Last week was big. With history-making events, the Royal Wedding and the death of Osama Bin Laden, rocking the globe on both ends of the spectrum, the media and the public are going to be buzzing for quite some time.

As I struggled to put my iPhone down Sunday night and go to bed after President Obama’s speech, I reflected on how involved I felt on a global scale as each situation unfolded. The high level of participation is directly tied to our world filled with always-on connectivity and participatory mediums. With someone in London live streaming their view of Westminster Abbey and @reallyvirtual’s moment-by-moment account of helicopters landing in Abbottabad, I didn’t have to leave Austin, Texas to share in the experiences.

When news breaks, what would have been shared among just a few, years ago is now a real-time, multi-way — forget ‘two-way’ — conversation that spans the globe. Our processing of news and events such as these now involves participation in multiple layers of communication and sharing across social platforms.

So, what do a wedding and a death mean for your business?
Let’s recap last week’s major happenings for a moment so that you can use the insights to consider how traditional communication flows in your business today.

The Royal Wedding
The public had unprecedented access leading up to, during and after the marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton. And we took full advantage of it whether it was an early morning watch party (my co-workers attended this one in Austin), a street party, tea with Oprah that afternoon or host of other offline and online activities.

Source: The Telegraph

The connective tissue that made all of this possible was social media. While I did wake up early to watch Barbara Walter’s live coverage and stay up late that evening watching my recorded Oprah and Entertainment Tonight (ET) wedding specials, it was the participation with friends and strangers in-between that cemented my hand in the discussion of this historic event.

Source: Facebook (post by a friend)

Osama Bin Laden’s Death
The ability to discuss and share is especially impactful after an announcement like the death of the most-wanted terrorist of our time. The sequence of events at my house last night played out as follows:

• Several friends alerted me via text message after the leak at 9:45 p.m.
• I checked Twitter on my phone to confirm the news.
• Immediately turned on CNN.
• Talked to family members on the phone (wishing I wasn’t on Verizon with the iPhone 4 so that I could check Twitter and Facebook while chatting).
• Anxiously awaited the President’s speech.
• Tweeted during the end of the speech after 11 p.m.
• Checked back with friends and family via a couple phone calls before bed.
• Prolonged turning out the light to continue following the conversation on news sites (local and national), Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Source: Twitter

Consider how the information flow might change to more effectively serve today’s connected employees and consumers
The process around consumption of major news events sheds light on the process that many businesses are struggling to define both internally and externally. While there’s no doubting this massive shift in process consumption, most organizations aren’t sure how to optimize their own communications ecosystems. In that regard, the information flow and value exchange during large events such as these is worth a closer look. Perhaps it can help businesses define a process to get its own news to move.