'Now That #SMWLagos is Gone'

18th - 22nd February, 2013 will forever go down the annals of history as a week when the city of Lagos hosted the first Social Media Week to ever grace the African continent. The event brought together thought leaders, creatives, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens from Nigeria, Africa and the diaspora thereby creating avenues for a global conversation which critically examined the social, cultural and economic impact of the New Media on different sectors of society. The event also explored how people and organizations are connecting to share new ideas and information.

Founded by Toby Daniels in the United States, the Social Media Week was conceived as a means to find out how technology has been changing the way people connect and communicate. It started in New York City in February 2009 with over 2,500 people attending over 40 events and many more participating online. This fifth edition was simultaneously held in nine other cities around the world.

Themed "Open and Connected: Principles for a Collaborative World", the duo of Obi Asika, founder of Dragon Africa and Ngozi Odita, founder of Society HAE submitted a bid and eventually had their proposal accepted for history to be made and so over five days, about 110 events held in the city of Lagos with the private sector fully participating through headline sponsorship and partnerships.

Though having the privilege of a serving minister and commissioner in attendance, an event of this importance requires more participation from the public sector as certain issues relating to governance and social media were top of discussions. In fact, our tertiary educators must involve themselves in such global event as researchers now beam their search light on the impact of social media on various aspects of our education both in theory and practice.

It is no surprise therefore that at the PEGS (politics, education, governance and society) hub of the SMWLagos, academics spotted at the event were from the private tertiary institutions which understand and thrive on a strong chord of town and gown relationship.

SMWLagos has come and gone, lessons have been learnt and though Jason Gilbert of the Huffington Post writes that the SMW is a conference in which "people with a lot of Twitter followers brag about how many Twitter followers they have to a room full of people with fewer Twitter followers", April Rudin, founder of The Rudin Group is of the view that the joy of the SMW world over, is in the synergy created between the corporate sector and the social media world.

For Nigeria and her world of communicators whether students, professionals or academics, the SMWLagos especially that of 2014 is one event that we should embrace with a view to achieving our journalistic goals of promoting social media ethics and etiquette.