Amy (Tiger Tea) reports back from Liverpool
‘Liverpool? Aren’t you based in Leeds?’ you may be asking. ‘What ever would possess you to go all the way to Liverpool, endure an agonisingly early start, and also face lashes of hot, sweaty, and irate travellers on the way back?’ Maybe it was madness coupled with a secret love of travelling on the trains (when they’re not busy at least)? Whatever it was, it allowed me to finally attend a Blog North event.
New to the scene, Blog North has a great potential and a great vision to celebrate and cultivate bloggers in the ‘North’. I missed their first event (held only a stone’s throw away at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park) due to my own absent-mindedness so I was determined to get to this one. The distance and train fare didn’t put me off (although the early start very nearly did). The workshops available at each event vary greatly based on where its held, who their supporters are, and what else is happening in the cultural calendar.
First workshop of the day was a techie’s dream rundown of all the latest social media apps and innovations that are coming soon or already making waves across The Pond. The speaker was the lovely fluffy-haired Martin Bryant from The Next Web who kept things light and never got bogged down in jargon. He revealed some of the rather creepy location based platforms that allow you to find like-minded STRANGERS whilst out and about. Yeah…I know…Creepy, right? But its still a technology and service that people need to know about, if just so they can deftly avoid it. Not all location-based stuff was creepy though. Placeme was an app that could log everywhere you go in a day, a week, a month, etc, so when you’re trying to remember that lovely obscure coffee shop you went to, you simply scroll through your travel history. Battery hog though, oink oink. Likewise the simple Google Latitude did something similar (and could likewise eat your battery and roaming data) but created wonderfully abstract and quirky maps of your journeys. For me, being a natural story teller and a travel nut, the potential for telling stories using maps and journeys is fascinating. Some apps/services of note include Pocket and Wavii, which are essentially ‘content organisers’. The former allows you to save content whilst browsing online to read later when offline or out walking the dog (as the saccharine american woman was doing on the equally saccharine promo video). The latter is a customised content service that cleverly filters out duplicates of your chosen topic, presenting just the good stuff. Lastly, Martin covered the rise of mobile payment systems, such as iZettle, Square, Simple, and the UK-based Barclays Pingit. As a freelancer, I can see this being VERY useful – no need to chase up invoices. Payments are done through mobile phone numbers, even if you’re not a Barclays customer.
A brief break and then on to a workshop delivered by Emma Bearman (sound familiar?) who tested her presentation and ideas out on me on the train to Liverpool (sans coffee, which proved difficult for Emma, long story for another post). This workshop took a real-world twist when it was time to find other people in the room who had similar interests, just as you might do on Twitter. It might not have enlightened the Twitter newbies much but it was certainly interesting as a social media social experiment. Even with avatars, Twitter is still quite faceless. You can randomly happen across another dog-lover or vegetarian or architect and instantly follow them and start a conversation. When it comes to the same thing face to face…well, a fair number of participants either never found who they were looking for, or turned in to wallflowers (like me). The second part to the workshop involved pairing up Twitter ‘toe-dippers’ to Twitter ‘slipper-wearers’ (not my words, honest) and doing a sort of social media surgery. I was an odd number on the ‘slipper-wearer’ side so I floated until a group looked friendly enough to accept me (okay, I’m dramatising a bit). Emma saved her ‘golden rules of Twitter’ for last and included many things that I’ve seen go hilariously wrong on Twitter, such as bad customer service.
A lunch break and time to wander around the Tate Liverpool. This is where I gorged on fruit (yes, I know, thats not a REAL lunch but I’m super fussy about sandwiches) and cake and just happened to bump in to another person from Leeds and someone who’d just worked on a WRAP issue that I’m in. How bizarre is that? (Cheeky little mention of my publishing exploits there) The exhibition we had free tickets for was the Turner, Monet, and Twombly showcase, which perhaps deserves a post on its own. I tell you what though – I felt like a real boss wandering around taking pictures and getting away with it because I had a press pass. I got so many jealous looks from regular punters.
The final workshop of the day was delivered by the lovely Mike and Laura from The Double Negative, a new online magazine-style site delivering news, culture, art, and music to Liverpool (much like One&Other in York). They covered what inspired them to set up the venture, how they juggled life with ambition, and how they keep going despite economic pressures. This had a practical element to it to, where it was time to split in to small groups and talk about our own blogs. Alas, this is where I had to dash off most unceremoniously to ensure I made it to my train on time. What ensued was a laughably overdressed Yorkshire girl (it had forecast rain) trying to run through the high street of a packed Liverpool to arrive all flustered at the train station. I think perhaps my rosy cheeks and somewhat sleep-deprived crazy eyes meant I could get a seat on a busy train.
All in all, Blog North #2 at Tate Liverpool was a good day to be had, made interesting by its surroundings, its cultural offerings, and its diverse attendees. I’m new to blogging myself and have no delusions that it is something only for the young and well connected. It was great to see the older generation talking actively about using social media tools and writing for blogs alongside younger generations who hadn’t even started to blog yet. For the very tech savvy of you, the workshops may not offer much but the networking opportunities certainly will.
And I got a bright red tote bag. BRIGHT RED.
Note from the publisher: Check out the Blog North Awards. Do spread the word to all bloggers you know, or just nominate those you think rock! We’re involved and we need you to show the rest of the world that Yorkshire has not just sporting but great writing talent. Come’on!