Media140 event which was hosted by Mark Jennings of D8 Digital at the CCA on Sauchiehall Street. Media140 is a global organisation that aims to bring together forward thinking social-media-types to promote lively talk and debate; and this was certainly the case last night. The variety of guests at the event was brilliant, ranging from speaker Trey Pennington who has more than 85,000 Twitter followers to those who weren't really sure what Twitter is. 

The first speaker was Pat Kane, long-standing Scottish musician and author of 'The Play Ethic.' Pat's talk offered a highbrow look at why social media matters to people. He urged us to "use what is ubiquitous to drive people to what is scarce." By this he meant that he believes we should be using free and widespread tools such as social media to encourage others to pay to partake in rarer pleasures such as artwork or live music.

Next up was the aforementioned Trey Pennington, who flew over from South Carolina USA especially for the event. He shared two great case studies with the audience – one of a company who had failed to take notice of their customers via social media (US Airlines) and one who had revolutionised their business using new media (Carolina Manufacturing). He also gave every person in the room a bandana and said "Y'all" a lot. 

Last to take the lectern was Steve Berry, a self-described "social media doofus." Steve's talk focused on the value of failure – and was illustrated with tales of failures of his own. (Prequel to Bladerunner anybody?!) Interestingly, he suggested that social media had a built in vernacular of failure - with tags such as #epicfail and blogs dedicated to the subject gaining instant popularity. 

Overall, the night was a huge success with guests and speakers alike staying to network long after the event had officially finished. 

Organisers – I have just one request for the next event; female speakers!