Wiki started for Preston Guild 2012 ideas

After the success of Preston Tweetup, I’ve set up a quick wiki where all the ideas from the night can be jotted down, edited and evolved.

Take a moment to read through them all and then sign up and add your voice to the ideas. We’ll be using this wiki as a base to build on over the coming weeks.

What happened at Preston Tweetup?

One of the break-off groups at Preston Tweetup

I really didn’t know what to expect when I floated the idea of Preston Tweetup and it just goes to show how a decent idea can really go places when people get on board. The night itself generated a fantastic response and fantastic ideas.

Now, what to do with all the great ideas that are floating around on Twitter?

1. Collate and upload onto a wiki

2. Present to Steve Parkinson the Head of Communications at PCC, then possibly to other relevant staff/councillors

3. Maybe ask specific people to expand on their ideas and develop them further?

Using twitter in the room. It was noisy! I think some people had a vision of a tweetup being very quiet, with everyone sitting around on laptops/mobiles and not speaking to one another. It was the complete opposite.

As Chris Skoyles blogged after the event, he was taken aback at just how ‘social’ the social media event was. Damn straight.

And that’s exactly how sites like Twitter should be used; putting the emphasis on the social element of social media/technology.

Yes, a bunch of people did meet up in a pub tonight to post stuff on the Internet, but isn’t that far less anti-social than staying home and doing the same?

Martin Rue added his voice about ‘why Preston Tweetup was cool’:

Reflecting on the event, it was insightful to see an event where conversation was indeed that – conversing with peers without heavy debate or argument. Perhaps it was the subject area, perhaps the people, perhaps the cool name.

And the Preston Writers Network have also done a great write-up of the event and it seems there could be a Guild related literature/writing project on the cards:

I sense a PWN Guild Project brewing – collecting stories via a creative tweet-up: memories of PGs past, and collecting your wildest imaginings for PG 2032 – what kind of Preston will we have created for ourselves by then?

From our point of view the event was a success. The conversation was flowing, but people got it – posting snippets/ideas onto twitter and these were cascading in real-time on Twitterfall (thanks to Jeremy, phpcodemonkey for hooking this up). We estimate there were around 500 tweets during the course of the evening, but some of these were coming from people who weren’t even in the room – it was definitely an inclusive event.

There were two conversations going on, one in the room and the other being played out on twitter, in real-time, in living rooms, bedrooms, trains, wherever there was wireless access, not just in Preston but anywhere that was interested in #prestontweetup.

The LEP photographer got some of us to pose for a suitable cheesey pic at the start, and to their credit the LEP were giving it some on twitter about the Tweetup and posting a couple of pictures on Tweetpic!

This event showed that there is an appetite for social media in Preston and that there’s some incredible ideas out there among the people of Preston – spanning all generations (I think the age range in the room was 16-60!).

What’s the future for Preston Tweetup? We don’t want overkill. I think once a quarter, with a different topic each time, would work really well. It’s a great chance to get people from all different backgrounds, sectors and business’ discussing one topic. As one person commented to me, they’d gone in the space of 30 minutes from chatting to someone with an arts background, to a businessman, to a student, to a teacher!

Preston Tweetup was an example of Britain 2.0, connected, constructive and creative.

Thanks to all who came and a huge thank you to Ruth and Jeremy at the New Continental for providing the venue and thank you to Emma and Colin at Stage 9 Marketing for sponsoring the event, taking part and providing everyone with a free drink to start the night with!

I’d really appreciate your comments below about the night, whether you attended physically or virtually, and your thoughts on the format and topic for the next event.

Venue confirmed for Preston Tweetup, now for a date

Preston Tweetup will bring people together to discuss a chosen subject

Had a really positive meeting with Ruth at the New Continental yesterday as we planned Preston Tweetup. The New Continental has agreed to host the event in their ‘Snug’ area. It’s ace.

They are installing wi-fi access later this week so that’ll be up and running ready for the event.

Now we need your help. When do you want the event? I’ve created a quick schedule/poll via Doodle that lets you tell us which of the days we’re thinking of would be best for you.

Go and fill it in and then once I see a most popular day we’ll confirm the date. It’ll definitely happen in March 2009! Spread the word amongst everyone you know and get them to add their availability.

Preston Tweetup – an idea

Twitter, the micro-blogging service, is becoming popular in Preston

Update: Venue confirmed for Preston Tweetup, now for a date

Been kicking an idea around for a bit, it happens in other towns and cities and I think it could be good for Preston, about having a ‘Tweetup’ in Preston.

What’s a ‘Tweetup’ I hear you cry. It’s a meeting of folks, arranged via Twitter/the web in a venue that has wi-fi access. Everyone who comes brings along their wireless enabled laptop/mobile phone and the event is assigned a hashtag on Twitter. So for example the hashtag would be #prestontweetup and then everyone who is talking about the event, or at the event, puts the hashtag into their tweets.

The event allows people to network, meet people face to face (in a safe environment) who they might have connected with only via Twitter and potentially to use the meeting to generate some ideas or discuss a particular topic.

I was thinking of hosting the event, as in ‘Preston Tweetup, in association with Preston Blog’, and Stage 9 Marketing have already indicated they’d be willing to support the event. Can anyone recomend a suitable venue?

I was also thinking of having a purpose to the night (other than just getting lots of people who are on Twitter and live in and around Preston together in the same room!), so taking a topic e.g. ‘How the web could be used for Preston Guild in 2012’ and asking for people’s contributions ahead of the event (in the format of one slide each) and then we could discuss these at the event, come up with ideas and maybe break off into smaller groups to discuss. The rest of the night would then be free for networking and other discussions, but it gives everyone a starting point of conversation with one another!

You can follow Preston Blog on Twitter @prestonblog or check out Preston people on Twitter on the Preston Twitter Directory.

So, get involved, would you attend a Preston Tweetup? Know a suitable venue? Want to be more involved? Let me know below…