Did you catch all of the #SMEM Events this past week? There were so many big events that I’m not even sure I caught them all….but I shall attempt a summary anyway (and if I missed something, folks can let me know!)
The first event started on Sunday, March 25th, which was the SMILE Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. SMILE, which stands for Social Media in Law Enforcement, put on a busy conference which brought together a number of excellent speakers to talk about how emerging technologies are influencing the world of policing.

On Monday, March 26th, a one-day Social Media Forum was put on in Washington D.C. by iCERT which is the Industry Council for Emerging Response Technologies.

I was fortunate enough to watch the kick-off panel for this forum which included Kim Stephens (@kim26stephens), Clarence Wardell (@cwardell) and Jeff Phillips (@_jsphillips). They spoke eloquently to the issues of using social media in crisis and preparing to use volunteers to bolster curation, filtering and response efforts.

Next up on Monday, March 26th, was the #NEMA12 Social Media Panel which was a huge panel of speakers which included Christine Thompson (@redcrossmom), Greg Licamele (@g_r_e_g), Brian Crumper (@emgis), Rob Dudgeon (@sfDEMrob), Kim Stephens (@kim26stephens), James Hamilton (@disaster_guy) and was moderated by Jeff Phillips (@_jsphillips).
And if Monday wasn’t busy enough, Noah Reiter (@noahreiter) coordinated an #SMEMTweetUp which brought a number of other amazing #SMEM folks to town including Jim Garrow (@jgarrow), Kelly (@bos_klb), Todd Jasper (@toddjasper) and Kevin Sur (@rusnivek).
And Monday wasn’t over yet….in New York City, the Shorty Awards took place which had nominated several of our #SMEM Community members like @HumanityRoad, Scott Mills (@graffitibmxcop) and @NYFD for livesaving awards on Twitter. At the end of the awards ceremony, NYFD walked away with the win, but more social connections were made and all three of them deserve a kudos.

And finally, #SMEMTO took place on Thursday, March 29th. This was a social media in crisis conference in Toronto, Canada! Huge props to Canada for an incredible week in social media. This event also had a powerhouse line-up of social media speakers (and because I wasn’t there, I don’t want to risk missing out anyone special). But Patrice Cloutier (@patricecloutier) has already blogged about this event and Scott Mills did a Storify episode worth checking out.

This is clearly going to be the longest post ever….but, it’s exciting because of all of the great work folks are doing in the #SMEM Community. My hat is off to each and every person who spoke, tweeted, participated in our weekly livechat or even just shared about social media with a friend. You are all part of a community that is lively, focused on the future and are shaping key issues for the next generation.
In short…..you ROCK!