Paradise Circus

Just a quick post on returning home from the second free Social Media Surgery that we held for Birmingham’s voluntary organisations at the BVSC in Digbeth. As with the first event, tonight’s event was very popular and we hope everyone went home with some practical ideas and the confidence to try them out. We look forward to online activity from organisations including City Centre Neighbourhood Forum, Perry Barr Multifaith Network, the Get Walking Keep Walking project and Digbeth Trust to name but a few.

I’m sure more details will emerge over the next few days about what was achieved (please link to any further info in the comments), but for now, I’d like to say thanks to the following ’surgeons’ for giving up their free time to offer advice to some worthy local voluntary organisations:

• Robert Annable
• Pete Ashton
• Nick Booth
• Jon Bounds
• Joanna Geary
• Nicky Getgood
• Stef Lewandowski
• John Mostyn
• Henry Mostyn
• Phil Oakley
• Stuart Parker
• Antonio Roberts
• Chris Unitt
• Ben Whitehouse
• Gavin Wray

We Share Stuff has announced a new set of Sunday morning internet surgeries in Erdington - building on what else has been developing in Birmingham:

so put Sunday 23rd November in your diaries as the ‘We Share Stuff’ team will be at The Red Couch cafe, Erdington each Sunday morning from 11:00am to around 1:00pm. The surgery will be free to attend and the cafe itself serves a wide selection of drinks and snacks. So if you’re curious about the Internet, want to know how to get a voice online, or merely want to drop by for a chat, please do. The atmosphere is real friendly and we promise not to bombard anyone with jargon. It’s all about showing you how easy the Internet is becoming.

It’s an important reminder than no one needs any formal organisation to be able to offer this help, just somewhere warm with wifi and somebody willing to serve a hot drink or two.

Meanwhile the Birmingham Bloggers group (with space and support from BVSC & the Birmingham 3rd Sector Assembly) is running a second social media surgery for voluntary organisations and community groups from the city Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 from 5.30pm to 7.00pm at the same venue at the first one (BVSC in Digbeth - see map link here). If you came last time you are always welcome to come again. Please sign up by clicking here - just so we know how many folk may turn up.

The original surgeries run by Pete Ashton may be thinner on the ground this winter - unless of course more of us pop along to keep them going - but you can still find him at Rooty’s.

As the FB invites and upcoming feeds will no doubt have informed you the December meet has a bit of a festive flavour — we’re going to go crazy on glühwein and sausages at Birmingham’s  Frankfurt Christmas Market.

Meet under the singing moose at any time after 6pm - Tuesday 9th December, retire to a local pub (the Wellington [EDIT- confirmed]) when you get too cold.

Singing Rudolph by roogi

Did you know they have a Birmingham Market in Frankfurt?

Unless you want to (which is fine)…

Facebook is rubbish, you get so many notification emails that when something comes along you want to know about it slips through the net. No-one’s suggesting that there won’t be FB events for Brum Bloggers meets sent out, but the bestest way is to use upcoming.org and the Brum Bloggers group therein.

You don’t even need to sign up for another site (even tho’ it’s good and it really helps if you go to a lot of gigs), just go along to the page and find the subscribe button.

There are a few options, RSS isn’t the best as you’ll get the events as soon as they get put up — leaving a month for them to slip your mind again, but iCal (for outlook, iCal and other calendars) or the option for Google calendar should be right.

You do need to join Upcoming.org if you want to post events (and join the group to add events to the Brum Bloggers calendar).

As you hopefully have heard, the Birmingham Bloggers’ meets are now taking place in the second week of the month, in order better intersect with the Birmingham Social Media Cafe now taking place on the last Friday of the month.

This means the next one is this Monday !

There’ve been a few requests to have the occasional meeting not in a pub, just to have a change of atmos - but annoyingly non-pub venues that are open on weekday evenings are a bit thin on the ground round here ! As the person with the keys to the safe this month, I’ve picked The Green Room, opposite the Hippodrome (Hurst Street); it’s more of a cafe bar than a pub, so hopefully will go some of the way to attract anybody who’s so far not come because of not liking meeting in pubs.

The usual plan applies - people start to turn up from around 6ish, but come whenever you’re ready, & leave when you feel the time is right.

Event pages on Facebook & on Upcoming

The date is set: Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 5.30pm to 7.00pm at the same venue as the one we ran on Blog Action day in October. To sign up for a free place and find a map to the location please visit this link. In this post we also have an explanation of what is going on, some information for people thinking of coming along to get some advice and a few words for the very fine folk who are offering their expertise for free.

I thought last month was a one off? Yes. So did I. But it worked really well. (more…)