Firstly I shall introduce myself; my name is Kate and I am responsible for Sales and Marketing here at TweetMeme. This is my first blog post so I hope you enjoy!

I have been working for TweetMeme for two months now and enjoying myself immensely. The digital space is a little bit of a challenge but I love being on board and learning lots.

Sarah (community manager) and I, headed to London for the Reboot Britain event – an event designed after the publication of the much talked about Digital Britain document. Held at Savoy place and nearing 300 delegates – it was an exciting event with many leaders and innovators in this area.

With as many as 8 lecture rooms, it meant that we had much choice – and you could plan a programme designed for your interests and what you wanted to learn about. There was an ongoing Twitter stream (#rebootbritain) that meant there was constant (and sometimes amusing) commentary, and some great speakers. Personal favourites of mine were Martha Lane- Fox, Jon Gisby, Charles Leadbeater and Alan Moore. But terribly upset I managed to miss Howard Rheingold…This was Sarah’s highlight of the day.

Uploaded by 'Rain Rabbit' on Flickr

Martha Lane Fox was talking about attempting to bridge the digital divide and the importance of this so that we do not create an underclass of those that do not have access to the online space. She was a really inspiring speaker and I will be interested in hearing about the future of this and how the Government attempts to tackle this issue.

Jon Gisby focused upon Channel 4s interactive space, how they are planning to achieve a successful campaign in the digital space, and how it is important for Britain to be influential and innovative to compete in the international web market. Much of this was focused around the importance for investment and funding for small, creative, (and British!) start-ups.

Charles Leadbeater spoke about the lesser importance of Traditional Media in a highly amusing talk. He spoke about how the traditional media space is changing. He talked about ‘Mutual Media’ and the need for companies and media sources to mutualise themselves by taking interactive and engaging ideas, and producing sources of this alongside social media strategies, and traditional media. Very insightful and it was nice to hear that TweetMeme is heading along the right track for helping brands and corporations to go in this direction.

One of the products here at TweetMeme is our ability to produce interactive and engaging ‘channels’ of content and verticals coming out of Twitter; A space where brands and media sources can engage with content, and those Twitter users that are talking about them. What was great from this event was realising how important this could be. Our channels can be custom made, skinned to look like particular websites, and to follow any #hashtags and keywords. One thing that did come up during the day was the need for tools and platforms to make this happen. This is something we can do!

It felt almost revolutionary being a part of the event and to witness the things being said. According to Alan Moore we are in a ‘Communication Evolution’ and that the new online media could be an ‘agent of political and social change.’ And that to ‘Reboot Britain’ we would need to replace a culture of blame with a culture of responsibility. The industry is moving so fast, and is such a learning curve for corporations – and people alike. Traditional organisations are suffering, especially in the current economic climate and they need to turn to other areas to reassess what will work for them. The problem for these traditional organisations is that they need coherent strategies, and that they are used to running with silos and with hierarchies without taking advantage of the new human potential of communication. Taking inspiration from start- ups are important for these corporations to help establish different ways of experimentation. The problem with this is that they cannot afford for something to not work.

Uploaded by 'RainRabbit' on Flickr

My colleague Sarah was reminded by Mike Earls of Herd of the 70, 20, 10 rule which seems ever more applicable in this new emerging industry. This rule refers to how agencies should spend their budget; 70% on what is known to work, 20% on innovation from what does work, and 10% on experimentation and trying new ideas. To remain innovative and competitive, agencies would have to do this. So if you want to try a new pioneering proposition, contact me! kate@tweetmeme.com or @TweetMemeSales.

Despite being an interesting day, it was not without its limitations; as anyone there will tell you. The internet was unreliable, and the audience was not as representative as one would have hoped. I think it would have made a real impact having some younger speakers and delegates there.

But what was great about Reboot was that it was a chance to explore new ideas together, new processes, and new strategies to make our society an open one. We should inspire to be able to engage with individuals/companies/public sector organisations in this way. If our different industry sectors are dysfunctional then we will not be able to produce technologies to take us forward, or implement them in a successful manner.