Others will write up the event in more detail than I will - but a few choice highlights:

The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. By that, I mean that Mat Morrison's first presentation (which used long words like homophilly) was echoed by the last presentation of the day from Jon Akwue (who used a combination of rats, heroin and behavioural psychology) to establish that susceptibility and cultural context are both of vital importance in planning and delivering social media campaigns.

Other highlights included Chris Thorpe's clever use of lego to illustrate that social objects (and objects in social media) are conversation starters (cube grenades, anyone?), David Cushman's quote that "a businesss that runs without a comment box is a broken business" also struck a chord. Jamie Riddell almost went as far as saying that Google knows what you search for, Facebook knows what you've bought and like, but Foursquare knows where you are and what you like - either way the discusssions around privacy on social networks is a live one.

Dominic Burch's presentation - Social Media in Retail - stole the show. In just over a year (since he searched for new media manager), ASDA have de-mystified social media by following the JFDI principle. They're doing old-school PR well (imho) by acting as connectors, rather than searching for followers. And doing it in a fine way.

My panel (ably chaired by Will McInnes) was on ROI - and my point: that if marketing directors need to compare the value of PR, or social media with other marketing channels then they will often default to ROI, and we have to evaluate what we do in a way that answers the ROI question whether we like it or not. But a lot of social media activity (e.g. reactive activity on Twitter) simply doesn't have an ROI - in the same way that a corporate press office doesn't have an ROI. Once you've offered it, you can't take it away. And it becomes a requirement. A hygeine factor. Having said that, other clients (often people with a PR background) have a more nuanced view - charts of data aren't the be all and end all for them. And we work happily for both.

As an added bonus, the discussion on politics and social media was lively - Andrew Walker (Tweetminster), Stephen Tall (Lib Dem Voice), Alex Smith (Labour List), Shane Greer (Total Politics) and Tom Watson MP were an entertaining bunch...

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