Aug 25
Come and join us for a drink at the Rose and Crown in Warwick (directions) on:
Thursday 26th August from 6.00pm (ish)
If the weather is clement we’ll probably be outside, otherwise we have use of the private room…
Drop a tweet to @cwsmc to let us know you’re coming, and see you tomorrow evening – we have a few exciting announcements about the autumn CWSMC schedule.
Aug 12
Picture from Flickr user Daveybot (used under Creative Commons)
As it’s meant to be summer we thought we would kick back and instead of our usual morning event next Friday, we’d instead go for an evening get-together at the Rose and Crown in Warwick (directions) on:
Thursday 26th August from 6.00pm (ish)
It’ll be even less formal than normal CWSMCs (if that is possible!) just turn up and say hi if you’re around.
Upcoming dates
We’ll be back to the usual 3rd Friday of every month from September, but that is never easy to remember so here are the following dates and venues as we rotate around Coventry and Warwickshire:
We’ve got some exciting speakers lined up and will announce what we can at the social – see you then!
*(venue TBC)
Aug 12
We returned to the Brick Room at Coventry ICE for July’s CWSMC which happily over-ran by about an hour as the chat ranged from (Cov)jam to crystal balls.
After a few introductions we started talking about the recent crowdsourcing attempt by Coventry City Council called CovJam. Using an IBM platform, the idea was to gather ideas online from people who care about Coventry that would then be used to help plan the city’s future.
We then looked at how this had leapt off the ‘official’ CovJam site onto twitter in the form of the #lovecov hashtag and the baby @love_cov bot who you can follow to see all #lovecov tweets in one place (thanks to @predacomdom’s handiwork)
CWSMC co-founder and Perini Networks’ Paul Squires then whipped out his presentation (see below) and the discussion moved on to looking at the history and future of social media and had a quick workshoppy session applying some of the principles of social media to a few real-life case studies.
Jul 06
The next Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is on Friday 16th July from 10am-12pm and you can sign up using EventBrite.
We’re returning to the venue at Coventry University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise or ICE – More venue information here.
We will be back in the Brick Room where we were for April’s CWSMC and if you want to stay on and enjoy ICE in the afternoon then you can with Free Fridays, where anyone can come down, use the free wifi and coffee after CWSMC.
Last month CWSMC had a great session at the University of Warwick’s International Digital Lab. As well as the usual chat and coffees, there was a great talk from Coventry City Council about their Facebook page.
Amongst other things, we learned that it attracted more visitors than the council’s own website, and its non-Cov fans (even 52 from Slough!) mean the page is a good opportunity to paint a positive image of the area to outsiders.
There is an excellent write up of some notes from the session by Steve Woodward and there was plenty of Twitter chatter too.
The full talk was also Qikked by Steve Rumsby, so if you’d like to watch it, set aside about half an hour and have cup of tea and a biscuit to reproduce some of the CWSMC experience.
Thanks as always to our hosts at Warwick University and the Digital Lab, especially Ellie Lovell for making it possible and our guest speakers too.
PS Data manglers event alert – The West Midlands Regional Observatory will be holding an event on the 15th July about Open Data: Challenges and Opportunities. From their website:
This event will set out the challenges and opportunities for public bodies, particularly local authorities, in achieving this. The event will concentrate on recent policy developments in the morning session and on practical application in the afternoon, through sharing examples of best practice and innovation.
(via Andrew MacKenzie)
Jun 11
This month’s Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is on Friday 18th June from 10am-12pm – you can sign up using EventBrite.
We’ll be at the amazing International Digital Lab as this month we are being hosted and sponsored by the University of Warwick (find out more about the venue and how to get to it here).
***UPDATE*** More info about parking etc
Continuing our fantastic run of speakers (last month’s report to follow) we’re really pleased to welcome the eCommunications team at Coventry City Council who recently picked up the Digital & Social Media gold award as part of the LGComms local government awards.
The award was for the Coventry Facebook page, which reported school closures and service disruptions across the city during the snow earlier in the year. The Facebook service has attracted over 12,000 fans since November 2009.
The team will be talking about their award-winning service at the next Cafe event, which will have the usual mix of coffee, pastries and chat where anyone involved in digital can share stories and make connections. As always the event is free thanks to our sponsors, so if you’ve never been to a social media cafe before, come along and if you’re a regular, helps us check out the new venue.
For all the latest information follow @cwmsc on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up now on EventBrite
Of course you can turn up on the day, but it does help to plan for refreshments.
May 18
This month’s Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is this Friday 21st May from 10am-12pm and you can sign up using EventBrite.
Continuing last month’s guest speaker trend, this month we are adding a little drama to the proceedings. We’re pleased to have Gareth Collins and Helen Pollock from the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to talk about their recent forays into social media, especially their Twitter production of Romeo and Juliet, Such Tweet Sorrow.
As usual it will be informal but there will be time for questions and plenty of chat and coffee at the Court Street Creative Arches, Leamington Spa.
For all the latest information follow @cwmsc on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up now on EventBrite
Of course you can turn up on the day, but it does help to plan for the all important pastries!
May 13
The next Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is on Friday 21st May from 10am-12pm and you can sign up using EventBrite.
We’re returning to the venue at the Court Street Creative Arches in Leamington after our adventure to Coventry University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise or ICE.
We were made most welcome in the Brick Room and we’re planning to return again soon. For the first time we also had a guest speaker, Christian Payne (better known as @documentally on Twitter). He took us on a whistle-stop tour of his journey through social media, from turning up at the Leamington Courier as a photographer to ending up in Iraq.
He realised that he could bypass the media when he was getting more hits in a week for an audio and slideshow of images that he could produce himself than the same images would achieve appearing in the Telegraph or Independent. He talked about how to keep hold of his network (using Twitter and other tools) that was initially based around videos posted on YouTube and how a crash in a Land Rover turned this virtual following into something that literally got him out of hole.
A self-confessed early adopter, he also had plenty of tech to talk about and show (indeed but for the ash-cloud, he would have been at Heathrow picking up a hastily shipped iPad!)
So big thanks to Documentally (and the rest of the -mentally family who he talked about including Granumentally and Minimentally) you can see everything he’s up to at his website. It’s definitely something we’ll do again so if you have any suggestions for speakers, then leave a comment below.
ICE played host to us and they were also launching ther Free Fridays, where anyone can come down, use the free wifi and coffee in fantastic surroundings to get on with some work in great company. Director Christine Hamilton told us more about the idea.
So for May we’ll be back in Leamington where as usual it’s a chance to meet other people involved in everything digital and social media. Feel free to arrange a meeting or use it to find out more about the venue at the Court Street Creative Arches.
For all the latest information follow @cwmsc on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up now on EventBrite
Of course you can turn up on the day, but it does help to plan for the all important pastries.
PS If you’re interested in sponsoring CWSMC, then have a look at our sponsors page and either:
Apr 15
April’s Coventry & Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is our first on the road and (giant ash cloud permitting) is being kindly hosted and sponsored by Coventry University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE). We’ll be in the Brick Room tomorrow (Friday 16th April) from 10am-12pm More venue information here. You can sign up now on EventBrite or just turn up on the day.
We’re delighted to have Christian Payne (better known as @documentally on Twitter) as our first guest speaker.
He’s a photographer, videographer and all round media maker who specialises in getting brilliant stuff done using the power of social media. What Christian doesn’t know about social media, probably isn’t worth knowing, so we’re glad he’s visiting his alma mater of Coventry University to chat, drink coffee and eat pastries with us. You can of course find out more about him at his website or better still have a chat with him in meatspace tomorrow.
Also CWMSC’s very own Paul Squires will be appearing on BBC CWR’s breakfast show with Tim and Marian to talk about social media, the election and of course CWSMC – so tune in or catch it on the iPlayer. See you then.
Apr 06
(orginal image by Jingdianqiche adapted under Creative Commons)
After an enjoyable March Cafe, the CWSMC is about to make good on our promises to cover both Coventry AND Warwickshire!
The plan is to keep our base at the Court Street Creative Arches for regular events (so we’ll be back in May, July etc) and on alternate months, go elsewhere.
Our first stop is Coventry University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise or ICE.
They are kindly hosting and sponsoring the April CWSMC on Friday16th from 10am-12pm in the Brick Room. More venue information here. You can sign up now on EventBrite. Paul Squires and Dom Breadmore explain more…
For all the latest information follow @cwmsc on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up now on EventBrite
Of course you can turn up on the day, but it does help to plan for the all important pastries.
PS we are hoping for a surprise guest – watch out for tweets later
Mar 12
The next Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is on Friday 19th March from 10am-12pm and you can sign up using EventBrite.
February’s cafe was a good one with lots of the Listers team coming down for a really good chat about how they use social media, and hopefully picking up some ideas too. Thanks also to Kaz Thomas for sponsoring the coffees.
As well as a chance to meet other people involved in everything digital and social media you can arrange a meeting or just find out more about the venue at the Court Street Creative Arches.
We’re also hoping to have a special announcement about future CWSMCs, so come along to find out first!
For all the latest information follow @cwmsc on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up now on EventBrite
Of course you can turn up on the day, but it does help to plan for the all important pastries.
PS If you’re interested in sponsoring CWSMC, then have a look at our sponsors page and either:
Upcoming Warwickshire social media surgeries
