There's an old magic trick that I am sure everyone is familiar with. The magician approaches a fully laid dining table with full place settings including wine, wine glasses, condiments and a small vase with a flower in it. He takes hold of the table cloth. As quick as a flash he tugs at the cloth removing it from under the crockery and glassware without any of it moving save a slight rattle. Well, I have a tip for everyone. Don't attempt this trick - especially if your delivering a business briefing over breakfast at the Ritz hotel in London to the a select group of captains of industry. Believe me - I speak from personal experience - it's not big and it's not clever.
There was something very memorable about that breakfast briefing in 1998. It was the look of absolute horror on the face of the CEO of one of the biggest retail groups in the UK - not at the silly icebreaker with the table cloth - it was the prediction that consumers would, within 10 years, be doing their grocery shopping on-line.
We get the ordinary social media. People can engage on-line with friends, colleagues - even strangers with a common interest. And it not just fun - it's a really useful tool to mobilise people whether that's for a spontaneous party in Time Square or a political rally in Tunisia. We get celebrity twitter too. It is so easy to communicate to eager fans and keep them engaged whether that's with serious commentary on the current affairs or simply feeding them celebrity tittle tattle. But what about corporate twitter? Is it really that important to corporates and if it is - what should businesses be doing about it?