TEDxSalford (28 Jan 2012): 10 hours of mind-blowing inspiration

2012 can already be dubbed the TEDx year for me, as it’s only mid-March and I have already attended and even contributed to two TEDx events! First up was TEDxSalford in late January and 2 weeks later it was TEDxManchester!

TEDxSalford took place on a very sunny Saturday (28th January) at the futuristic Lowry building in Media City, Salford.

I was tweeting for most of the event  (or when my phone battery was not dead!) and I have compiled below a list of all my relevant tweets and retweets both from the day and in the build-up to the event. I am going to add later on some notes I took while I couldn’t tweet! Hopefully the tweets convey the spirit of  TEDxSalford, which can be summarised as follows: @TEDxSalford was mindblowing! So much intellect, so much empathy, so much emotion, all rolled into one .

The Tweets

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Jeremy Rifkin: Primitive man’s mind: food, shelter, sex / Modern man’s mind: beer, coffee, apps ! @TEDxSalford http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_on_the_empathic_civilization.html
30 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Amy Purdy: If you were writing a book about your life, how would you like it to go? TEDTalk 3 @TEDxSalford #TEDxSalford http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_purdy_living_beyond_limits.html
In reply to TEDxSalford
30 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

@herbkim @TEDxSalford was mindblowing! So much intellect, so much empathy, so much emotion, all rolled into one. A blog post is in order!
In reply to Herb Kim
30 Jan
Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Hello! Great to see you @TEDxSalford ! I’m still buzzing! RT @astrondrew: @ar3toul4ki hello fellow skeptic and tedx person.
28 Jan
TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford 

The Key A CALL TO ACTION #Tedxsalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan
Unity Node ‏ @UnityNode

“WE are the story here… the collaboration itself, not the technology – the people who affect real change.” -@astro_ron #tedxsalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan
Unity Node ‏ @UnityNode

“Nothing is impossible.” -@astro_ron #tedxsalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan
Charlie Buckwell ‏ @charliebuck123

Ron Garan – awe inspiring film of lapping earth, sunrise, moonrise, aurora borealis – #TEDxSalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Unity Node ‏ @UnityNode

“The question is what kind of world do you want?” – @Astro_Ron #tedxsalford http://www.flickr.com/photos/fragileoasis/5585060181/
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan
Gemma Cameron ‏ @ruby_gem

Oh. My. Eyes!!! I just saw an aurora FROM SPACE! S P A C E #TEDxSalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan
Ben Davies ‏ @_bendavies

Just met an astronaut! He saw 16 sunrises a day. More importantly, introducing the orbital perspective – http://unitynode.org/ #Tedxsalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

@Astro_Ron: people think of something as impossible, just cos it has never been done before. Nothing is impossible! #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

@Astro_Ron: man-made borders distract from the fact that we’re all in this together #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

@Astro_Ron: i came back to earth with a commitment to refuse to accept the status quo #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

@Astro_Ron: you don’t have to be in orbit to have a global perspective #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Can’t believe I just saw @Astro_Ron speak @TEDxSalford. I’ve been following his tweets from space and later on Earth for ages! #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Trevor Cox: creating spontaneous bass wobble down the Manchester canal! #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Trevor Cox: the Beecham Tower hum revisited #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Trevor Cox: how to create bass wobble by clapping your hands in-between S-shaped walls (Mmm gives me some ideas) : D #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford

Dr. Umut Kose explaining to the audience what neutrinos are #heavyparticlephysics #TEDxSalford #Manchester
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Umut Kose: each of us produces 340 million neutrinos per day that reach the farthest corners of the universe #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Gemma Cameron ‏ @ruby_gem

“Do you remember your first time with the Internet?” #TEDxSalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan
TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford

Tom Hingley talking about the Death of Copyright at #TEDxSalford. Watch the live stream now! #TEDx #TED #Manchester
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki

Tom Hingley: a bleak future where augmented reality rearranges shop shelves to show you what you OUGHT to want to buy #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets): old bands prob reform in order to make money to buy their sound recordings off the record labels#TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets): that’s what record labels are now – content businesses #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets): we’ve moved away from BC and AD to BEFORE INTERNET and AFTER INTERNET #TEDxSalford

28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets): the current copyright laws are useless #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Anne Lise Kjaer: good moms have sticky floors, dirty ovens but happy kids : ) #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford

Tomorrow’s World #Tedxsalford
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Anne Lise Kjaer: the triple P bottom line: people, planet and only then profit #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Anne Lise Kjaer: more inclusion with WE-conomics rather than ME-conomics #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Anne Lise Kjaer: our love affair with economic growth hasn’t brought us happiness #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Anne Lise Kjaer: the future is not some place we go to, we have to create it #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Anne Lise Kjaer: we are bombarded by contradictory messages, we have to be fast and efficient but also worry about our health #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

@Jordan_Zadeh ah shame. @TEDxSalford is awesome. Hope you still manage to enjoy yourself
In reply to Jordan Ahmadzadeh
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

@retsillac well being still alive is very convincing : p
In reply to @CnallA
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Benedict Allen: i nearly died 9 times but i didn’t, because of a) PREPARATION and b) BELIEF IN MYSELF #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Benedict Allen: my new indigenous friends were crying as i was leaving+said “the sad thing is no one will be around to bury you”#TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Benedict Allen: when you’re being shot at, you can’t really stop and ask them WHY #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Edward Stafford: I knew I had to keep my sense of humour to keep going, when i actually also knew IT WASN’T FUNNY! #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Edward Stafford: i was tweeting+blogging from the middle of the Amazon all the time. Knew Michael Jackson was dead within 2mins #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Nathan Rae ‏ @nathanrae

I’m live streaming the #TEDxSalford event at http://www.tedxsalford.com/live  Great speeches so far so check it out!
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Irene Khan: The law of demand and supply applies to justice as well. DEMAND it and you ll get it (eventually) #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

Irene Khan: Violence against women is not a social problem, it’s a human rights problem #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

looking forward to tweeting the awesome speakers ‘ pearls of wisdom #TEDxSalford
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

RT @TEDxSalford: The official twitter hashtag = #TEDxSalford Less than 1 hour to go! #TEDx #TED #Manchester #mediacityuk #Salford
28 Jan

Ed Stafford ‏ @Ed_Stafford 

Speaking at @TEDxSalford at 10:50am. Its being live streamed over the Net at http://www.tedxsalford.com/live  Some great speakers: http://www.tedxsalford.com/event/speakers
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

@Jordan_Zadeh see you around. I’m @The_Lowry all day for @TEDxSalford : )
In reply to Jordan Ahmadzadeh
28 Jan

Gemma Hargreaves ‏ @GemmaHargreaves

Set up for @TEDxSalford at @The_Lowry – what a view! Say hi if you’re here  http://twitter.com/#!/GemmaHargreaves/status/163186229221924864/photo/1
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

sphey1 ‏ @sphey1

The sun is shining so well up for a day of enlightenment at @TEDxSalford today – exciting
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
28 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki 

@cubicgarden Yes i should be tweeting furiously all day from @TEDxSalford tomorrow!
In reply to Ian Forrester
28 Jan

TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford

Dont miss out on an official NASA astronaut appearance in #Manchester this January only at #TEDxSalford. Register now: http://www.tedxsalford.com/event/registration
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki

17 Jan

TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford

Tickets still available for #TEDx #Salford – check out our speakers lineup: http://www.tedxsalford.com/event/speakers #Manchester #MediaCityUK
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki

15 Jan

TEDxSalford ‏ @TEDxSalford
27 Healthy Habits of Happiness http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/09/18/27-healthy-habits-of-happiness/
Retweeted by Maria Ar3toul4ki
15 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki
@jotbe danke danke! #TEDxSalford should be special!

11 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki
I’m in! Just got my ticket confirmation! Can’t wait! RT @TEDxSalford: Registrations for #TEDx #Salford still open - http://www.tedxsalford.com/event/registration

11 Jan

Maria Ar3toul4ki ‏ @ar3toul4ki
That was close! RT @TEDxSalford: Tickets still available for #TEDxSalford http://tedxsalford.com/event/speakers Astronauts, Scientists, Explorers!

9 Jan

FutureEverything 2011 – The Future is now (here in Manchester!)

Today saw the launch of the very interdisciplinary (some would say “transdisciplinary” even) FutureEverything Festival (previously Futuresonic) , a long-running and world-renowned annual Conference and Festival of Technology and Innovation, Art and Music running from the 11th to the 14th May in Manchester , UK (@FuturEverything #futr).  Apart from the annual May events,

FutureEverything creates year-round Digital Innovation projects that combine creativity, participation and new technologies to deliver elegant business and research solutions.   In 2010 we launched the FutureEverything Award, an international prize for artworks, social innovations or software and technology projects that bring the future into the present.

I have always made a point to attend at least one music or art event every year since 2007 (when the Festival was still called Futuresonic) and I have always been particularly interested in the forward-thinking Digital Technologies Conference.  So I was over the moon when I was invited to participate in the Conference and informally share my words of wisdom on speech and language technologies for emotional computing. Armed with my complimentary Festival Pass, I am now really looking forward to 2 days (Thu 12 – Fri 13 May 2011) packed with presentations, discussions and debates on: Urban Games and Virtual Identities, Robots  and Smart Cities, open data and participatory democracy. community-serving Geeks and Hackers, Open source software and citizen inclusion, and one of my favourites, emotional computing: making human-computer interfaces personable, engaging and persuasive and interaction with them more intuitive and even fun.

The FutureEverything Conference is brainstorming on a massive scale. Combined with all the live Twitter updates and feeds, it is going to have once again viral impact worldwide with the novel, brave and infectious ideas that will be coming out of it and around it. At the same time, the use of dynamic and democratic microblogging will allow massive participation to the Conference by people on both sides of the Atlantic who are not physically present but are still listening and virtually and remotely contributing their feedback and ideas. In fact, the FutureEverything Festival and the Conference are quintessential instantiations of the perfect balance of online – offline, virtual and real, local and remote, one-to-many / many-to-one broadcasting. And I’m right in the middle of this awesome time-space continuum (May 2011 in Manchester UK)!

Update (Sun 15 May):

There is now a FutureEverything Festival Portal with a compilation of blog posts, photos, audio, video and more related to the 4 days of the Festival and Conference. Check it out here: http://www.fe-2011.org/

I will also be adding my feedback on what I heard at the Conference in the next couple of days.

2010 in review – Not bad at all :)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,600 times in 2010. That’s about 18 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 9 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 32 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 5mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was September 15th with 326 views. The most popular post that day was The Social Media scene in Manchester (UK) is very sociable!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were linkedin.com, mail.live.com, mail.yahoo.com, twitter.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for voice activated lift, scottish voice activated lift, voice activated lift scotland, and scottish voice activated elevator.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

The Social Media scene in Manchester (UK) is very sociable! September 2010
32 comments

2

The voice-activated lift won’t do Scottish! July 2010
4 comments

3

Speech Recognition for Dummies May 2010
12 comments

4

The Loneliness of the long-distance … VUI Designer! June 2010
5 comments

5

About May 2010
1 comment

The Social Media scene in Manchester (UK) is very sociable!

Last week I was asked by John Cass (@johncass) of PR Communications for information on the Social Media scene in Manchester, where I live, after I attended his talk on “Tweeting across the pond – what lessons can we learn from the US/UK social media scene?” during the September meeting of the Social Media Cafe Manchester (#smc_mcr / @smc_mcr). I was very happy to oblige, as I have been part of the scene since the 2nd half of 2008 and it has given me many an exciting, insightful and fun times, so I thought I would give something back! I thought that my email reply to John would be just a dry list of a few links to meetups and organisations to complement his own list of SM organisations and events in the related blog post he had started. It turned out to be an essay, however, so  we both agreed that I should turn it into a blog post myself that he would then link to. Okay, it’s not speech application-related but it’s definitely future applications and technologies-related!

I suppose the “hardcore” Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) people of Manchester and the Northwest will already know everything I have written below and they may want to add or rectify facts and links (just write a comment below or contact me @aretoulaki on Twitter or maria {at} dialogconnection {dot} com). This post is mainly an initiation to the scene for the rest of you!

 

The Manchester Social Media Cafe (smc_mcr)

 

Social Media / SEO Organisations and Meetups in Manchester (the NON-definitive list!):

The Social Media Cafe itself (@smc_mcr #smc_mcr), very soon to be 2 years old! This is a group of Social Media and SEO aficionados who meet at least once a month to hear talks on, deliver talks on, and discuss new media and the related industries and technologies. It was first set up by Julian Tait (@julianlstar) of the famous and most influential internationally FutureEverything (@FuturEverything) music Festival-cum-New Media & Digital Technologies Conference; Martin Bryant (@martinSFP), UK Editor at The Next Web; and Sarah Hartley (@foodiesarah), Editor of Guardian Local. It was founded back in November 2008, as “there wasn’t really anything similar around”, as Julian put it to me. It is now run mainly by Julian and Martin still, but also Josh (@technicalfault) now that some people have moved on. ( I believe BBC North‘s Ian Forrester (@cubicgarden) to have been one of them.) However, they all assure me that everyone can get involved, as it is “a real community event!”, as Josh put it. According to Julian, it has “a pretty amorphous structure” anyway and “anyone can pitch up and input into the direction it goes”, which sounds very organic and collaborative! Julian also adds that Josh “has been driving things fantastically over the past few months” and reinforces the point that anyone who wants to help run it is more than welcome!

The affiliated Social Media Surgery event run by Chi-chi Ekweozor (@realfreshtv) of Real Fresh TV, who also wrote a detailed blog post on the last Social Media Cafe event that took place on Tuesday 7th September. The Social Media Surgery events are free informal workshops on how social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook are used to market services and products and grow businesses. Chi-Chi provides Social Media training services through her Real Fresh TV company.

Northern Digitals (@northerndigital), a meetup group which was started around the same time (Sept 2008) by freelancing Web Designer Matt Booth (@matthbooth). Although there is a great proportion of web designers and developers, it is very much attended by all sorts of SEO, copywriting and PR types. In fact, it was through ND that I found out about the Social Media Cafe!

CING, the Creative Industries Meetup Group which got started again at the same time, in July 2008 (do you see a pattern here?!) by Ben Hui (@Benny_Hui), a freelancer Business consultant and professional pianist, and Phil Northall from the CIDS organisation back then (Creative Industries Development Service – more on that below). This was actually my first ever meetup of such type and it is regularly attended by film makers, web developers, PR consultants, painters, fashion designers etc. who want to network for business and pleasure.  I found out about and attended this meetup group back in October 2008 after doing a Marketing for Creative Businesses Workshop funded by the Government through CIDS. The Workshop was delivered by David Parrish (@davidparrish), a marketing consultant and trainer, who has written a brilliant book on innovative and inspiring marketing strategy cases for creative companies, “T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity“. He has also set up an online community on that, the Creative Enterprise Network, and a Facebook group (of course!).  He really incited my personal interest in social media, because I come from a different industry (Linguistics and Computer Science) and I thank him for that! I also have to mention that when I attended my first CING event back in October 2008 there were about 15 people there. It has kept growing and nowadays it’s got at least 700! Apart from pure business networking, CING occasionally invites big names from across the different creative industries to give a talk and mingle with the attendees afterwards.

Now to the CIDS organisation (Creative Industries Development Service) that I mentioned above (now defunct but reborn as a web portal, see below).  CIDS used to provide free consultation and promotion of creative people and businesses in Manchester.

It used to bring out Creative Times (@CREATIVE_Times), a printed (or should I say “analogue”?) newspaper, trying to promote all things digital and creative by presenting local company and freelancer profiles, informing on funding, job openings, competitions etc. It was a government initiative that got halted sometime last year, only to be reinstated earlier this year in a leaner version (e-newsletter and website).

 

Creative Times - the rebirth

 

The new website, however, has been designed and is run by a brand-new compound company formed by the Cornerhouse (@CornerhouseMcr – a long-established flagship Cinema, Arts and Entertainment House), The White Room (@thewhiteroomcec), and Fudge (@madebyfudge), two of the biggest names in the Manchester digital agency scene. So the “magazine” has got heavyweight backing for its promotion and growth on a larger scale. It was in fact The White Room’s Phil Birchenall (@Creative_Times / @wordsandpics) who used to run CIDS for several years until 2008, and he was also the one who launched the printed version of Creative Times back in October 2005! He actually took it online as well, just before the organisation imploded, so it was only fair that his “baby” was returned to him now. Once again, freelancers and companies can put their profiles up and promote themselves. Anything from web designers to architects, PR consultants and painters can be found there. Having a profile on this is free. Here is my own DialogCONNECTION Ltd one (@dialogconnectio). Defunct CIDS turned Creative Times portal has found – through the other Phil (Northall) – the CING meetup listed above as its new communication and events channel, so everybody is happy!

The Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) (@mdda) is also a core player in supporting digital businesses in Manchester and the Northwest. MDDA is part of the Manchester City Council and responsible for the city’s digital strategy, as its member Adrian Slatcher (@adrianslatcher) said. One of the organisations it supports is Manchester Digital (see entry below), which is the related independent trade association. MDDA acts as the Secretariat for this (hosting some of their meetings) and also has a seat on the Council.  They also have got a page linking to some relevant groups and meetups.

As already mentioned above, an affiliated organisation, with some of their meetings hosted at the MDDA offices,  is Manchester Digital (@McrDig), the independent trade association for the “thriving digital (ICT and new media) sector in the North West of England”, as they put it. Apart from training and networking events, they also organise the Big Chip Awards, which aim to promote best practice, innovation and financial growth in the industry. A small membership fee provides individuals and companies access to more services but also influence over policy makers and lobbying in the Government, resulting in greater powers in shaping digital strategy development and the future of the sector as a whole in a “bottom-up” manner.  I know that Social Media Cafe’s Josh (@technicalfault) is a member of the corresponding Council, as well as leading the Manchester Digital PR, marketing and communications working group, so feel free to speak to him about this organisation and its MDDA host. Apart from Josh, I have to give some additional shouts out to Tim Dobson (@tdobson), who runs the Young Rewired State Manchester, and Richard Hudson (@RichardHudson) of Vanillastorm at this point, all McrDig Council members.  Finally, I have to mention the Manchester Digital Barbecue too, held every summer, a great and fun way to network (and stuff yourself for free). Check the photos from the last one here.

There is the Manchester Digital Laboratory, better known as MadLab (@madlabuk), founded and run by Dave Mee (@davemee), Hwa Young (@hwayoung), Asa (@asacalow) and Rachael Turner (@rachaelturner1). MadLab is a digital industries hub which hosts many workshops and other events (and a few companies too in the same building through the FlyThe.Coop concept):

 

Northern Digitals BLAB talks

 

e.g. the Northern Digitals BLAB nights, where someone from the industry is invited from anywhere in Britain to talk about their own business and the digital / creative industry in general

the various BarCamp events (more on that below)

the various GirlGeek afternoon teas and dinner parties (again, see below)

Thanks to Steven Flower (@stevieflow), I was made aware of two other events / gatherings at the MadLab, among the many that take place there: Manchester Net Tuesday, which has been meeting monthly for the whole of 2010 and is run by Steven himself. This is, actually, a worldwide Meetup group with local chapters and its focus is on using the web for social change (e.g. for non-profits and social benefit organisations).

Steven also told me about the long-standing and very much active Manchester Free Software meetup, a group for people interested in free software, open data, and programming (and hacking ) freedom.

This list is definitely not exhaustive! Have a look at the MadLab website. There are loads of groups meeting there and even more events organised by them, on anything from hacking to graphic novels and sci-fi novel writing!

So the MadLab is – for me at least – the headquarters of Social Media in Manchester! But then again I’m not the expert on that!

BarCamp Manchester (@bcman3), mentioned above, is an institution of its own! The self-titled Un-conference is exactly that, a conference like no other. There is no pre-scheduled conference programme or a list of previously invited speakers. The speakers are volunteers among the attendees, and the programme is decided on a first-come first-served basis. And of course attendance of each session is decided by the level of interest on the presented topic among the remaining attendees. There are BarCamps all over the world, but the Manchester ones are run by Andrew Disley (@andrewdisley). I attended the 2010 session of this “user-generated conference” at the end of August and gave a presentation myself on what I do (speech recognition applications – design, testing and optimisation). Suffice to say I loved it! Most of the other talks were on more “normal” social media and digital technologies topics, such as crowd-sourcing applications and web programming. BarCamp is free to attend but competition for a place is strife! I remember the tweet at around lunchtime announcing that the online tickets were available. By the end of that evening (2 weeks before the event), it was “sold” out!

 

Girl Geek Afternoon Tea

 

The GirlGeek afternoon tea / dinner and other parties (#mancggd @mancggd) also constitute an institution (worldwide!), although they cover wider areas than social media and digital applications. They are regular (less than monthly I think) practically free workshops targeted at women and (very young!) girls to incite their interest in science and engineering (there have been workshops on building robots, and website building with CSS) but also less technical but obscure stuff (depending on the presenter’s personal interests and expertise). The workshops can be either afternoon teas (yes! with coffee and biscuits!) or dinner parties. Then there are also Girl Geek events where the attendees can “show and tell” something they know about (e.g. I will be talking about speech recognition applications again, in December), so it’s like another un-conference. The Manchester Girl Geek Dinners are run by Cat Ashton, whereas the Tea Parties are organised by Sam Bail (@bunmagazine), who is actually from Berlin (my old playground)! It’s all interconnected!

I also recently discovered (through tweets!) the Manchester Blogmeet (#mcrblogmeet). I actually attended that one on the Spencer Tunick exhibition at the Lowry (and if you look closely, you will find me in the photo above! The photo has been taken, by the way, from the related Fishink blog. I thought I would appropriate it since I am in it ).  The Blogmeet is a gathering of bloggers: professional and amateurs, creative, music, tech and marketing bloggers. It is run by Kate Feld (@katefeld) who has just had a baby, so she has delegated her duties to music bloggers @FatRoland and Jonno Hopkins (@jonnohopkins).  Kate is an American actually and one of the main people behind Creative Tourist, an alternative tourist guide to Manchester. Below you will see the infamous brown piece of paper where FatRoland collected all the Twitter names of the attendees! Jonno has also just reminded me that the next Blogmeet is on 30th September at Umbro’s impressive design studio on Dale Street, who are also sponsoring the beverages! Everybody is welcome. I will certainly be going, because I loved my first Blogmeet!

There is also Vision+Media (@VisionandMedia), another significant organisation focusing on the support and growth of the digital and creative industries of England’s Northwest by providing advice, (direct and indirect) funding, networking and collaboration opportunities, apprenticeships and training to both companies and individuals in TV, Radio, Publishing, Music, Games, Film and Digital & Creative Services. One of their roles is helping productions identify locations and staff in the region (as it was notably the case with the recent “Captain America” filming in the Northern Quarter), but also supporting film festivals and maintaining related archives.  The person to speak to there is Ian Wareing (@ianwareing) from their Digital team.

This summer, there was also the first Twitnic (@MancTwitnic – Picnic for Manchester’s Tweeters) at Spinningfields, which I didn’t attend in the end and I heard it didn’t attract a big crowd, but it is sure to be repeated next year, if not earlier. In March this year, for example, there was a Twestival, an “international social media meet-up to raise money for good causes”.

The Eword agency (@theEword) is also very influential. They compiled the only “Manchester Twitter Report”  I know on the use of Social Media by Manchester companies and organisations!  I have read it and it’s an eye-opener (for me at least!).

Finally, I only just discovered the Manchester SEO Meetup that I didn’t know about! I assume it is a gathering of mainly people actively involved in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and related strategy and practice. I need to attend their next meetup!

What about the Social Media in Universities?

Regarding the spread of Social Media among Manchester Universities and Colleges, apart from the courses offered by the Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, as already reported by Chi-chi Ekweozor (@realfreshtv) in her blog post on the last Social Media Cafe event,  I have got very interesting insider information about the University of Manchester (still the main University of the city). Apparently, at the Department of Sociology, there used to be a Media programme, a degree in Media, Culture and Society, with just one lecturer. That got shut down apparently back in 2007, because it got horrible ratings, mainly due precisely to the fact that there were not enough people to teach it! That in turn was a political decision by the new Head of the Department who didn’t think that new and social media was “relevant” / important for sociological research, so they wouldn’t fund more teaching positions. Since it got shut down, individual modules are still taught apparently and they are extremely well-subscribed! The students are very interested in them and take them as part of their courses, but it’s usually junior lecturers who (have to) teach them! So social media doesn’t have a very high priority at least at the Department of Sociology! I haven’t researched on other departments, but as my friend said there are bound to be courses or just modules at other Departments such as the Linguistics Department.

I think that exhausts my knowledge and information I have available on the subject, as an “Outsider”! Feel free to comment below, if you have any additions or corrections to make. Check also John Cass’ (@johncass) earlier blog post on the Manchester Social Media scene that he started compiling the week he was over here and also his post on his local Triad North Carolina Social Media Scene.

Proud to be part of this!

In closing, I just wanted to say how happy I am to be part of the Manchester Social Media scene, as I feel I am part of an extremely intelligent, innovative, creative but also friendly and co-operative elite! I seem to be making more and more friends and business contacts every month through those meetups and groups, as well as the aftermath tweets and twitter accounts! Attending John Cass‘ (@johncass) presentation on the US scene referred to at the start of this blog post has put everything into a much wider perspective for me, because I realise that I am associated with pioneers in the industry. And it is all happening in Manchester, the new digital hub of the UK and Europe!

It was a very happy “accident” that I attended David Parrish‘ (@davidparrish) “Marketing for Creative Businesses” workshop at CIDS back in October 2008! It got me into the CING meetup, which got me into the Northern Digital meetup and the MadLab organisation, which, in turn, got me into the Social Media Cafe group, which got me into the Blogmeet, the BarCamp, the GirlGeek events and the various tweetup events.

Although I have been a myspace and a LinkedIn user since 2005 (heavy user of both by now!), I only got into Facebook for promotional reasons in 2009 and I only got my Twitter accounts (all 3 of them!) at the start of 2010, after being literally “ordered” by some SEO guys from the Northern Digital meetup! You know who you are! (OK, I will reveal! Jag Uppal [@jag4091] and Eddy Gonzalez [@eduardogonzalez] ). And now I’m very much in the middle of it and really loving it!

Here’s to the next innovative technology / social concept!