One evening at the end of November a few of us from the Midlands trotted down to London for an event called Amplified. The aim of Amplified is to bring together the many digital/social media/innovation networks dotted all over the country – networking the networks.
The idea is to have quarterly, regional events throughout 2009 which will build up to a national event in 2010.
Amplified’s goals are currently being collected into a Manifesto. Briefly, however, they cluster around the idea that effective use of social media can greatly increase a person or group’s ability to communicate, innovate, create and educate.
The first Midlands event will be held in Birmingham sometime around the end of Feb/mid-March. Information about the event will go up on the Midlands section of the Amplified wiki. We had a preliminary meeting about organising this last week, ‘we’ being Toby Moores, Nick Booth, Joanna Geary, Pete Ashton and myself.
At this stage we just need to decide on a date and a venue so I thought I’d try and collect some thoughts.
Dates
Would we get more people:
- at a weekend; or
- mid-week (perhaps starting late afternoon but allowing people to turn up after work and not miss much)
Also it’d be good to avoid clashing with other events. The ones I know of so far are:
- Birmingham Social Media Cafe – Friday 27 Feb
- SXSWi – 13-17 March
Venues
There’s no budget for venue hire (unless anyone’s offering…), but we can perhaps use somewhere like a pub/club that would benefit from a bunch of people buying food and drink at a time when they’re usually empty. Unless someone can suggest somewhere else. Are there any suitable university/college/council venues we could use?
Here’s the rough venue criteria:
- Capacity for around 100-150 people, allowing space to mingle comfortably and not have to shout over each other
- Plenty of small tables and chairs for groups to cluster around to discuss topics
- Availability of food and drink
- A good standard of internet – we can perhaps ask venues to upgrade if we make it worth their while in extra custom
Someone (possibly me) will go around inspecting venues and talking to managers soon.
Sugestions so far:
So, all suggestions for dates and/or venues are welcome at this stage.
Meanwhile, you can declare your interest in attending on the Amplified Midlands wiki.