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!


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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