Social media: driving social change for better or worse?

techMAP Lonnnnnndonnnnn! We have missed you!

Join us Monday February 6th - (that's this Monday) - from 6pm at The Longacre (http://www.thelongacre.co.uk/location/), Leicester Square for food, drinks and a night that we're sure we'll all be talking about for some time to come.

We are well aware this event is on the very heels of SMW (http://socialmediaweek.org/) where it is all hands on deck for many of our friends in the industry. We know there are gobs of you working insane hours to make sure this year's SMW (http://socialmediaweek.org/) is a success - we send our love! A special shout goes to Mr. Sam Michel (http://www.linkedin.com/in/sammichel) over at ChinWag (http://chinwag.com/) organising London's contribution. May @ToodlePip (https://twitter.com/#!/toodlepip)'s queue of free pints never end. ;) "

To kick us off Luke Tipping will look at the impact Social Media has had on our behaviours. Are we open and honest or do we hide behind our screens? Have we widened our networks or are we more isolated than ever. Can we simply be ourselves or are we incapable of stopping ourselves from simply following the herd?

It's a tongue-in-cheek presentation titled: "Social Media is Sh*t! After his presentation, @LukeTipping (https://twitter.com/#!/luketipping) will be joined by three of his peers for a good ol' techMAP debate that will no doubt rope in far too many of you lot, but we wouldn't have it any other way - now would we? :P

Tipping blogs here (http://maketobe.tumblr.com/) and is a strategist at Creative Company 101 (http://www.101london.co.uk/). He's worked and played at places like BMB (http://www.bmbagency.com/) and MindShare Invention (http://www.mindshare.co.uk/services/invention.aspx) making games, experiences and ads for brands such as Volvo, IBM and Yorkshire Tea. He is on an expedition to find new ways to make people smile, and he’s coming to #techMAP to do just that.

Joining him on the Panel (and in alphabetical order) are:

Charlotte Beckett (http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottebeckett) (@londoncharlotte (https://twitter.com/londoncharlotte)) – Head of Digital at The Good Agency (http://www.thegoodagency.co.uk/), Digital Strategist, 11yrs of Comms across Private, Public and Third Sector clients.

Lee Stacey (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/leestacey) (@LStacey (http://twitter.com/lstacey)) - Community Manager at Fresh Networks (http://www.freshnetworks.com/), Geek, Blogger (http://www.leestacey.com), Social Media Professional and SEO fanatic.

Paul Spiers (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulspiers) (@amplifier_Paul (https://twitter.com/#!/amplifier_paul)) - Head of Strategy & Insight at Amplifier (http://www.amplifiergroup.com), entrepreneur, founder of Wave Native (http://www.wavenative.com), proud dad, thinker, dreamer, surfer, information sponge.

It promises to be a fun night that will get you thinking. So join us around 6pm for a burger (veggie or otherwise) and a few drinks before Luke kicks things off at 7. We'll wrap the formal bit of the evening up by 8ish and the bar will remain open until - well, late enough. Heh!

http://img1.meetupstatic.com/614102232183174521616/img/smileys/wink.gif Love,

@BarryFurby (https://twitter.com/barryfurby)

@ShannonEastman (https://twitter.com/#!/shannoneastman)

@RachSahni (https://twitter.com/#!/rachsahni)