Heroes to the rescue!

Following yesterday’s plea I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to a couple of heroes who’ve offered to step in and take over Cheltenham Social Media Cafe!

It’s great to know that they’ll be able to take the idea forward and make it happen

More details coming soon…

By: Russell | February 5th, 2010 | Category: social media cafe | Leave a comment

Help!

Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to get Cheltenham SMC moving any time soon, so instead of leaving it to languish I think it’s best to hand it over to someone who’ll be able to devote the time & energy to making it happen sooner rather than later

Apart from the actual organisation of the SMC, there’s also the twitter account & this blog to hand over (though I’m happy to keep hosting for now)

If you’re interested in taking over, please email me at csmc@cheltsocmedcafe.org.uk

Thanks

By: Russell | February 4th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Lack of progress - a quick update

Hello all,

Just wanted to say a quick sorry for the lack of progress with setting up Cheltenham SMC.

Unfortunately a combination of work, sickness & life in general (plus a little bit of laziness) means I haven’t had much time to devote to getting things going.

However, I’m now hoping that the first Cheltenham SMC will happen in the first week of December – watch this space!

UPDATED 16 Dec 2009

Soooo…looks like holding the SMC in the first week of December didn’t happen. Life took over again, but I’ve pencilled in the third week of January for the 1st one to happen. Watch this space…again!

By: Russell | November 11th, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: social media cafe | 2 comments

A special cake discount!

The Vanilla Pod Bakery is generously offering all readers of this blog a 10% discount on their first order of 12 or more cupcakes.

Cake’s a subject dear to my heart, and since first buying some of Vanilla Pod Bakery’s cupcakes at Cheltenham farmers’ market a few weeks ago, I’ve become a big fan.

Visit www.vanillapodbakery.com to find out more about their delicious cupcakes. Mention this blog when placing your first order to claim your discount

You can also follow @VanillaPodChelt on Twitter

By: Russell | October 24th, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: cake, social media cafe | Leave a comment

What next?

So, after visiting Derbyshire SMC and seeing how these things work, and having finally got the blog up and running, I’ve now got to get the Cheltenham Social Media Café happening.

The next step is to find a venue. I’ll be checking out places in Cheltenham over the next few weeks - I’m looking for somewhere with space, flexible seating, coffee (& cake!) and wifi (though a great venue without wifi might be alright if neccessary).

All suggestions are very welcome!

By: Russell | October 6th, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: social media cafe | 3 comments

A research trip

Last week I visited Derby for the first Derbyshire Social Media Café to find out how it works and to see if I could get a few ideas for CheltSMC.

Lots of interesting conversations took place among a diverse group from a range of organisations and it took place in a great venue, the cafè bar in Quad, an arts centre in the heart of the city’s cathedral quarter.

The informality of the event worked well, allowing conversations to flow and develop naturally from subject to subject, and people to come and go through the afternoon.

The available wifi was really useful for looking at examples of websites and services that came up in conversation, as well as tweeting.

Sarah Lay, one of the organisers, wrote an interesting post before the SMC on what the event would & wouldn’t be. I think I’d like to follow a lot of those suggestions.

But I’m completely open to other people’s ideas – I want this to be an SMC for Cheltenham, not for me! So please feel free to contribute your ideas and do get in touch if you’d like to be involved in organising the events, either here or on Twitter.

By: Russell | October 5th, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: social media cafe | Leave a comment

Let's have a social media cafe in Cheltenham!

Inspired by the Tuttle Club in London and the social media cafés springing up around the country, I thought it would be great to have something similar in Cheltenham.

There’s already loads of great activity in the Cheltenham area, including the excellent DigiTalks and I’d like the social media café to complement the things already happening.

Initial thoughts are that the cafe will run in the late afternoon/early evening, so it will be easy for people to drop in on their break or on their way home from work. There’ll be no agenda so that conversations can flow naturally. And there will definitely be cake!

It will be open to everyone – public, private or third sector, people who work with social media or those who want to find out more about it.

At the moment I’m looking for a suitable venue – all suggestions are welcome. If you’re interested in helping to organise the cafe or have any ideas, please let me know.

By: Russell | October 4th, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: social media cafe | Leave a comment