LESSONS OF HISTORY AND HOW TO SURVIVE

Last week I did a keynote speech at a Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce event on the HSBC report on the Super Cities of the future. Brighton was one of these and I was asking the audience of 100 whether they thought there might be a symbiotic relationship between the thriving arts scene in Brighton and the booming SME, entrepreneurial community in the city. I noted the HSBC were very impressed by the rebelliousness and individuality of Brighton and observed it was “the UK capital of deregulation.”

Which takes me to Tunis, Cairo, Sanaar, Amman and so on. As I type this the violence in Cairo has worsened. So rebelliousness, deregulation and, even, revolution is in the air throughout the world.

Dictatorships and dynasties are doomed.

The voice of intelligent people is being heard and is organising itself through willpower and technology. Governments are discovering that mobile phones are more potent weapons than tear gas and guns.

Talking to people at that Chamber of Commerce event about networking and now reading the news about Egypt has finally persuaded me that social networking is much more important to our world than I’d been acknowledging.

Here are the top ten tips from Brighton this January for being good at Twitter, Blogs, Facebook or whatever.

-    Talk about what really interests you not just about what you do
-    Be curious about the world and ask questions
-    Be a Renaissance person, a polymath, a person with wide interests
-    Be yourself – be true to what you believe
-    Make friends don’t just regard the network as business forum
-    Get into your local universities and find out all the good stuff they are thinking about. Ask and you’ll be surprised how open they are
-    Be positive – look for the good things - don’t just be judgemental
-    Don’t live in anyone’s shadow – be your own hero
-    We live in a world of conversations not orations
-    Spend 20 minutes a day on social networking

It’s time more of us were talking to each other and being active in our lives. As Thomas Jefferson said “a little rebellion never did any harm.” And there’s never been a better time to rattle the cage.

See you in cyberspace.