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, [...]]]> 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.