---
title: "Conference reflections – local government, social media and mobile internet"
url: https://www.simonwakeman.com/blog/2008/12/06/conference-reflections-local-government-social-media-and-mobile-internet/
description: "Consultant and fractional COO for scale-up businesses. I help founders, leaders and investors in scaling businesses create sustainably high performing organisations."
published: 2008-12-06T21:31:22+00:00
modified: 2026-04-11T16:25:07+00:00
author: Simon Wakeman
---
# Conference reflections – local government, social media and mobile internet

## Conference reflections – local government, social media and mobile internet

Had a great couple of days on the road at the end of last week.  
Thursday took me to Birmingham’s [Edgbaston Cricket Ground](http://www.edgbaston.com/) for the Public Sector Forums event on council websites.  
Travel arrangements meant I was only there for a couple of hours, but it was good to meet the guys from [Public Sector Forums](http://www.publicsectorforums.co.uk) and in particular [Dave Briggs](http://www.davepress.net) – someone I’ve communicated online with a few times and whose [blog](http://www.davepress.net) is a must-read for public sector folk interested in social media.  
[Dave’s presentation](http://davepress.net/2008/12/05/social-networking-and-other-tools-of-engagement/) covered some great examples of social media in practice in local government and was an inspirational call-to-action to councils to start being creative in their application of social media in communications and engagement.  
I talked about the mobile internet, why councils should be becoming more interested in it over the coming year, and what they should be doing with it. My presentation is [here](https://www.simonwakeman.com/psf-mobile-web).  
Then on Thursday night it was up to Manchester to hook up with Andy and Nicky from [Don’t Panic](http://www.dontpanicprojects.com) event management and the rest of the speakers at Friday’s Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media conference. It was great to catch up with familiar faces and meet new people too over dinner.  
Friday’s conference was at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester – the best venue I’ve spoken at or attended a conference at so far. A great building, lovely space and definitely the largest screen I’ve ever presented with:  
[![](https://www.simonwakeman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/web2-300x225.jpg "Simon Wakeman presenting at DPGSM, Manchester")](https://www.simonwakeman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/web2.jpg)  
I had to rush off after my presentation, so missed out on the rest of the day, but judging by the [active Twitter backchannel](http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23dontpanic) provided by [Sarah Hartley](http://twitter.com/Sarah_Hartley), it was a good day.  
[![Simon Wakeman presenting at DPGSM, Manchester](https://www.simonwakeman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/web-300x225.jpg "Simon Wakeman presenting at DPGSM, Manchester")](https://www.simonwakeman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/web.jpg)  
You can see blogs posts so far about the day from [Tom Murphy](http://tpemurphy.com/blog/?p=395) and [Richard Bailey](http://prstudies.typepad.com/weblog/2008/12/communication-a.html), plus a [new blog](http://daddydaydiary.blogspot.com/) started by a delegate inspired by the conference.  
(images thanks to Andy at [Don’t Panic](http://www.dontpanicprojects.com))