Amb:IT:ion Road Show NE - part 1
March 10, 2009
Yes I wrote this in my notebook! I got a teenie PC to blog on so I didn't have to copy articles out. But here I am. Thoughts stream out through my pen when the keyboard doesn't always inspire. I can't help it. On this occasion it was equally about saving battery. Use of the pen gives me juice to tweet!
The Amb:IT:ion road shows are kicking off. This first one for Art Council England's North East region hosted in Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema beautifully named a Pixel Palace. Also in Newcastle for Clicks or Mortar.
A conference / symposium? What is the difference? Hurrah for Wikipedia and URL linking. Click the appropriate word for a definition, for clarity... very cool.
The reason I found myself in Newcastle was for getambition, an event to bring together arts and cultural organisations who receive regular funding (RFOs) from the Arts Council England and report the Amb:IT:ion projects findings regarding digital opportunities using the web and offer some practical masterclasses, illustrated case studies and talks from key digital media practitioners to ... and this is the aim of the event... get arts and cultural organisations creating their own digital assets.
Beyond the actual physical event a social network for the arts in the North East region has been created as part of the sustainability and collaboration ethos nurtured by the Amb:IT:ion team and as the road show travels to each of the 9 Arts Council Regions each one will gets its own regionally focused digital opportunities network.
For my part I ran a "get immersed" introduction to social media, web 2 tools and services. A practicle guide to what's availible and some pointers on how to go about putting the web to work for you and your organisation. I also live blogged and created assets (photos and video) and tries to share my experiences and key points of interested from the keynote speakers on Twitter. Using the #getam hashtag and performing a search on twitter for "#getam pcmcreative" you can see my tweet efforts.
Over the next 9 road shows I will be considering carefully the content of my tweets.
One of the exciting things for a social media practitioner like me is I get to try again with the same or very similar content. An opportunity so rare with the live, immediate nature of streaming and sharing online. You can't rehearse a live blog or stream. You can make sure the infrastructure and the tools work but the relaying of the experience happens only once.