This past weekend was the first ever Socionomics Summit in Atlanta. A list of exceptional speakers drew strong attendance and gave everyone a lot of big ideas to consider. The event was professionally staged and videotaped so I will briefly mention the speakers below and encourage anyone interested in understanding social change to get the DVD as soon as it becomes available. It was that good of an event.
The Socionomics Summit demonstrated that critical momentum is being achieved across a diverse field of applications. A great lineup of cutting edge presenters talked about how this work has taken them far away from usual approaches to see the bigger ideas that matter, especially right now.
The attendees I sat with included a few entrepreneurs, a tech designer, a code writer, financial professionals, and a couple of people just fascinated by the new science of understanding social change.
Here is a link to an expanded list of the ten presenters and Robert Prechter too.
The day was not a "how to" or a 101 discussion of socionomic trending and that is exactly why it was so good. If you are willing to learn this unique model on you own by reading a very readable book (or starting with the journal linked in the right column here), then you can show up for an event like this prepared to be inspired.
Dr. John Casti asked us to consider the role of complexity in extreme events and if you've read his book, Mood Matters, then you appreciate how his unique perspective on the big picture is very important right now.
It was very appropriate to follow his ideas with Euan Wilson's (researcher with The Socionomics Institute) discussion about historical events and offered perspective that is both very interesting and timely...no matter where you live. His opening "what if" question is not just profound, it is bound to get answered sometime soon.
Dr. Ken Olsen from Fort Hayes State University asked some very basic and important questions about social mood itself and why it works as it does. He also offered some fundamental ways to see behavior. He inspired a few conversations that day.
Kevin Depew of Minyanville informed and entertained us with Zombinomics and the broad theme in his presentation was echoed a few times later that day. Then after lunch Dr. Eric Gilbert from the Georgia Institute of Technology talked about our emotions and how they clearly influence our choices and actions in the real world. This was a great lead to the following discussions where EWI's Peter Kendall and Mark Galasiewski talked about two very different kinds of mass trending that follow the waves of mood as seen in the senior sociometer in a society. These correlations go beyond interesting and suggest ways to look for your own solutions to trending challenges.
The next two presentations were sophisticated examples of how basic behavior is crucial to understanding both the bigger picture, and also useful for complex predictions. Scott Reamer's (from Chora Capital) Unified Theory discussion was brilliant and Johan Bollen & Huina Mao (Indiana University) talk about a very specific modeling project using Twitter data that was mentioned in the news months ago. Johan and Huina are actively using aggregate tweet data to create a working predictive model.
Matt Lampert (a researcher for The Socionomics Institute) gave a great forward view of ideas and directions for predictive research that are underway. Both Matt and Euan emphasized how this work allows individuals to take control of how big social change affects your life.
Robert Prechter returned to close out the formal discussions, take questions, and offer his thoughts on being disciplined about not muddling up socionomic thinking with ordinary causation. It was a very practical note to close the first annual summit. So many people I talked with that day rarely had occasion to engage in discussions about social mood with like minded people. The day offered brilliant ideas and examples as well as some reminders about traps to avoid. The staff at the Socionomics Institute and EWI offered a shinning example of what is possible as we move forward using socionomics. And while the combination of presentations that day was truly impressive, it was just as possible to benefit from the engagement with a very unique audience of attendees. I am guessing that many people who were there will want the DVD too because there was so much good insight that it was hard to take it all in even by taking good notes. That is a great reason to not miss the next Socionomic Summit gathering.
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