#21 ?? summit

G'day

The markets are up, down a little, then up again, higher. The American consumer is back, retail sales up 18% in May. All this money being thrown around by governments seems to be cushioning things. For some. For now.

ABOVE THE FOLD

• ?? summit

BELOW THE FOLD

• ?? ?? pause
• ?????? can you trust the media?
• ?????♂??????♂??????♂??????♂? and finally... don't quit!

___________________________________

ABOVE THE FOLD

?? summit

I spent the last two days at a conference. I know right! I was at my desk in my closet the whole time, but I was definitely at the conference. There was a Plenary Hall where there were lots of high-level speeches, the UN Secretary-General, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, panel sessions and the like. There were smaller specialist panels held simultaneously. There was a pavilion which had different exhibitors and workshops.

And there was a networking space, where you could be thrown together with a complete stranger from a different part of the world for 3 minutes, and if you like each other, connect on LinkedIn. Chatroulette for business. Here's me with an accountant from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia:

I also spoke to a business school professor from Upper New York State, and a guy in Istanbul who told me he had just opened the first criminal case against China at the ICC because of COVID. I haven't had the time to follow up on that last one.

Over 20,000 people attended the UN Global Compact's 20th Anniversary Summit, an event that would have been in person, exclusive and in New York. I was in and out of it through the full 26 hours and I never saw less than 3,000 people online at any time.

The experience might not solve everything about online events, but it made a good fist of it. Super inclusive and engaging.

Have you had an online conference experience? What was good and bad about it?

___________________________________________

BELOW THE FOLD

?? ?? pause

The UN is crafting a campaign against disinformation, last noted here in #13 ???? live the change. On June 30, the campaign intends to instill a new behaviour, the "pause"

Please join us on June 30th in asking everyone to “pause” before sharing questionable content on social media platforms.

So said Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN at the UN Global Compact Summit.

The act of pausing before sharing helps to interrupt the emotion rush that drives people to share emotive content, and trigger critical thinking. My favourite philosophy of science -inspired musical comedian Tim Minchin has something to say about pausing:

In other misinformation news, The Transatlantic High Level Working Group on Content Moderation Online and Freedom of Expression (OMG, the bad guys don't give themselves names like this) recommended "a flexible regulatory framework that seeks to contribute to trust, transparency, and accountability."

Hopefully both the campaign and the, uh, high level working group will have a big impact. It's unlikely to make as much difference as Twitter actually asking people to read articles before they share them. Since last Wednesday, some users have been prompted to click the link if they try and share articles before they have clicked through to them. Twitter called it a feature “designed to empower healthy and informed public conversation.”

How responsible are you in your sharing behaviours? How can we encourage as many people to think before they share.

?????? can you trust the media?

Every year, The Reuters Institute does a survey of tens of thousands thousands of online news consumers in nearly 40 markets, and each year it concludes that trust in the media is crumbling, that social media is undermining truth, that business models have fallen apart. This year of course, same same, and also that quality news has never been so important - coronavirus - and so challenged.

?????♂??????♂??????♂??????♂?and finally... don't quit

This is Naz, he has 16 million followers on Facebook:

Naz's one word to get you success: Deadlines:

And persistence. Success is 90% just showing up.

So I'll show up again next week. Deadline Tuesday night.

See you here

Mike