Bits you may have missed this year!

Hello! I've missed you. How have you been? I want to give you a big hug!

I had nearly completed this blog post a week ago and then, BAM!, blogger had other ideas and then deleted the whole flipping lot.

This year is going by scarily fast. I can't keep up with it! Still, it's better than being bored and boring and feeling like time is dragging.

This is a bit of a quick recap of some of highlights of 2013 so far! More to come, I hope. No, there's no 'hope' about it. There will be more highlights if I have anything to do with it.

Let's dive in!

Newsletter: I thought it high time I start a monthly newsletter; Notes on social media, photography and doing the work you love. It's something I think I should have done a long time ago really, but better late than never. There have only been two issues so far and it's been an interesting process, which I've written about here.  Also, there comes with it a little pressure (self imposed I guess) of 'Will people like it? How will I feel if they unsubscribe? Will anyone subscribe to it?'. But sure, you have to try these things and ignore any self doubts or you wouldn't do anything. And I'm so appreciative when someone subscribes! If you would like to get it too, please feel free to subscribe here!

The first and second Birmingham Social Media Cafe events of the year have gone really well with a great turn outs and a interesting mix of social media peeps from the city! 29th March will be the next event so come along if you are in/near/can get to Bham and want to mix and mingle with peeps with a shared interest in social media for work and play! 

Digital City Social Graph by Brian Simpson

I went along to the BBC's Digital News Day in January. It was a day of events aimed at people in involved or interested in digital media in the city. I blogged some hyperlocal thoughts that came from the day and the seemingly increased demand for hyperlocal news sharing.

First London EyeEm Meetup

Photo by the Wheyway

EyeEm is a Berlin based photo app and it's become a very strong rival for instagram, especially after the instagram terms and conditions debacle.

EyeEm ambassadors are getting on board in lots of cities around the world, and I was invited along to the first London EyeEm Meetup which was arranged by Dirk Singer.

Photo by Kaaren. Pay attention everyone! :) 

Check out EyeEm's blog about the chilly but fun photo walk around Greenwich and check out awesome photos from the event. 

'My' book launch!

For the first time I have contributed to a book! And not just any old book, it's the Community Lover's Guide To Birmingham!  My chapter was a about the 4am Project and creating a global project from scratch and not waiting for the right time or any one's permission. The chapters should be available to read free online sometime, so I'll give it a shout out then! Lorna Prescott has made a great Storify about the launch event!

Being Social!

One of my goals this year is to be more social. The going-out-and-seeing-people-in-person kinda social. A friend said that he thought I go out and about all the time, but really, I don't! I can be quite a hermit, lost in my own happy world of work. I know that I do need to get out more and meet up with friends more often, so with that in mind, I'm arranging Being Social Days. I'll pick a day, get in touch with friends, and schedule a whole day of meeting and chatting and catching up. So far so good! I think this is a nice addition to my generally going out and about!

There's a few of my highlights of the year so far. I am seriously scared about how fast this year is going!

And I really don't want to neglect this blog. I guess Karen Strunks Media is getting it's share of blog posts, but I do want to spread them out evenly. If in doubt, just stop by karenstrunks.com which is where I keep track of everything under one roof!

How is your year going so far? Is it going to quickly? Is it exciting enough? Do you need more excitement in it? What are you looking forward to the most?! We've still got about 10 months to fill! :)

Say Hi on twitter @karenstrunks 

The week that was and what I got up to

I slept really, really well last night and it's no wonder. When I woke up this morning the first thought I had was, 'Did I really do all that this week?!'.

The answer was, 'Yes, I did.' ;)

So, without further ado, I'm going to give an abbreviated version of the highlights from this week. I'd love to dedicate a blog post to each event, but hey ho!

Day out in Lichfield 

Me and my Lovely Mum, @createdineire, had a jolly nice day out in Lichfield last Friday. I hadn't been there before and it's only about 20 miles away. We had a nice time just wandering around this old city, browsing the shops, having a delicious lunch and of course we couldn't leave without visiting the cathedral.

Lichfield Cathedral

Mum lit a candle for me saying "This is for you and that you'll get back to NYC. You have a year to get there", coz I won't shut up about the place lol. 

Top Secret

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday I knuckled down to work on something Big (to me anyway!). My Dad used to tell me 'You don't have to tell everybody, everything, all of the time' and in the case of this Big Thing, I'm keeping it under my hat, for now. It required immense use of my brain power and it may well be one of the biggest challenges I've set myself (as well as NYC that is!). I really had to knuckle down and draw on my resources and hopefully it will pay off. If it does, or it doesn't, I will reveal all either way later in the year!

Speaking at Yardley Photography Society

On Tuesday evening I did a talk at the Yardley YPS. I was booked to do this almost a year ago - they plan their speakers quite well in advance.

I first thought my talk was going to be about 20-30 minutes, but soon realised it was for 90 minutes which made this into my longest talk to date!

It was in two 45 minute sections. The first half I went right back to the beginning of my photography career - how and why I started, what I did next, how I turned my passion into a career for myself. The second half I talked about the 4am Project. I showed over 100 photos in all.

The very first photos I took with a digital camera. So out of focus!

My published work in the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail newspapers

Professional Photography shoots

My first 4am Project photographs

New for this year! My Wedding Photography Services!

Digital Editor's Network

On Thursday I headed up to Manchester for the day, well to Media City in Salford to be more precise.

As well as looking forward to the Digital Editor's Network event, I was quite looking forward to my first visit to Media City.

I was really impressed with Media City itself. You could live there and never need to leave. It has apartments, a big shopping centre, cinema, restaurants and tons of business and places to work, including of course, the BBC.

The day ahead was all about innovations in Social, Local and Mobile in relation to new organisations.

Speaking at the event were Nick Turner, Head of Digital Content for CN group, Martha Stone CEO at World Newsmedia  Network, Francois Nel from Journalist Leaders Programme, Sarah Hartley from the Guardian (and of course talk about local!), Aiden McGrath from Aetopia, Paul Bradshaw from Help Me Invesigate and Greg Hadfield from Open Data Cities.

What a power house of people!

This really deserves a blog post of it's own. This was all about journalism, surviving in these difficult time, how to make money from digital assets (it's the way to go), with some amazing facts, figures and data being produced. You can catch some of the highlights over on the Live Blog and I did a very quick Storify from the hashtag of the day #solomoden (but twitter wouldn't let me catch all the tags) and they are worth a look to get an idea of the amazing discussions that were going on!

Birmingham Social Media Cafe

Yesterday was the 2nd Birmingham Social Media cafe of 2012 (the next event is on Friday 30th March at the Birmingham Town Hall. It's free and for anyone who is interested in using social media for work or play. There were about 40 attendees, so there's always lots of peeps to meet!

One of the reasons I took over the running of the event was that I know that as least once a month I will get the chance to go out and meet people, see friends and Be Social! I run quite a tight schedule work wise so I welcome this event at the end of the month. And if you want to 'pick my brains over coffee', this is the best place to catch me! :)

And that was the week that was!

And the week that will be....

Monday - Liverpool delivering a talk about local workshop

Tues - A day in Fazeley with the talk about local team

Weds - Stoke with Nicky delivering talk about local workshop and Wednesday evening having a phone chat with a lady who loves what I do online and would like help with blogging and starting her own website.

Today I'm catching with with 'stuff' (work) and cracking on with the 4am Project launch (there will be a global date in April), and tomorrow is pretty much the same!

Re availability..... It's very limited at the moment and I'm having to say No more than Yes right now and it will be that way until June, so feel free to ask away, but don't be disappointed/offended if I don't say yes.

Right now, I'm going to do some housework (yaaawwwwnnn!) and try not to throw away my tv (the built-in dvd player keeps switching itself on so I'm having a battle of wills with it at the moment).

Have a fab weekend! :)

Say Hello on Twitter @karenstrunks


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On the road with talk about local

Hello!

Thought I'd forgotten how to blog? No waaaaay!

I've just been a busy bee.

And I've been covering some miles with talk about local delivering workshops and helping people get up and running with their own hyperlocal community websites. I've been to Liverpool and Acton in London (which I haven't blogged about), but I am going to tell you about the Redruth and Walthamstow sessions that me and Nicky covered.

Redruth. It's waaaay down in the corner there and it meant quite a long journey. Probably about 7 hours from door to door for both of us, so this workshop involved an overnight stay.

We were really lucky and found a great 2 bed apartment to stay in and it worked out a great price at only £80 for both of us for the one night. If you are ever down that way, check out the Penrose Apartments. 

As soon as we arrived I did a little video tour....

We grabbed a bite to eat in the evening, which wasn't as easy as it sounds as a lot of places were closed in the town centre or didn't do food or didn't cater for wheat/gluten free (for me), but eventually we found a cosy corner in a cafe area inside a cinema. 

We had a relatively early night as we had our workshop early the next morning with Questions and Answers CIC. And you can check out Nicky's blog post about it over on the talk about local site.

We had a great turn out of about 18 people from various organisation around the area who were all keen to get cracking with creating their new Wordpress websites. 

I see me and Nicky as a Wordpress tag-team on our training sessions! Nicky demonstrating what can be done and how to do it, and I address the raised hands and answer any tech/help queries as we go along. Perfect!

Nicky talking about her hyperlocal website Digbeth Is Good

                                       

After the session I took the opportunity to get some Vox Pops and asked people what they thought of the session. 

And you can check out what everyone had to say in the video below. It was worth the long journey and the overnight stay! :)



And a couple of Saturday's ago we hit The Mill in Walthamstow! 

11.30 - 3.30 Website development

The Mill is a hub for the local community. It runs classes and courses, it has a library, it has a poetry night, and a reading group. There's tons on offer for the people in the area.

I was rather taken with this Awesome Rhino!

And they had a great art exhibition on. This is call Shrine of the Times and it's made out of junk food and drink containers. 

And they also had local artists displaying their work themed around LOVE! I took a video.

Sorry, you are going to have to tilt your head to the left to watch it! ;D



This was the first all female workshop we had run! No one planned it that way, it's just the way it happened to work out. Everyone was in good spirits and the session went really well.

On the first Saturday in Feb the talk about local team headed to Local Gov Camp NW in Preston for the day. and we all contributed to a round-up blog post of that day. A very inspiring day, cut a tiny bit short because of the snow. 

Tomorrow I'm off to Manchester to the Digital Editor Network event , Monday I'm off to Liverpool for a talk about local workshop, and Wednesday in Stoke On Trent for another workshop! 

Oh, and while I'm at it, it's the Birmingham Social Media Cafe this Friday! @birminghamsmc

Yay! I blogged :) 

Say hello on Twitter: @karenstrunks 

What I have done and what I am going to do.

I fancy doing a quick re-cap of what I have been up to, and what I've got coming up soon!

One of the things I've loved about having this blog in the last year is it's a great place for me to keep track of what I've done and it makes it easy for me to refer back to an event/occasion - plus I get to share it with you too! :)

Last Thursday took me to Speke in Liverpool to deliver a talk about local training session with my colleague Mike Rawlins. There's a whole heap of potential for this area when it comes to having an online voice, and we helped representatives from organisations in the area get up and running with their own Wordpress website which will act as a 'hub' for all their activities, and we will be going back later in Feb to finalise the training.

Then on Friday it was the first Birmingham Social Media Cafe event of 2012 and it got off to a great start! Over 60 attendees from all sorts of industries met, networked and talked social media and the coffees were kindly sponsored by Meegloo - a great, free social media app! The next event is on Friday 24th Feb at the Birmingham Town Hall. It's free. So if you are interested in using social media for work or play, and want to meet like minded people, then please come along! Check out the Storify from last week where you can see photos/video and what people were tweeting about the BSMC!

Photo by Adam Yosef

On Saturday I had a Very Nice Day Out with my Mum in Warwick. I thought I hadn't been there before, but actually I had, many years ago, but I didn't see very much of it back then. I was really impressed with this small town. I have been to the famous Warwick Castle before - it's well worth a visit. I really loved the dungeon part!

There seemed to be more independent shops in the High Street so that was a welcome sight. And there are lots of antique shops with unique items such as

In the olden days, men with mustaches used to use these tea cups to keep their upper lip dry!

I have my eye on these beauties. If you don't mind, ta ;)

And although I didn't buy the earrings, my mum treated me to a new purse, and I treated me to a new red handbag!

On Sunday evening I went out with a few friends to Loco Lounge in Kings Heath. It was my first time there, and I really liked it! It was quiet as it was a Sunday night, but that more than suited me and was a lovely night chilling and chatting and sharing a few drinks.

This Wednesday I'm going all the way to Redruth (pronounced 're-DRUTH)' in Cornwall and delivering a talk about local workshop. I'm meeting Nicky there and we are staying overnight as the workshop is early on Thursday morning. It's looking to be a great workshop with over 20 attendees! I also can't wait to see Nicky, as she moved away from Birmingham in the new year, so it will be great to have a catch up!


View Larger Map

On Saturday I'm off to Preston to Local Gov Camp North West.

LocalGovCamp is an unconference (no charge, no agenda) for people mostly working in or around Local Government to get together for a few hours and talk about stuff.

There's nearly 100 people going, and there will be lots of talk of new digital developments, social media, data, and how to share what's going on, just for starters!

And whilst I'm in that neck of the woods, I'm meeting up with my best friend for dinner and a catch up.

It's going to be a great day!

There we go. That's what has and will be keeping me busy for now :)

Say hello on twitter: @karenstrunks

My 4am Project interview in Touch Base magazine 2011 and what I've been up to in 2012

About a year ago I did an interview about the 4am Project with Jayne Howarth for Touch Base Magazine.

I received the pdf recently, so here it is in all it's glory! Thanks Jayne.

If you click it, it will become bigger!

Just wanted to mention that really. I like to keep a note of interviews etc when I can and keep an online record.

2012 is in full swing. I'm just keeping my head down and getting things done. 

Though I have had my first nights out of 2012 last weekend. Yeah, party animal!

They were much needed as I hadn't been out properly since before Christmas - when I managed to catch a bad cold. 

Night 1 was an evening of drinkies and cocktails with a very good friend who I hadn't seen for far too long! She's a fantastic lady, who is so supportive and amazing to be around. 

Night 2 was a party to celebrate Nicky's and Sas's birthdays! Fantastic night and great to catch up with good friends who I had't seen for a while. I also got a bonus belated birthday pressie from Sas! 

Perfect! A lovely mix of Red and Animal Print. My favs!

I had a good excuse to wear my Big Hair Bow!

On Monday it felt like New York City was calling me. I received this stunning gift from a friend. The photo doesn't do it justice. I'm keeping on my desk right in front of my monitor so I look at it every day. 

Then when I got home, I post card from my NYC pen friend was on my door mat! 

They both made me really happy! 

Yesterday myself and Nicky went to Acton in London to deliver a talkaboutlocal training workshop. It went really well, and we have got some new people starting their wordpress hyperlocal blogs. 

I was catching a train back to Birmingham from Euston and mentioned this to my best friend who lives in Cumbria. Well, she was only travelling home from London from Euston at the same time, so we were able to snatch 10 minutes best friend time together! Yay! It's always great to see her, even though it was for such a short about of time. We are meeting up again in Preston as I'm going to Local Gov Camp and we are seeing each other afterwards for dinner. And I just CANNOT wait for March as we are having a long weekend away in a 17th century cottage in the middle of nowhere in Wales! 

Me and my BFF!

This Saturday I'll be going to the first Birmingham Girl Geeks events and doing a little talk about social media and the 4am Project. It's free to come along, and boys can come too! See you there I hope :) 

Next week I'm off to Liverpool for a talkaboutlocal training day. We have quite a few workshops coming up so I'll be heading to Cornwall, Southminster, and back to London a couple of times soon! 

Then on Friday 27th it's the first Birmingham Social Media cafe event of the year. Come along to that too. It's free, and a great place to meet creatives and businesses who share a love for social media. Meegloo are sponsoring coffee! Check out Meegloo's free app too! 

Oh, and I've written a chapter of a book! It's for the Community Lover's Guide To The Universe that Podnosh is curating and the Birmingham edition is called Militant Optimists; people who knuckle down, get things down , give things a go and get the community involved. For my chapter I have written about the 4am Project.  The book should be out in the next few months and an online version will be available to download for free. I'll keep you posted!

Okay, gotta dash! Just a flying update. Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks :)

My diary management

Hi! How's your new year going?

Mine is going well thank you! Especially now I am over the cold that slowed me down over my Christmas and New Year holiday. Hurrah!

So, last week I talked about how I have moved my to-do list over to workflowy (one week in and it's working out well so far!).

Today, I want to mention the progression of my diary management over the last couple of years and how I am working on perfecting that. I am also tracking where I spend my time, and I'll blog about that next. I am aiming for a super efficient 2012, and there's always room for improvement!

Up until Feb 2011 I kept track of my commitments with a traditional week-to-view diary. I had been using that type of diary for a good few years (always a silver WHSmith diary. It became a tradition every December to buy one). As the year went by the pages would become more dog eared, and I liked that. This year I haven't bought one, but I kind of feel I should just because I am so used to see it sitting in it's place on my desk!

However, as my work, commitments and areas of interest progressed I knew I needed to take it to the next level, which for me was Google Calendar.

This felt so clean! And I could account for time hour by hour. And all those hours to fill! Whooohooo!

I devised a multi coloured calendar. Each colour representing a different task; social, work, running, time off, blogging etc.

And this is what the result was. Ta da!! So many colours, so pretty! ;)

BUT after a couple of months of this type of diary management I could see it's flaws. 

Yes, I could account for every hour, but as you can see, some days involved jumping from task to task. And more often than not, the tasks took longer than the time I had allocated for it. And then I would have to jiggle things about and it became a bit much really. I also hadn't given myself any room for maneuver. 

So, I had a think and devised a new type of schedule which allowed longer for each task so I wasn't jumping about so much, plus I gave myself more room and flexibility by introducing Leeway Days! 

Leeways days are time I reserved in my diary and keep empty as I've learnt that something unexpected will come up each week, it could be an event, work, or perhaps I need more time to work on something. Or just have some time off! It's handy to have some time in reserve if something needs to be juggled about or re-scheduled. 

These leeway days have been a really beneficial addition. I highly recommend them. 

These first few months of this year are looking to be busy ones already, and I'm looking forward to them and seeing what 2012 brings. 

And if you are looking for some events to fill up your diary with, you won't go wrong with these social media get togethers in Birmingham:

Birmingham Girl Geeks

Website

Twitter

Saturday 21st January

2.30-5.30pm

at Urban Coffee, Church Street, Bham

A meet up for geeky girls and women in Birmingham. And men can come too! Just grab a girl and put your name down. You can come there with me if you want!

I'll be doing a short talk there about social media and the 4am Project. 

Wordpress Birmingham Meet Ups

Website

Twitter

Wednesday 11th Jan (and monthly thereafter)

6.30-11pm

at The Old Joint Stock, 4 Temple Row, Birmingham

WordPress Birmingham (UK) is a monthly meetup group based in Birmingham, UK (unsurprisingly), aimed at bringing together WordPress designers, developers and site owners.

And not forgetting of course......!

Birmingham Social Media Cafe

Website

Twitter

Friday 27th Jan (and every last Friday of the year)

10am-midday

at Birmingham Town Hall, Victoria Square, Birmingham

The Birmingham Social Media Cafe is a place for people interested in social media to gather, get acquainted, chat, plot, scheme and share!

There we go!

How do you manage your diary? Any tips to share? :)

Say hello on twitter: @karenstrunks

Winding down for the rest of the year

Or that was the plan. But it hasn't really work out that way. It's my own fault. I find it hard to slow down. Besides, what would I do if I wasn't doing the things I love?

Having said that I've blocked out 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year and there's NOTHING in my diary! And I have the best intentions of keeping it that way. No schedule. No appointments. No commitments. No nothing. Looking back this year, I've only had one week off and even then I was away somewhere or other. I'd like to think I'll spend my two weeks off chilling at home and watching films and pottering about. Let's see what happens with that idea, ha!

A quick blast of some of the highlights of Nov and this month so far.

Fierce Earth Course.

This was 2x two days away at the Stratford Manor Hotel (4 stars! yay). I could write a years worth of blog posts about this course I'm sure. If Fierce Earth run the course again, try and get on it. Before I went on it, I asked an attendee from a previous Metapod course what they thought of it, and would they recommend it - "It's changed my life!" they responded. What a testimonial! But do you know what, I can understand it. It's helped me shape a sharper picture of my work, ideas and business. Things that have been milling around in my mind for the past year are now taking shape with more clarity and focus. If I could do the course again, I would.

talk about local 

Myself and Nicky delivered a workshop on hyperlocal blogging in Evesham which went really well and all the participants were up and running by the end of the day. We also had a big team visit to That London. We are quite geographically dispersed as a team, and while it's great to be able to work from anywhere, it's always fab to get together offline too.

York

I've already blogged about a ace weekend I had in York with my mum. We are aiming for a weekend away together in Canterbury next year!

Birmingham Youtube Gathering


A couple of weeks ago I popped along to my first youtube meetup. It was really well attended (over 50!). It was held over the Saturday and Sunday, but I just went on the Saturday afternoon. If you love youtube and love meeting up offline watch out for the next one in 2012. Keep an eye on @chapperztv @jordanngv @gordycamp as they are the organisers. If you can't see my video here, pop over to youtube



Birmingham Social Media Cafe

I held the last Birmingham Social Media Cafe event of 2011. Christmas is in the way of this month, but the cafe is back on 27th January! If you haven't been before, please come along! It's held on the last Friday of every month and it's for anyone with an interest in social media, whether you use it for work or play. It's a great place to meet people offline, make new friends and connections. It's also a really casual and friendly event. You can follow BSMC on twitter @birminghamsmc and join the 500+ member facebook group too! Meegloo is sponsoring coffees in January. Check it out - it's a fab, free, social media app for your iphone, ipad or ipod. If you or your company would like to sponsor coffees (up to £200) at a social media cafe event next year, just give me a shout. It's a great way to reach the social media community in Birmingham!

Birmingham Airport's Christmas Drinks

My first Christmas 'do' of the season! It was held at Hotel Du Vin in the city centre. I've done some social media reporting for the airport on my press trips so it was really nice to get an invite to the night. There was a mix of airports, airlines, media peeps, press and travel bloggers there and it was a fab night out.

Fierce Earth's Christmas drinkies

As this post is a bit devoid of photos - The People's Shop festive window display!

And that brings us up to last night! This get together was for all the peeps that went on the Metapod course this year and was held at The People Shop in Kings Heath. I had my first mulled wine of the season and it was lovely to catch up with peeps and get an inspiration fix.

This week coming is nice and varied. Sunday lunch with a friend. A meeting about Birmingham and mapping city council service request data. A twitter Secret Santa meet up. A day delivering social media training.

In the meantime I'll leave you with one of my fav Christmas songs! Christmas doesn't officially start until my friend Midge posts this video! :)

Goodbye July - Hello August - A belated mid year review

With the start of a new month and well into the second half of the year I've been doing some Deep Thinking.

Am I where I want to be?

If not, where do I want to be?

How am I going to get there?

How do I want to spend my time?

Perhaps this is a mid-life review (I have a Big Birthday coming up in October!).

So far this year has been one of the best yet! I've done most of the things I set out to do in the new year (but there's still a few things outstanding), I've learnt a lot, had some amazing experiences, feel I've got a better control on time management (there's still never enough) and I've never been so productive.

What I've realised this year is how much I thrive on excitement and having something to look forward to. It's almost like the more exciting things that happen, the more I want. I'm not satisfied with waiting for things to happen, I try and make things happen. I guess it boils down to having the life I want. I've got no ties (husband to consider/kids) except a mortgage. I feel that I'm in a great position to do all the things that I would like. Also, looking at the bigger picture, I want to have some great memories to look back on when I'm old! :D
But back to now....

July ended on a high with three great events in succession.

Last Thursday I made my way to London town to meet up with my Talk About Local colleagues for the Nominet Awards held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Talk About Local were short listed in the Nurturing Powerful Local Partnerships category. Unfortunately we didn't win on this occasion, but it was great to be shortlisted and be in with a shot. It was a brilliant night all round. I'm really proud to be working with Talk About Local, doing a job I love with great team members.

Me, Will Perrin, Ellie Stoneley, Mike Rawlins, Clare White Sadly our Nicky Getgood wasn't able to attend the event due to illness and she was sorely missed.

It's always nice to have an excuse to dress up!

It was a 5am start on Friday morning and with just 3.5 hours sleep I made my way back to London for the Birmingham Social Media Cafe event. This is the second event I've run since being handed over the reigns and it went really well. There was a great turn out and lots of new faces too. I'm trying to spread the word and grow the event. If you have an interest in social media and want to meet other creatives and business in and around Birmingham, then this is the event for you! The next event is on Friday 26th August at the Birmingham Town Hall from 10am-midday. Hope you can make it! @birminghamsmc

Photograph by Charles Davis

With such a short sleep on Thursday night, I certainly made up for it on Friday night with eleven hours! I needed it and it set me up nicely on Saturday for a full day of wedding photography. Going back to my goals for this year, I'll be announcing my wedding photography services this month.

And now it's August!

I'm actually going to have a bit more free time this month and I'm deciding how to spend it. I'm aware that the month will fly by all too quickly. I'm going to re-view my to-do list and make a plan. At this point during the year I have realised I have reached my limit on the things I can take on, but not wanting to miss out on anything either I've scheduled in some 'leeway' time into my diary should something too good to turn down present itself. The leeway days I've already put in my diary in the last month or so have already proved useful. Before then I was filling each day of the week to the hilt (except Sundays, my day off), and that left me with little room for maneuver.

Here's to a happy, productive, exciting August for everyone! How are your new year goals going? :)

I'm taking over the running of the Birmingham Social Media Cafe!

I am delighted to announce to that I will be taking over the running of the Birmingham Social Media Cafe!

It is an honour to be passed the baton by Chris Unitt and Ian Ravenscroft who have been doing a fabulous job of running the Cafe for the last 18 months or so after being handed the reigns by founder Joanna Geary. Thank you to Joanna, Chris and Ian for doing such a great job with the event!

You may be asking "What is the Birmingham Social Media Cafe?"

From the website: The Birmingham Social Media Cafe is a place for people interested in social media to gather, get acquainted, chat, plot, scheme, and share. If you’re interested in the future of media, how we organise, share, produce and enjoy it, then come along. If you’re an artist, film maker, geek, marketer, academic, musician, designer, writer, photographer, or anything close or related, then please come along.

It is held on the last Friday of every month from 10am until around midday, or longer if you are busy meeting and chatting! The venue can vary a little, but recent venues have included Birmingham Town Hall, Cafe Blend and the Coffee Lounge so keep an eye on the website or twitter for the latest update

I remember the first time I attended the Social Media Cafe about 3 years ago. I was just making my first steps into the online/social media world and making online connections with people in Birmingham. Attending the cafe was a great opportunity to meet those online connections face to face and say hello.

As mentioned above, it's open for anyone to attend so if you haven't been before, don't be shy, come along! You are guaranteed to meet a friendly and interesting group of people. If it's your first time, just give me a shout and I'll introduce you to folks.

You can follow the Birmingham Social Media Cafe on twitter: @birminghamsmc and you can find me @karenstrunks

See you there! :)