Drinking coffee and talking social media

My networking project took a leap forward yesterday morning when I joined up with the (Facebook) Edinburgh Coffee Morning Group.  This wasn't a virtual meeting, this was early morning coffee and rolls in the heart of Edinburgh's New Town.  The morning was full of promise - Edinburgh was looking gorgeous in the early autumn sunshine, the streets were quiet now the Festival-goers have left town and it was too early for shoppers and office workers to hit the streets.

I really enjoyed meeting the other people there - writers, designers, IT specialists, educationalists, marketing experts...the names passed in a bit of a blur I'm afraid but I have a clear fix on the conversations we were having about:

• the potential for reaching a wider audience and giving tasters of the services we offer through podcasting - some discussion of how long podcasts 'should' be (the piece of string answer) 
• some encouragement to me to experiment with this as a way of adding to the Confident Writing mix (what do you think?)
• shifting our thinking to the return of investment of time rather than money - yes some of it is time consuming, but you can learn to use the networks productively, and it is worth it
• the relationship between blog writing and confidence in school kids - one of the members of the group (Ewan) has just posted an interesting piece on a blogging project in Grangemouth that highlights some of the benefits and possibilities
• how much fun blogging is (of course!)

It was great meeting people of such different backgrounds and professions drawn together by a shared interest in and enthusiasm for a way of working, learning and connecting together.   Thanks again to Jamie at Terinea Blog for inviting me along and making the connection. I'll be back!

Comments

[Ewan McIntosh]

I was really glad to make the connection, too. I think you and some of the your confident writers would find the Learning Festival and, above all, the TeachMeet07 unconference on Sept 19/20 of genuine interest. They're both free. Details here:

Scottish Learning Festival-
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/slf/

TeachMeet07-
http://wiki.scotedublogs.org.uk/index.php/TeachMeet07

Channel 4 In The Wild
Taking as its starting point the alarming findings of this year’s UNICEF report - which identified young people in the UK as the most unhappy in the developed world - this event will also explore the riptide of innovation which is transforming how kids engage with the media and the future of education in a world of flux.
-
http://inthewild2channel4.eventbrite.com/

[Joanna Young]

Hi Ewan, wow, so much going in Scotland that I was blissfully unaware of!

Thanks for sharing the links - I'll definitely try and get along to the In the Wild event.

Joanna