The Next Women Event Video

13 Feb 2010

I mentioned a few weeks back that I attended an event hosted by the group The Next Women. They’ve recently published the event video – take a look for a couple cameos by me!

TheNextWomen from Newspepper on Vimeo.

Round 2 at The Electricty Showrooms

12 Feb 2010

I went to a play! My first review on Spoonfed in quite a while and it was worth the wait, for me at least, as it was a brilliant event.

Entirely new, utterly creative and complete with the risk of everything going disastrously wrong. What more could you want out of theatre?

Read on: Round 2 at The Electricty Showrooms – Spoonfed London.

Happy Social Media Week

2 Feb 2010

Happy social media week! Did you know that this week is international social media week, as sponsored by the fantastic Meebo? A whole week dedicated to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and the like. As almost a follow up to my last post, this has involved a number of tech meetups.

Last night was the official kick-off for the week in London where the who’s-who of London technorati came together to network, chat about the industry and drink while tonight was the 10th Shoreditch Twit, the Twitter meetup for Shoreditch (the area where the Spoonfed offices are located) locals.

The idea behind social media week, I believe, is to show case an industry that was in its infancy in 2009 and will grow in both scale and professionalism this year and decade. I’m lucky in the sense that both London and Spoonfed seem to be embracing this trend and I’ve met a number of local tech-savvy marketers, PRs, entrepreneurs and tech consumers who are interested in driving the industry forward.

For social media week, why not take a look at Twitter if you haven’t before, or see how Flickr can help you share photos with friends. At the very least visit Meebo and see how they can simplify and consolidate your online communication, just to get in the spirit of the event. Have a great Social Media Week and welcome to the consumer-created web.

Month of the Meetups

1 Feb 2010

Apologies (again) for the radio silence but, as if I weren’t busy enough, I joined a gym – the incredible 37 Degrees in Olympia and while I know the love affair with the elliptical won’t last forever, I’ve spent most of my free time there this last week.

However while the gym may have taken over my mornings and weekend, January has proven to be the month of meetups in that I’ve attended some quite fantastic ones over the last few weeks, and branched out from my regularly attended London networking events.

First was the fabulous YesAndClub, a group founded on the basis of the idea that you want to surround yourself with people who say “yes… And?” To an idea rather than “yes, but…” I had heard a lot about the group before I visited as a guest (members must either be recommended by a current member or apply) and found it to be a fantastic collection of people. In particular, it was nice to be around people whose background covered a range of business initiatives rather than just tech.

Also that week I attended a dinner hosted by online publishing company Blurb, who print high quality books users create themselves. Not only did we have a chance to see the quality and range of products that Blurb produces but we also spent an enjoyable dinner discussing the pros and cons of social media in business, and how small companies can leverage that medium. It was a ton of fun, not least of all because all of the invitees were women, which led to some lively conversation.

Speaking of women, the following week I had a chance to attend an event hosted by TheNextWoment, an online magazine and business network for women that also hosts fantastic speaking and networking events. The event I attended featured a range of speakers talking about business strategy, as well as an excellent opportunity to network with some of the most accomplished women in London.

So in the space of a few weeks, I’ve had a chance to connect with a fantastic range of people, learn some business and social media strategy and, of course, join a gym. Not a bad start to the new year! Happy Feburary everyone and if you’re stuck for what to do on the 14th, take a look at Spoonfed’s Valentine’s Day ideas for a laugh, if not necessarily for the world’s most romantic date ;-).

Something to Scream About

24 Jan 2010

On Saturday, a small group of us visited the London Dungeons, a tourist trap of epic proportions featuring mangled London history, mutilated “facts” around horror stories and a combination of cheesy and spooky live acting and props that would put the Disneyland haunted house to shame.

I was somewhat surprised by what a great time I had.

The family entertainment was certainly less scary than I (in my ‘fraidy-cat-ness) had feared, the amazing snapshot above being a product of the drop-zone type ride at the end of the tour. There were a fair few ‘things that jump out at you with a loud scream’ or ‘things that go bang behind your ear’ but the majority of the tour was actually pretty witty scripting for the live actors (who included the unfortunate souls surrounding such infamous names and events as Jack the Ripper, Sweeney Todd or the bubonic plague).

The circumstances that saw us purchasing tickets were a special event at the dungeons that lowered ticket prices by more than half – and I honestly can’t say it was worth the full ticket price. But at ten quid a head and on a gloomy Saturday morning, it was the perfect London entertainment.