Social Media Day PTY in Panama

On Thursday June 30, 2011 Social Media Day took place in Panama. As its site, SocialMediaPTY [es], explains:

El Social Media Day es un evento que se realizará mundialmente, hasta ahora en 1374 ciudades alrededor del planeta. Es muy interesante ver todo lo que está generando esta celebración en todos lados, y afortunadamente Panamá también está haciendo bulla con nuestra propia celebración el Social Media Day Panamá, en Twitter seguido bajo el hashtag #SMDayPTY.

Social Media Day is a worldwide event to be held, so far in 1374 cities around the globe. It is very interesting to see what it is that is producing this celebration everywhere and fortunately Panama is also making a fuss with our own Twitter celebration Social Media Day Panamá [es], followed with the hashtag #SMDayPTY.

Attendees of the event @monosg photo used with premission

The presence of Twitter users and bloggers did not disappoint. In an interactive atmosphere perfect for the occasion and with a high turnout, the Social Media Day Panama 2011 took place in the Ciudad del Saber [es] Convention Centre.

The event was very well organised and had an excellent Wi-fi connection which resulted in many tweets coming from the event location, where the participants stressed the important points of the lectures as well as expressing their satisfaction with the event.

As in the case of Edson Gómez (@BaRulaCo) who tweeted what the highlight of the lecture given by Juan Cruz Soares (@monosg) was for him:

#SMdayPTY @monosg: “siempre ponganse del lado de las personas que los va a leer”

#SMdayPTY @monosg: “always side with the people that will be reading”

Or Leilani Gonzalez (@Le1laini) who summarised part of the lessons with the following tweet:

“La técnica está por encima de la plataforma. La creatividad está por encima de la tecnología.”

“Technique rises above platform. Creativity rises above technology.”

I had the opportunity to attend the event and I left full of encouragement and challenges. I captured part of this in an entry in my personal blog Contrapunto [es]:

Tomando en cuenta que hoy en día manejar la red es un asunto vital me sentí muy orgulloso de ver cómo se levanta una nueva ola de jóvenes (y no tan jóvenes) interesados en hacer las cosas de una forma diferente, aprovechando el estar vivos en el 2011. Ya va siendo hora que nuestra presencia en el mundo virtual marque una diferencia para Panamá en el mundo real.

Taking into account that nowadays the use of the net is a vital issue, I felt very proud to see the emergence of a new wave of young (and not so young) people interested in doing things differently, making the most of being alive in 2011. Now is the time for our presence in the virtual world to mark a difference for Panama in the real world.

The Ciudad del saber [es] site also came to its own conclusions:

Es por eso que se acabó la era en que las grandes compañías hablan y la gente escucha; ahora la gente tiene su voz y es a través de las redes sociales donde se escuchará.

This is why the era when the large companies talked and the people listened ended; now the people have their voice and it is through social networks that they are heard.

In conclusion, the Social Media Party was a success in all aspects. Hopefully the lessons will be applied and we will have more and better social network users in Panama. Argenis Bolivar (@argenisbolivar), one of the speakers at the event, tweeted after he had finished participating: