This morning I should have taken my place among the good and
the great of the UK social media scene for a presentation by Adobe on its new
analytics tool. Instead, I’ve been sat at my PC in the office hammering out a
credentials document for a pitch, guiding a colleague on a media relations
programme for a client, and devising an integrated social/PR outreach programme
for another. The reason? I don’t live or work in London. And it sucks.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had to either cancel
attendance at a seminar or turn down an invite to a product launch or miss out
on a community social because I’m not city-based. In fact, I’ve been given the
nickname ‘No Show’. (I haven’t, but I should have.) And it’s extremely
frustrating as the fact is that most of the time I simply can’t justify the
four hour round trip from Oxfordshire to central London and back again when I have
a to-do list that would strike fear into the most devoted of PR consultants.
Keeping up with what happens in the digital world isn’t
easy. And the benefits of having like-minded peers with whom you can chew the
fat and throw around ideas over an impromptu beer are massive. But in the UK,
when you work outside London, or to a lesser extent Manchester, the former is
even more challenging and the latter is virtually impossible. I can only assume
it’s the same in the US with the likes of Chicago, New York and San Francisco,
and in other countries too. And it feels extremely isolating. It feels like I
am constantly on the periphery of the industry and the community, no matter how
much time I spend on Twitter or Facebook engaging with peers and friends (who I
rarely see). It feels like I have to work doubly hard just to keep up, let
alone to try and get ahead (whether or not that is true, I have no idea).
Take yesterday for example. I needed to be in London for an
8.30am breakfast meeting with a digital committee I’m involved with. That meant
getting up at 5.30am and, more importantly, it meant I didn’t get to my desk and
start working in earnest until midday. Even for a meeting at the crack of dawn
I missed three hours of desk time. And hence, there was just no way, when I sat
down and assessed things at 9pm last night, that I could take another five or
six hours out today.
So what’s the point? Is this post just a bitching session?
Well partly, yes. I find myself immensely frustrated that I feel like my
learning, my thoughts and my ideas are
constrained by my own geographical isolation. But it’s more to find out from
you what you think of this.
If you’re outside the city, whatever city and
country that may be, do you feel the same? If you’re inside the city, do you
have any sympathy or have any suggestions for me (other than moving)? And from a broader perspective,
what does this say about social media in general – does it prove what many of
us say about the need to take online relationships offline, or is it evidence
of someone who is more remote who’s able to build those relationships where he
couldn’t have done so a few years back? Over to you...
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