Birmingham Social Media Cafe

Just a quick reminder that it’s the Social Media Cafe meet up again this Friday.

We’ve got quite a pretty packed one this month, so if you can make it please do.

Sponsor

Coffees will be provided by Creative Republic and a representative will be popping down to explain what the organisation is all about.

Guests

We will also have a quick talk by special guest Marc Silk. Marc is a voiceover artist and has worked on the film Chicken Run and Star Wars Episode 1. He is also the narrator for the new Pingu show on CBeebies and is the voice of Bob the Builder in the US.

Marc is based in the West Midlands, but manages to undertake contracts worldwide from his studios and he will be giving a brief chat on how he has made social media work for his business.

Another very special guest in attendance will be Lloyd Davis, the founder of the original Social Media Cafe in London. Lloyd also works as a social media consultant and runs Perfect Path.

And if that isn’t enough for you, Jason Hall – Head of Innovation at Screen West Midlands and the coordinator of the 4iP fund in the region – will also will be making an appearance.

Phew! It’s going to be a busy one!

To avoid it falling on Boxing Day, the December Social Media Cafe has moved forward a week and will now take place on December 19th.

People have also expressed an interest in having some sort of Christmas event after the cafe.

As we never know exactly how many people are going to turn up, I think it might be difficult to book a table for Christmas lunch.

So, as an alternative, how does this sound:

Those interested in extending festivities will move the cafe out of Coffee Lounge at 12pm and continue the meet indefinitely at a local pub (venue t.b.c).

What do you think?

Yes, it’s true, those lovely folk at Creative Republic have offered to pay for coffees at the next Birmingham Social Media Cafe event on November 28th.

In their own words, Creative Republic are:

“… a group of people who are involved in the creative and cultural industries in the West Midlands, UK.

We are setting up a lobbying and representative group for all of us who work in similar areas.That includes advertising, architecture, arts and antiques, crafts, design, digital media, designer fashion, film and video, music, performing arts, publishing, theatre, radio, tv and software, and applied arts for those involved in other ways that aren’t listed here.”

Many thanks to the excellent John Mostyn from Music of Distinction and board member of Creative Republic who helped to organise this.

Hopefully some Creative Republic people will be popping down to the event to provide more detail about what they do and to answer any questions.

For anyone interested in sponsoring future meets, please email me: joanna.geary@birminghampost.net. Cheers!

We are currently looking for a sponsor for this month’s Social Media Cafe on November 28th.

Coffees at the last event cost £150 – not bad when you consider the interesting people we had in the room!

If you are interested in being part of the event, please get in touch: joanna.geary@birminghampost.net.

Thanks!

As I look forward to the third Social Media Cafe on November 28th, the question arises: What should we do about the December meet?

If we stick to the “last Friday of every month”, the December event will fall on Boxing Day.

Alternatives I can think of are:

Move the meet to December 19th.
Cancel the meet and organise some sort of separate Christmas get-together (possibly in the evening).
Cancel the meet and start again on January 30th.

Thoughts?

If you were wondering about the people who came along to the Birmingham Social Media Cafe, then this video by the brilliant Christian Payne might give you a bit of an insight:

Although not all of them arrived in time for the video we scraped just over 40 attendees this month. It was a fantastic turnout, thank you!

It was a true pleasure to watch projects planned, business cards exchanged and ideas hatched – exactly what I hoped the Brum Social Media Cafe would achieve.

I have also had the good news that E.ON have offered to pay for drinks at next month’s meet on November 28 – the free coffees shall continue!

Unfortunately E.ON are unable to sponsor next month’s event so we are looking for volunteers! Coffees at the last meet came to £150 – a bargain considering we attract so many interesting people!

And please, if you have any ideas for future meets please get in contact me at joanna.geary@birminghampost.net.

Other blog posts about the meet from:
Rachel Gillies, a community film maker