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December social media cafe

December 9th, 2009

Sarah LayThe problem with social media cafe is there are too many interesting people and interesting things to talk about in a short space of time.

We had the second meeting of the Derby and Derbyshire Social Media Cafe last night. It was a great turn out and a really interesting talk about hyperlocal by Will Perrin, Mike Rawlins and Nicky Getgood of Talk About Local and Philip John of the Lichfield Blog.

Will told us all about how he got into hyperlocal blogging, showcased some of the sites they are supporting through Talk About Local and explained their model. We then had a look at The Lichfield Blog with Philip John and there were some interesting points about bloggers being accepted by or even working in collaboration with traditional media.

There were some good questions from the group about the potential legal issues of running a hyperlocal blog, the amount of time it takes, community-generated vs organisation trying to embed in a community (BBC Local or Local People were examples) and some general chat about what hyperlocals exist in Derbyshire.

It’s set me thinking about hyplerlocal again from a personal perspective, but that’s another blog for another day.

Attendee list:

I’m trying to do this from memory so if I’ve missed you off, firstly sorry and secondly just let me know so I can add you!

Sarah Lay
Richard Mackney
Colin Mitchell
Will Perrin
Nicky Getgood
Mike Rawlins
Philip John
Emily Robe
Antoinette Burchill
Darren Holden
Karen Thomas
Nick Moyes
Christine Cawthorne
Hadrian Cawthorne
Bel Harvey
Lee Flanaghan
Lauren Noakes
Sarah Barker
Colin MacKenzie
Emma Bryn-Jones
SubVee
warrenfree
cybrum

Useful links:

There were a few sites and posts mentioned in the presentations and chat which people asked me to link to from here.

You can of course find out about Talk About Local and The Lichfield Blog at their respective sites. Philip John also highlighted a couple of posts on his blog – one about some legal information and one about sharing ideas for hyperlocal sites.

I think we should all check out the sponsor’s site as well – Fish Media - kindly paid for the venue and the drinks so I’m sure we’d all like to thank them for that.

If you liked CUBE at Deda then check out the website for opening times – they’d welcome anyone who wanted to pop in for a coffee, bite to eat and use their wifi!

Tag anything from last night – tweets, blogs, photos – with #smcderby and I’ll aggregate when I get a chance!

Tell me what you want!

Planning is already underway for the next meeting – this will hopefully be earlyFebruary.

Let me know if there is a day / time which is best for you so we can try to set a date suitable for greatest number of people.

And is there a subject you want to talk about as a group like we did with hyperlocal? If no-one has anything in particular we can just have a networking session. Get in touch and let us know your thoughts on last night and what should happen next time!

Until then…

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Here we go again!

November 6th, 2009

Sarah LayGet your diaries at the ready as I can now confirm the date for the next Social Media Cafe in Derby. Drum roll please…

We’ll be meeting on Tuesday 8 December 2009 between 6.30 and 9pm at CUBE cafe/bar at Deda (Derby Dance Centre) on Chapel Street.

We’re going slightly different this time and will be having a more organised group discussion and presentations in the first part of the meeting. The theme for December is ‘hyperlocal’ and we’re welcoming some special guests:

The second part of the session will revert to the informal, unorganised networking so you can chat to whoever about whatever (as long as it’s about online of course!)

I hope to see lots of you there – please leave me a comment on the blog or on @smcderbyshire or the facebook event to let me know if you can make it. Thanks to generous sponsorship from Fish Media there may even be a drink in it for you!

Look forward to seeing you all there!

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The first meeting

October 2nd, 2009

by Sarah

Sarah LaySo, yesterday the idea that Tim, Paul and I had to start a social media cafe in Derby (and indeed around the county) became a reality.

The first meeting of was held, informally, in the cafe bar at Quad Derby yesterday (1 October 2009)- and a big thanks must go to them for hosting us and supporting this idea.

The conversation was flowing, just as we hoped it would, and we’ve had a great response so far – there will definitely be more meets!

Some of the things I talked about with people and found really useful / interesting included: Google Sidewiki and Wave; promoting and getting organisations to move forward online; monitoring social media both from a ‘knowing your audience’ and a ROI point of view; managing reputation online; being and managing online workers and of course, how the social media cafe is going to continue.

How is the cafe going to continue?

Well, it will definitely meet again in Derby and at the moment I am thinking it might be nice to meet in early December.

I’d propose we meet in a dedicated space this time and have something more formal to head up the session – a case study or debate for example – with an informal networking event afterwards.

What I’d like people to let me know (either comment here, tweet me or through the Facebook group) is:

  • What day of the week and time is best for you? A few people have said evening would be better – how do people feel about this?
  • Do you have any suggestions for the ‘formal’ part? Would you like to volunteer to run a session on something?
  • Is there anything else you would like to do to be involved with the cafe?

I’ll set up some sort of event listing where people can register their interest and then we can look at a suitable venue and get the date and time organised.

The Derby meet will be alongside taking the cafe out around the county. There will be a meet in Matlock on 3 December and I’d really, really appreciate hearing from anyone who would be interested in coming along or help organise this one!

Who came yesterday?

I said I’d post the attendance list up so people could follow each other and continue conversations online. If I’ve missed anyone please forgive me and give me a nudge to add you on! Most people seem to be using Twitter as their main online identity at the moment but if you have another space you’d rather use (or think we should look at) then let me know. Here’s the list:

I’d like to say a massive thanks to everyone who came and turned our idea into a reality. I look forward to continuing the conversations online and seeing you all (and more people too!) at the next meet.

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It’s all go

October 1st, 2009

smcderby1oct09

Thank you to everyone for coming along to the Social Media Cafe event today at Derby QUAD. Lots of interesting conversations and ideas – as well as coffee and cake!

If you have any photos you’ve taken and are prepared to share with us, please leave us a comment with a link to them. We’ll then add them to the blog.

A big thankyou to QUAD for their support and allowing us to use their facilities. Here’s to the next time in Matlock.

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Preparing to launch

September 8th, 2009

by Sarah

Word is getting out – the Derby and Derbyshire Social Media Cafe launches on Thursday 1 October 2009 in the cafe bar at Quad Derby.

I’m really pleased with the interest we’ve had so far and am looking forward to chatting with so many different people (drop-in any time between 2 and 5pm!) on the day.

I would be eternally grateful if you could reply to this post or sign up on the Facebook event page if you’re intending to come along. While everything is pretty informal – the cafe won’t be exclusively for our use, you’ll have to pay for your own coffee, we have no agenda other than to meet and chat – it would be great to have an idea of numbers!

For future cafes we’ll probably make sign up easier via a wiki or eventbrite (or let us know if you know a better way) but if you’re coming just let me know!

I’d also be interested to hear from you if you’d like to have come but can’t because of the day, time or location. We can then take this into consideration as we plan future meets.

Quad has lots of advice on their website about getting to the venue by car, train, air, foot, bicycle or bus as well as information on accommodation if you want to make a night of it. Take a look at their directions page.

Look forward to seeing you on the 1 October!

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A social media café for Derby and Derbyshire

August 10th, 2009

by Sarah Lay

Sarah LayI’ve been playing with the idea and various possible set-ups for a while now (not very JFDI but maybe as long as a year). I’ve really been spurred into action though by the inspiration I drew at LocalGovCamp.

I’ve spoken to a couple of other Derbyshire social media enthusiasts and the feeling from them is very positive. There is a feeling that there is a need for an informal meeting place to discuss what we’re doing or what we want to do with social media and online communications. Not only would this be great, from my point of view, for local government and our partners in Derbyshire as we don’t even have a formal setting for these discussions at the moment. But it would also be great to chat with people from the private and third sectors as we can all learn so much through sharing.

So, the rough plan at the moment is to get some time and a venue for sometime in September and start getting people on board. I want to be fairly fluid with where this goes so there will be no agendas and people bring / take what they need to and from each cafe in terms of things to share and actions. More medium term I would like to see it move around the county to take advantage and meet with people from our pretty big geographical area.

It’s still in the early stages but with summer underway the ideas are about to be solidified into plans. I’d welcome any advice from those who’ve already set up a café (particularly looking at your Birmingham), anyone in Derby/shire who wants to work with me on this and generally opinions on what folks think of this.

Watch this space for progress…

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