Monday 17 February sees the start of Social Media Week 2014 which returns to Milan for the second year in a row thanks to Digital Marketing agency Hagakure and with the support of the City of Milan and Expo 2015, with the theme “The Future of Now: Living Connected”. The first event will be on Monday 17 with the opening ceremony at Palazzo Marino from 9.30 to 11.00. A complete programme for the week is available at http://socialmediaweek.org/milan/schedule/ where you can register to take part in the single events. Participation is free of charge but numbers are limited. To interact with the speakers and organisers during the event, the official hashtag for all social media platforms is è #SMWmilan.

Also this year the main locations will be Palazzo Reale, the Urban Center in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and the Mondadori events space in Piazza del Duomo. Almost all of the events will also be available in live streaming in collaboration with TIM, the mobile brand of Telecom Italia, on the site Live.tim.it/smw and that of social media week, www.socialmediaweek.org/milan.

This edition of the event has been made possible thanks to: Nokia, also this year in the role of City Headline Sponsor, the Main Partners: TIM, Philips. and Partners: Coca-Cola, Widiba, Microsoft, Yahoo, Europ Assistance, the Media Partners: Corriere della Sera, Mondadori, Wired, Radio Deejay, ZERO, SPAM Magazine, Ebuzzing, TVN, Technical Partners: Nescafé Dolce Gusto, Airbnb, Uber and Community Partners: Igers Italia, Talent Garden.

This year’s social event will feature international guest speakers such as Rohan Gunatillake (Monday 17 at Palazzo Reale with a keynote speech on digital meditation), Cindy Gallop, (Tuesday 18 at Palazzo Reale during the session “Make love, not porno”), Kenyatta Cheese, (Wednesday 19 at Palazzo Reale will talk about Social TV) and Tomonori Kagaya (Thursday 20 at Palazzo Reale will examine the topic of wearables and bio-sensing technologies).

On Monday 17 February there will also be a discussion about Twitter and possible developments in Italy ( “Inventare (il futuro di) Twitter in Italia” at 3.30 pm at the Mondadori events space) and starting from the book by Nick Bilton newly published in Italy by Mondadori, Inventare Twitter, which tells the story of the four founders of the American company.

On Tuesday 18 from 4.00 to 6.00 pm at Palazzo Reale, Social Media Week will host the Radio Deejay programme “A tu per Gu” presented by Guglielmo Scilla. For the first time the staff of the radio station will be on stage to present the first live show to the web world. On Wednesday 19 Social Media Week will move to the New Rocket club in Milan (Alzaia Naviglio Grande 98) for the official party of the world’s most social week.

After throwing off its party clothes, the Social world will put on its running shoes for the SMW Explorer Run, the year’s most social run in the company of Internet Explorer and the Podisti Da Marte who will celebrate their 5th anniversary. The appointment is for Thursday 20 February at around 7.00 pm in Corso Como with the start scheduled for 7.30 pm and a route of about one hour that will take in many of the city’s most characteristic highlights.