CWSMC

We’ve had not one but both eyes on the weather and as people are finding it hard enough to get to work let alone gather together for coffee and pastries, we have decided to cancel this month’s CWSMC. 

Hopefully the snow will be a distant memory by the time next month’s CWSMC comes around on February 19th.  Let us know if you’re coming or would like to sponsor the event.

Following on from the successful launch of the Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe last autumn, this year we are back in the Court Street Creative Arches with the usual blend of coffee, discussions, and all round good banter.

Taking its cues from the well-known Tuttle Club in London, CWSMC is based on the deliciously simple idea of a putting together a space and time for people to talk about social media over a nice cup of coffee (and pastry).

The Court Street Arches are brand new - an investment in supporting creative businesses from Warwick District Council (see CWSMC featured in the Enterprise Hub newsletter!) - and the coffee and pastries will be free too!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Sign-up and see who else is coming

*****UPDATE*****

With the inclement weather we’re decided to cancel January’s CWSMC as people are finding it hard enough to get to work let alone coffee and pastries.  Hopefully the snow will be a distant memory by the time next month’s CWSMC comes around on February 19th.  Let us know if you’re coming or would like to sponsor the event.

Thanks to everyone who came to last month’s Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe - including first-timers Neil from Xolve (who has office space in Rugby that he is interested in ‘warm-desking’ out - get in touch with him for more details) and the guys from GreenGeek in Sydenham who run a not-for-profit computer recycling company. Thanks to Ruralnet Futures for sponsoring the event (have a sneak preview of their latest website for the Central Warwickshire Villages LEADER programme).

December has turned out to be crazy busy month for all involved, so we’re giving the Cafe a Christmas break, but will be back in 2010 on Janury 15th 10am-12pm - Sign-up now and if you’d like to sponsor the event (covering the cost of coffees and delicious Olive Garden pastries) then get leave a comment or get in touch via twitter or email.

In the mean time have a great Christmas and a very social New Year!

The November Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is taking place tomorrow, 20th November 2009 and this month is sponsored by Ruralnet Futures.

Based in Warwickshire, Ruralnet Futures brings a wealth of experience of web design, consultancy, training and development to help clients and build and use social media and other online tools.

The event is free to attend at the Court Street Creative Arches in Leamington from 10am.  Please sign-up if you’re able to come and we look forward to seeing you there.

In case you haven’t been to a social media cafe before it’s a place to meet up with other local people working in the public, private and charity sectors to talk about what they do and how they do it, online and offline.

Conversations are varied and there are lots of chats about social media - but this is not a geek-fest, it’s about getting people away from their desks for a couple of hours to mix and mingle.  If you’re completely new to social media, or don’t know where it might fit in with your business, organisation or freelance work - pop in and have a coffee, there will be someone around to chat things over with you.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow and don’t forget to spread the word about CWSMC.

This month’s Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is taking place on Friday 20th November and we’re looking for a sponsor to follow in the footsteps of Screen WM and PickleJar Communications who sponsored the first two events.

We just ask to cover the costs of delicious coffees and pastries supplied by the Olive Garden Cafe (about £100) in return we can give you  lots of thanks, mentions and posts on the website and Twitter and a chance to say a few words to a captive audience on the day.

If you’re interested in sponsoring this month or a future cafe, then either:

• leave a comment
• email info@cwsmc.com
• or drop a tweet to @cwsmc

We’d love to hear from you and don’t forget to Sign-up for this month’s cafe.

One of the CWSMC regulars Anthony Williams, New Media Manager at Listers Group is also involved in another local meet-up called the Leamington Multipack Social. A local ‘branch’ of the Multipack community of web developers get together one a month at the White Horse pub in Leamington for a few beers and a chat about anything and everything online.

The next one is on Tuesday 27th October - more info at the Upcoming page or listen to Anthony explaining it in the video below.

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Last Friday the Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe returned to ‘our arch’ for another assault of danish pastries, coffee and chat. A good mix of regulars (if that is possible after just 2 events) and new people meant lots more conversations and connections.

Thanks once again to Ray Smith and Althorpe Enterprise Hub (now on Twitter!) for the venue, to Tracy Playle from PickleJar Communcations sponsoring the coffees supplied by the Olive Garden Cafe and wifi from Konnex Networks. Co-organiser Paul Squires had a couple of words to say which is about the sum total of formal proceedings at the event.

A few tweets also summed up another good morning:

@SoulSailor

Some interesting folk at #cwsmc today SAP finance, drupal developer and a freelance FD in the mix of conversations…

@aBitGone

Had a valuable time at #CWSMC - hearing about what’s being done with social media, and telling people about #Multipack and the socials too!

@RichYork

#cwsmc Hello all, sorry i couldn’t stay longer, hopefully November! It was very enjoyable though.

@steverumsby

Back from #cwsmc. Some interesting conversations and a few new people to follow. Roll on Nov 20th…

Also in the news, Top Tuttler Lloyd Davis has blogged about the spread far and wide of social media cafes (I’m not sure what the collective noun is for social media cafes…a natter?)  and we’re glad to be a small part of this.

Thanks also to the Leamington Observer group of papers for their article (if under a slightly cryptic headline).

We look forward to welcoming new people to the November cafe which will be on Friday 20th November - same place, same time 10am-12pm at the Court Street Creative Arches. For local businesses details of other events are available at the Warwick District Council Business Enterprise website.

Finally don’t forget that the Birmingham Social Media Cafe is next Friday, 30th October, and the first Cheltenham Social Media Cafe will take place some time in November/December (prod, prod:).   Watch this space for exciting news about a Christmas social for Tuttlers up and down the M40…

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since the first cafe, but the next Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe is less than 24 hours away. This month Pickle Jar Communications are sponsoring the coffees and we’ll once again be at the Court Street Creative Arches in Leamington.

For anyone who didn’t make the first cafe, but you’d like to know more, here are a few pointers about what to expect.

What it isn’t:

• Full of long boring speeches or presentations
• Expensive to attend (it’s free)
• Trying to sell you something you don’t want

What it is:

• A chance to meet up with local people from organisations (and individuals) working in the public, private, charity sectors and talk about work and life (digital or not)
• Informal networking over nice coffee and pastries (lots of pastries)
• A place and time to see existing contacts, link up with new ones and possibly seed future collaborations

So if you were going to meet someone anyway, have a meeting here.  There are tables, chairs and wifi and you might bump into someone else you know. If you don’t know anyone already coming but have in interest in things online, digital and social media then this is place to meet other people who think likewise.

Sign up here, (so we’ve got an idea of who’s coming and you can see who else might be around) or just turn up any time between 10am and 12pm - and there’s no need to stay all the time, feel free to dip and and out.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Oh and tell a friend or colleague, or better still bring them along.

We’re really pleased to have Pickle Jar Communications as our sponsor for the next Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe which will be taking place on October 16th 2009.

Pickle Jar Communications is a communications consultancy with specialist expertise in new and social media communications, that was established in 2007 by former University of Warwick employee and Head of Research-TV, Tracy Playle.

The event is free to attend at the Court Street Creative Arches in Leamington from 10am.  Please sign-up if you’re able to come and we look forward to seeing you there.

At about 9.30am on Friday 18th September  there were some mildly nervous Rays (Smith and Betty) and Pauls (Squires and Henderson) getting ready for the first CWSMC. But we needn’t have been worried as we saw the ‘on our way’ tweets coming in and by 10am there was already a great hum of chatter going on as everyone made their assault on the pastry mountain.

The turn out for the first cafe was everything and more than we had hoped for.  About people 25 came, chatted, made contacts and found out more about what is going on around social media in Warwickshire. A really good mix of people from local government, universities, arts organisations, private companies and freelancers came and we are so happy that everyone gave it a punt for the first one.

We kept formalities to a minium (and didn’t want to interrupt the chat and networking) but the few official words we did say were captured below (and broadcast live on Qik by Dom Breadmore)

Some of the other comments that were tweeted

@amy_clarkeuk:

Back in office after the first ever coventry / warwickshire social media cafe - and what a very good cafe it was too! #cwsmc

@matthawthorne:

Good to meet @getgood, @kazThomas at #cwsmc today. Will be going again for sure. Thanks @paulhenderson.

and @katehughes:

I very much enjoyed @cwsmc this morning. Met some lovely folk and got poked in the eye by @paulsq. That’s all I look for in an event really.

Big thanks go to Ray Smith and Warwick District Council for the use of the Court Street Creative Arches (and we’ll be back for the next CWSMC in October), Ray Betty and Konnex Networks for WiMax-ing us up, ScreenWM for sponsoring the coffees and (endless) pastries supplied by The Olive Garden, and Sarah Allen for putting is in touch with Ray and making it all possible.

Thanks to everyone who came especially Philip John all the way from Lichfield (enabling us to compare notes with his social media cafe) and Nicky Getgood from Birmingham with her Talk About Local hat on.

What next?

Well can’t promise to poke your eye out, but we are definitely making this a regular event. So if you came and enjoyed it,  tell your colleagues and friends (especially if they’re not on Twitter) that the 3rd Friday of every month is going to be the date in the diary for the CWSMC.  We’ll be back at the Creative Arches again for the next one on October 16th 10am-12pm.

Sign up on the wiki or just turn up on the day- look forward to seeing you and thanks again for making it such a great event.

• More pictures on Flickr (tag your pictures cwsmc if you took any on the day )
• Tweets tagged #cwsmc