The #Promise Event: High on Twitter and Promises, Low on Substance - A blog by Aman Singh
Aman Singh is the CSR Editor at Vault.com, where she focuses on how corporate diversity practices and sustainability translate into recruitment and strategic development. Her blog, In Good Company, discusses on many of these issues.
The #Promise Event: High on Twitter and Promises, Low on Substance
Complete with a hash tag symbol, the #Promise event held during Internet Week in New York last week was corporate sponsorship and social media at its best. With its dizzying digital presence and overwhelmingly real-time conversations, it was like having a multitude of dialogues at any given moment. Featuring marketing heads from General Electric (GE), PepsiCo, Timberland, MTV and Nokia, the day-long conference evoked mixed responses from the audience, ranging from skepticism to all-out admiration. And streaming in real time on the Twitter feed #thepromise, prominently featured on two huge displays for all to see and comment on.
While the conference's attempt was a noble one—showcasing corporate social responsibility commitments by some of the world's leading global companies—it gradually turned into a platform for companies to pitch their CSR initiatives at a well-targeted audience (Registrants were asked to make a "promise" on behalf of their company/themselves toward corporate social responsibility to qualify, which ensured a passionate audience committed to corporate responsibility). The two themes that emerged:
