Birmingham Social Media Cafe

This month’s Birmingham Social Media cafe meet-up will be at:

10am, Friday 27 November 2009 at the Coffee Lounge

All you need to do is come along, ask the nice staff for the drink of your choice and then head downstairs to meet everyone else. Last month there was yet another great turnout of interesting people. Most pleasing was the number of times I overheard the phrase ‘Let me introduce you to…’.

This month’s sponsors are just being confirmed [watch this space].

There’s no need for invites, tickets or anything, but please do let us know you’re coming, either:

• On Facebook; or
• On Upcoming.

For an email reminder, you can sign up to the mailing list in the sidebar on the right-hand side of this website.

For other events, keep an eye on Digital Brum or browse the various meet-ups on the ‘Other events‘ page.

The next Birmingham Social Media cafe meet-up will be:

At the Coffee Lounge from 10am on Friday 30 October 2009.

Turn up, grab a coffee and make your way downstairs to meet, chat and generally hob-nob with an array of interesting people who use (or are looking to use) social media in their working lives.

This month our quarterly supporters, Rhubarb Radio, will be providing the coffees.

There’s no need for invites, tickets are any of that business, but it’d be great if you could announce that you’re coming, either:

• On Facebook; or
• On Upcoming.

If you’d like to receive reminders of these meet-ups by email then you can sign up to the mailing list in the sidebar on the right-hand side of this website.

I couldn’t make it along to the meet-up on Friday but I hear that it went well and the coffee money was spent in record time. Thanks to everyone who went along and to our sponsors, Birmingham City University, for their support.

Jon Hickman and Paul Bradshaw from BCU chose not to address the masses at the Coffee Lounge, but instead recorded a short video:

BSMC – a word from our sponsors from Chris Unitt on Vimeo.

Jon also interviewed new Social Media MA student and first-time BSMC visitor, Stephen Croome, about his thoughts on the event:

Reflections on Birmingham Social Media Café from Jon Hickman on Vimeo.

Thanks again to everyone who came. The next meet-up will be on Friday 30 October – all the usual details will be out very shortly.

It’s nearly that time again – the next Birmingham Social Media cafe meet-up will be:

At the Coffee Lounge from 10am on Friday 25 September 2009.

The format will be the same as ever – with a free coffee/tea in hand, you’ll be able to meet up with others in the digital/social media arena and kick around ideas, experiences and nuggets of info.

If you’ve not been before then I can pretty much guarantee you’ll meet a few people who will interest and inspire you with what they’re doing.

If you come regularly then odds are you keep chatting to the same people – if you like we’ll find you some new people to speak to.

With a new academic term just starting, Birmingham City University will be providing the coffees this month.

Please do announce your attendance:

• On Facebook
• On Upcoming

Please help spread the word a little too – there are many out there who don’t know what a wonderful bunch of people come together every month.

After all the talk of data we’re going back to basics this week, with a regular Birmingham Social Media cafe meet-up.

We’ll be at the Coffee Lounge from 10am on Friday 28 August 2009.

Most people will be there to meet up, make new friends and have a productive natter over a cup of coffee. Others are planning to have meetings or hang around to get some work done in the company of some bright and interesting individuals. All are very welcome.

Screen WM (our ongoing supporters) will be providing the coffees this week.

If you fancy announcing your attendance then:

• Here’s the Facebook event
• Here’s the Upcoming group
• And of course it’d be lovely to hear from you in the comments

Hope to see you on Friday.

Last night’s event at Fazeley Studios, looking at the many, varied and increasingly important uses of data went very well, thanks to a great turnout and some fantastic talks.

The talks

Dave Harte opened proceedings. Here are the slides from his talk ‘Timely Information to Citizens‘

Dave Harte at #dmapi by chrisunitt

Michael Brunton-Spall spoke about ‘Mashing up The Guardian‘ (or their data, at least).

Michael Brunton-Spall at #dmapi by chrisunitt

Matthew Somerville covered his own and mySociety’s dealings with data and mashups. He’s kindly uploaded his slides to his website too (featuring some lovely photos of Scotland).

Matthew Somerville at #dmapi by chrisunitt

Paul Bradshaw rounded the event off, speaking about the inspiration behind Help Me Investigate and his own thoughts on ‘database journalism’.

Paul Bradshaw at #dmapi by chrisunitt

Other media

Christian Payne was on hand to interview Michael Brunton-Spall and Matthew Somerville using Audioboo:

A few blog posts have been popping up:

• Stuart Harrison has written a great round-up of the evening and also put all the #dmapi-tagged tweets from the evening into a Google Docs spreadsheet
• Tom Graham from Jadu has posted a write-up too
• Paul Bradshaw on the Online Journalism Blog – The Guardian kicks off the local data landgrab
• Jamie Garner has rounded up his tweets
• Tom Martin liked the cupcakes

And here’s a Twitter search for #dmapi.

What next?

There certainly seems to be an appetite for similar events, hack days and the like. As I said when summing up, keep an eye on Multipack and the Birmingham Social Media Cafe for future events. For a digest of other digital events in the region visit Digital Brum.

Also, the West Midlands Regional Observatory have just announced an excellent looking event called Sharing Information Digitally, taking place at Millennium Point on 7 October. There’s further info on the event see the WMRO blog.

Thanks

I’m indebted to a number of people who helped the event run as smoothly as it did:

• The speakers – Dave Harte, Michael Brunton-Spall, Matthew Somerville and Paul Bradshaw
• The sponsors – The Guardian, Barefoot Wine and (ongoing supporters of the BSMC) Screen WM
• Kate Manion at Fazeley Studios for providing the excellent surroundings and catering
• Will Perrin (of Talk About Local) for the initial introduction to the Guardian team

Thanks to everyone who attended too.

The Birmingham Social Media Cafe returns to Coffee Lounge on Friday 28 August, 10am to midday. I hope to see you there.

As a special, one-off event, there will be an extra BSMC on Wednesday 19 August from 6pm to 9pm(ish), sponsored by The Guardian.

You can sign up for free on Eventbrite.

As well as the usual chance the usual chance to meet, chat, scheme and share with likeminded souls, the evening will have a theme. We’ll be looking at data – why it’s increasingly important/useful for it to be made available and what can be done with it.

This event will be slightly different from the usual BSMC get-togethers:

• It’ll be at Fazeley Studios, Digbeth,
• in the evening,
• we’ll have a few (nice and snappy) talks; and
• we’ll give you some food and drink.

Speakers will include:

• Matthew Wall, technical architect at The Guardian
• Matthew Somerville of Dracos and mySociety
• Dave Harte of Digital Birmingham
• Paul Bradshaw of Help Me Investigate and online journalism course leader at Birmingham City University

As ever, the chance to chat with the other people in the room will be just as important. I know people have been discussions about organising hack days and the like. Hopefully this event will give people a chance to talk more about that.

There’s a little more info on the Eventbrite registration page. If you’d like to come along then please sign up (it’s free).

The Birmingham Social Media Cafe will be back at the Coffee Lounge on Friday 28 August, 10am to midday (listings soon come).

The next Birmingham Social Media Cafe is this Friday, 31 July 2009. As ever, everyone will be meeting downstairs at the Coffee Lounge on Navigation Street from 10am.

Our quarterly sponsors, Rhubarb Radio, will be paying for the coffees. If you see any of those good folk (and do seek them out – they’re doing some interesting work) then please say thank you. Even better, tune in and check out the shows – this week they’re broadcasting live from the renowned Supersonic Festival at the Custard Factory.

The BSMC is an informal get-together for anyone using (or interested in using) social media. If that sounds like you, then come on down and have a chat with someone – there are always enough friendly faces around. This month, Andy Mabbett has volunteered to be the chief friendly face making sure all goes swimmingly.

There are no tickets or invites – if you’d like to announce your intention to come along then you can do on Facebook, Upcoming or the wiki.

Also, we’ll soon be announcing an evening event taking place on Wed 19 August – keep an eye out (and your diary free) for that.

Flick to page 29 of this month’s copy of Wired UK and you’ll see we got a mention as part of an article looking at free-form workplaces. Which was very nice of them.

The next meet-up is on 10am to midday, Friday 26 June downstairs at the Coffee Lounge. Feel free to just turn up on the day but it’d be nice if you could sign up on one/all of:

• Facebook event
• Upcoming
• Wiki

Just so we know to expect folk.

If you’ve got any questions, especially if you’ve not been down before and want to know what to expect, then say hi in the comments under this post.

Please allow a short moment for some trumpet blowing. These are a few messages about yesterday’s Birmingham Social Media Cafe that cropped up on Twitter:

• grunt121 – Had a brilliant time at #bsmc next time I promise to talk to more people. As @gabysslave said these events are a jolt of caffeine
  
• pezholio – On my way back from #bsmc Great to speak to so many like-minded, interesting people. Good coffee too!
• daveharte – wow – intense 20 mins at #bsmc that place rocks. even had a massage offer!
• grunt121 – wow there’s a lot of people here #bsmc
• Manionbird – Just been2 my 1st Bham social media cafe which was ace, then a lovely lunch with @gabysslave & @marselkins who made my day : )
• gandy – lovely to meet all the Birmingham social media crew. Amazing scene up here. Now heading back to London Village to do some real #work

There were more too which you can see on this Twitter search.

However! Lest we rest on our laurels, if you have any suggestions for the greater betterment of these get-togethers then please make haste for the comments box below.

So, thanks to everyone who came down yesterday, especially the many new faces that made it along and Jason from Clarity Digital who stumped up for the drinks. The next one will be on Friday 26 June with info going up in the usual places very soon.