SMCLondon is rocking – I’ve been in three great sessions so far today and it’s great to hear the conversations taking place.

First, How to socialise Indie movies, was the Dogwoof Indie session run by Andy.  He told me he got lots of great ideas out of it and is ‘still learning’.  He was overwhelmed with new concepts and wants to put into practise what he has garnered today as well as listen more to the community.   Well, I’m telling you now that we tried to bully him into doing an internet-only launch for his next movie so keep an eye out at his web site to see if he keeps his promise.  Meet him on the photo scavenger hunt later to pressgang him further…

And the second one I attended, which was run by Vero – PRs are after your Soul -  had a very different flavour and a lot of opinions to put on the table.  Basically are agencies getting it really wrong or sometimes right when engaging in social media PR? was really what we were discussing.   A lively session and lots of debate and tweets throughout, means this topic is not going away for a long time.

The third session was with Lucia and Joanna from The Times.  They told the story of how they moderated the flash community that sprung up on the Times Online around the G20 Summit and the online news feed.  It was a pretty interesting talk on how community moderation can be seen as censorship under the captainship of Murdoch.  Funny that, when the reality that Lucia and Joanna had to deal with on the day was completely different.  The editorial team was overwhelmed with a deluge of comments and coded messages.  So what are the rules of engagement moving forward for commenting and community moderation in the media?  Let’s wait and see – there is no clear path forward quite yet but the general opinion is that each audience has a different set of rules.

In the meantime, join us in the Dogleg room for the Something Silly session – it’s a game of 21 – it’s getting a bit kinky!

Ciao for now!

@nixdminx

In anticipation of the Photo Scavenger Hunt, which is being run by Kat Neville from BView, I want to remind you all to bring your digital cameras so you can take part. I’m happy to reveal there will be some great prizes for the winners.

The team with highest number of points and the quirkiest collection of photos, will receive two pairs of tickets to the new musical Spring Awakening, at the Novello, Aldwych, courtesy of lastminute.com. This powerful, passionate production, is bursting with energy that leaps off the stage. It has a Grammy award-winning score and no less than 12 five star reviews – follow the cast on Twitter @SpringWestEnd and the lastminute.com team at @lastminute_com.

Plus there will be some fun prizes for the runners up, to be revealed tomorrow.

We’ll be uploading the best photos for everyone to look at.

See you for coffee tomorrow!

Eva

If you’re interested in blogging this time, please either email me or find me first thing tomorrow morning to be granted an account. We’ll all be looking forward to your contributions!

First the bad news: SUNDAY ACTIVITES ARE CANCELLED

It’s with great disappointment that I have to announce that SMCLondon is now Saturday-only. At a late date, a couple of sponsors (who were covering costs for day 2) had to unfortunately drop out. Since then, some truly wonderful people have put in the hours to help source last minute sponsors but at such short notice, we simply couldn’t cover our costs.

I’m unreservedly sorry for those who had Sunday-only tickets; In the hope to make it up to you, those who had Sunday-only tickets will get first dibs on tickets for the next SMCLondon.

However, we WILL be going ahead full steam with Saturday, so please read on!

Now the good news: Saturday schedule

Saturday, 25th April, arrive between 9-10am to get your badge and grab some breakfast downstairs with the other attendees. Put your presentation topic on the board, then at 10am, we’ll start the day’s sessions. We’ll be providing lunch and snacks throughout the day, and once we’re all social-media’ed out, we’ll be providing some evening drinks so that everyone can catch up on the day.

Bring your photo/video camera to capture the events of the day and for a special photohunt competition. Remember that if you want to travel light, we’ll have laptops in a few of the rooms for you to use for your presentation. More details on the SocialMediaCamp London blog this week.

And finally, here is a map to get to Wallacespace St Pancras, which is only a few minutes’ walk away from King’s Cross St Pancras station.

Think you can’t make it?

If you know you can’t attend the event, please let us know by email or @smclondon. This is important as we can reallocate the tickets to people who are on the waiting list.

Thanks to everyone who’s helped to date and see you this Saturday,

Vero

99% off £500 of mad money? bview.co.uk is wondering what I’d do with the cash for their contest, which will be judged at Social Media Camp on the 26th of April.

Here’s my entry: I’d get a pool, and as much fresh cut chips, gravy and cheese curds as I can. I would then sport a fetching swimsuit, goggles and swimming cap. The mission: to go swimming in the biggest poutine in the entire world, putting me in the guinness book of world records.

(It would look like that picture, just 200 times bigger!)

If you want to enter in as well, there’s some more details on how to enter here. All you SMC attendees will get a chance to vote on my really, really awesome poutine!

So go on… write your entry, it can’t be any more ridiculous than mine! All the details are here.

As you most likely know by now, SocialMediaCamp is a BarCamp event, therefore free to attend. It’ll be held on Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th April at Wallacespace St Pancras, in London. It’s for everyone, from super media geeks to newbies, from developers & designers to marketers & artists.

Registration will open at 11am UK time here: http://smclondon09.eventbrite.com/

Please only sign up if you intend to attend, as there are many more people wanting to attend than there are tickets. If you miss this round, the second round will go on Monday 6th April at 11am.

This event could not happen without our generous sponsors (Equality & Human Rights Commission, Vodafone, Campaign Monitor & more to be announced shortly) and many volunteers so if you see any of them online or at the event, be sure to say thank you!

If you’re new to BarCamps, you may want to read the following few posts to get a sense of what you’ll experience:

• What to expect at a BarCamp
• A Virgin’s Guide to BarCamps: Making the most of your first BarCamp

Once you’ve registered, be sure to start thinking about your panel/presentation topic!

The day will begin at 9am on Saturday, April 25th, with registrations, coffee and breakfast then panels/presentations will start at 10am. Once we wrap up Saturday, we’ll make our way to a pub/bar for drinks & nibbles.

On Sunday, the day will again begin at 10am but we’ll take a different twist. We’ll build teams and each team will create a campaign to present to everyone else at the end of the day.

The address of the venue is Wallacespace St Pancras, 22 Dukes Road, St Pancras, London WC1H 9PN (Click through to Eventbrite for a map & iCal entry)

Remember, everyone involved is a volunteer, so be nice, smile and give a hand however you can!

My thanks go out to the Equality & Human Rights Commission and Vodafone for offering their support for the event by sponsoring key aspects of the event. We are now confirmed to go ahead with Saturday, and should shortly hit the next few targets to allow us to hold the Sunday workshop day as well.

About our sponsors

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (@ehrc) digital team will be taking part as well as sponsoring. Newly appointed Head of Digital, Helen Aspell (@hel_razor), is keen to join the digital social media scene of London and hopes to bring a preview of a mash-up project, which the EHRC is hoping to launch later in the year. For those that are intrigued by a body like the EHRC being in this scene you can catch Helen at the Tuttle Club and London Blogger meet-up over the next few weeks.

Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile telecommunications company and regularly takes part in community activities, and we’re thrilled to have them on board as well. Terence Eden, who did a cracking presentation on presenting to Big Scary Companies at the first SMCLondon, is the one you need to thank for this contribution. Hat tip to you, Terence!

Event details

So the big question, when do tickets go on sale?

The first batch will be made available on Tuesday 31st March at 11am UK time. You’ll be able to pick whether you’re attending both Saturday and Sunday, or only one of the days. We’ll then put a second bath out on Monday 6th April at 11am UK time. Set a reminder in your calendar, as you won’t want to miss grabbing one of the hundred tickets!

Meanwhile if you’d like to volunteer for either or both days, please drop me an email on vero@thatcanadiangirl.co.uk and we’ll find something fun and useful for you to help with. Have a look at this list if you’re not sure how you can help. If you’ve already emailed me, I’ll follow up soon!

Coming from out of town?

As there will be many out-of-towners wanting to attend, we’ve setup a “couchsurfers” thread in the SMCLondon Google Group so that those living in London who have a spare bed/sofa/floor can offer a place to stay to those who come from out of town.

Keep your eyes open for a follow-up post/email next week.

As we head towards our second event on 25-26th April, I pick up my panhandling hat to say “Please sir? Spare a dollar, sir?” and look for a new round of sponsorship. If you think your boss (or you, if you’re the boss!) might like to get involved and sponsor the event, don’t hesitate any longer. Grab the sponsorship document here (or use the online Google Docs version) and see how you can get involved.

Any questions about sponsorships? Drop me a line on vero@thatcanadiangirl.co.uk or find me on Twitter (@vero)

The aim of the event is to gather 100-120 people to exchange ideas on social media, from social networking platforms, blogs and podcasts to using new media cleverly, marketing ethically and identity the age of technology.  Attendees will be invited to do short presentations or hold discussion groups throughout the day on Saturday.

If facilities allow, Sunday could be a workshop day where we take on the challenge of creating a campaign, using social media tools, for a charity or small business who could benefit from our joint knowledge and experience. This day was described as “a Hack Day but socialer”, which is a fair description! The objective would be to end the day with a tangible campaign for the charity/small business can use and implement.

What we know so far

Dates: Either 18th or 25th April
Location: Possibly Wallacespace St-Pancras (where we held SMCLondon08 in October) but considering a location that would allow us to do both Saturday & Sunday

Helping with the event

My mistake last time was to try and take on everything myself, so this time I’ll be sharing out responsibilities to small teams. If you’d like to volunteer for one of the areas below, email me on vero@thatcanadiangirl.co.uk (and I’ll love you forever!)

I want to be a:

• Sponsor wrangler
• Backchannel boss
• Venue scout
• T-Shirts & Stickers master
• Food czar
• Badges & signs design artist
• Evening drinks & Saturday night happenings rockstar
• Video streaming guru
• Event cheerleader & promoter

Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of support if you take on any of these responsibilities, but you’ll help me keep my sanity in the run-up to the event. All we ask is that you are reliable and will communicate well.

Think you can sponsor? There will be sponsorships of all sizes to suit your budget, so if you think you can sponsor, please contact me directly.

Meanwhile if you’re interested in attending, please sign up to the newsletter (that big box on the left) and we’ll email you with details of the event & the date on which the first batch of tickets will be made available!