Accra is a city opening up to credible events like social media week and this year was no different.
This year’s edition of Social Media Week started with a successful launch of the week-long event at the Accra Mall.
Organised by Echo House Ghana, the event brought together stakeholders to brainstorm on how to use social media as a tool to promote and develop businesses and the nation as a whole.
It was a variety of programmes tailored to bring together marketing, media and technology professionals from across the country with a curiosity and passion for new ideas, innovations and emerging trends in social media.
The Social Media Week Accra audience was made up of professionals at the intersection of media, marketing and technology across a range of industries including marketing, advertising, communications, media, publishing, technology and entertainment with a whooping attendance of over 3700 people in attendance.
As social media continues to form an integral part of the daily lives of many people it has become a vital way to bring populations closer.
Like it is done around the globe, Social Media Week highlighted all the changing lifestyles, the trends and made predictions of how and what the future will look like.
The event, which is in its second year in Ghana, discussed and provided an avenue for Ghanaians to have meaningful conversations aimed at facilitating networking. Picking steam from the first edition last year that sent waves through the marketing, media and technology spaces in Ghana and got the President talking about the impact of the global event’s footprint in Ghana, this year’s edition happened from September 10 to 14.
The 5-day event started with a launch ceremony that was expected to be attended by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, and Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah.
Other speakers from other countries also shared their thoughts on how social media continues to create safe spaces for conversations that border on social development amongst other topics.
Sessions like ‘Freelancers and Startups’ focused on how the ‘Gig Economy’ in Ghana functions, in the age of social media and the proliferation of pseudo freelancers and how the platforms can be harnessed for growth.
There was also a spotlight on how agencies should plan and work as they prepare to fit into the ever-changing social space with technology as their competitive advantage.
Sessions like ‘Personal Branding’, ‘Orijinal Hangout with Debola Lagos’ among others also happened on Day Two.
The 3rd day was all about ‘Brands and Consumers’ as they circle each other and continue to build a more trusting relationship.
Later on, discussions like ‘Choosing the right platform to get Closer’ to ‘Style Inspiration with Renee Q and Empress Jamila’ to ‘Building Personal Relationship at Scale’ to ‘Leveraging on Social Media as PR for your Brand’. Masterclasses for Facebook and Creative Brainstorming’ happened.
On Thursday, the conversations switched to ‘Tech and Environment’. As our lifestyle adapts to life in the fast tech lane, ‘The Future of FinTech’ will be one of the pivotal conversations as well as ‘The New Media’, ‘The Planeteers’ and ‘Content Creation Masterclass’.
Like we always do, EchoHouse brought the fun home on the last day with the ‘Goldfish Effect’ discussing how to create content that can engage people in 5 seconds, ‘YouTube and BBC Masterclasses’, ‘Taking Your Music Global’, the ‘Instagram Runway’ and ‘Concert’ to crown it off.
So content creators, freelancers, tech enthusiasts, and media and marketing professionals didn’t have an excuse.
It was curated specifically for them to delight and create conversations that will live beyond social media.
Explore topics like individualism, identity, and communal living as well as understand the growing trends in the world of tech, media, and marketing.
