***Note new venue*** Coventry University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise

January’s Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe  of 2011 will be this Friday, the 21st  January from 10am-12pm – you can sign up using EventBrite.

As usual there will be a chance to meet and chat with other people involved in anything and everything digital locall. So come along and meet some new faces and renew some old connections if you’ve been to a CWSMC before.

Our guest speaker will be BBC C&W’s Siobhán Harrison to talk about  Beyond the Blitz – their use of Twitter as if they were a newsroom in 1940, tweeting in real time and sharing news of the day leading up to the Blitz of 14 November 1940.

About Siobhán

After training in Stage Management Siobhán started her career at Birmingham Repertory Theatre and then moved on to Leicester Haymarket Theatre. She left the bright lights to work at East Midlands Arts and then Creative Partnerships in the Black Country.

In 2005, Siobhán joined BBC Coventry & Warwickshire as Creative Programmer and has led and delivered projects such as Big Bard, Singing City Choir, Coventry Market the Musical, Eat your ART out and most recently Beyond the Blitz.

Singing City Choir received a Gold Frank Gillard Community Award. Coventry Market the Musical was nominated for a Sony Award and received a Gold Frank Gillard Award for Multi-platform programming and a Silver Frank Gillard Community Award. It was also nominated in the Midlands Media Awards in the Community Category.

We’ll Tweet Again

As well as serious news, the newsroom tweeted about what daily life was like, including what was on at the cinema and blackout times. The project attempted to be historically accurate and included links to British Pathe newsreel and audio clips like this description of the fall of Coventry Cathedral.

Please note the change of venue – unfortunately the Digital Lab is being refurbished, but we’re delighted that Coventry University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise has stepped into the breach and will be hosting us in the Brick Room as usual.  Parking is limited on site but get there early and you should be fine.  If you can’t fit into the car park, you can park over at the Tech park and have your ticket validated.  See directions on the Venues page.

For all the latest information follow @cwmsc on Twitter and don’t forget to sign up now on EventBrite