As the chairs in this photo might indicate, the hip Soho Hotel in London has quite an eye-popping venue for a meeting.

This was the scene early yesterday morning in the hotel’s screening room  just before people arrived for the start of "Influencing the online influencers," a meeting organized by Mantra PR in which I participated as one of the speakers.

About 45 people were there, a pretty good turnout. All there to hear about social media, developments in advertising and broadcasting and public relations.

The other speakers were Alistair Beattie, head of digital at the Abbott Mead Vickers ad agency; Tom Lucas, controller for channel marketing at ITV; and Ian Dale, one of the top UK political bloggers (and internet TV entrepreneur).

Between the four of us, I think we did a credible job in talking about social media, and developments in advertising, broadcasting and PR. Quite a few questions for each of us after our presentation bits.

In her wrap-up speech, Mantra PR managing director Debbie Wosskow did an excellent summary of what we all talked about. I’d love to reference Debbie’s words but no one at Mantra has a blog so nothing online…

Blog or not, this event enabled Mantra PR to introduce a range of their clients to concepts about social media and the changes, business and social, all around us.

Did I mention the venue? You may guess it did impress me. The Soho Hotel’s screening room has terrific technology for this type of event with its enormous screen and excellent sound system.

Oh, and those chairs. From where I stood in front of them, everyone sitting did indeed look very comfortable.

Hopefully from what they experienced. And not just the chairs.