We would like to invite all existing members, and any new members, to join us at the Vertigo Bar, Truro from 6.30pm for drinks and good conversation.

As always the event will be entirely free to attend and is likely to attract the usual mix of businesses, students, academics, artists, creative’s, techies and others.

There will be no formal speeches at this event as it is purely a social but it will be a good chance to get to know other members of both groups.

Following on from the drinks there will be a chance for those who want to, to carry on for a festive Curry at a local curryhouse.

Please help us gauge numbers and interest by confirming your place here. Bookings for curry will be confirmed on the night.

We look forward to seeing you on the night!

Cornwall Council entered the brave new world of social media some time ago, but has really stepped up its efforts in the past year, not only using platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to engage but also webcasting, using a live chat feature to allow the public to be involved in meetings and give their views.

They thought it was about time they invited the local social media community into County Hall, to share their new public space and wifi and talk about what they are trying to achieve – both as a Council and in using social media and innovation. They would really welcome your views as to how they’re doing.

Chief Executive, Kevin Lavery, will take time to talk to us about Cornwall Council’s future plans, and why social media is important to Cornwall.

Hannah Rees, Communications Manager will talk to us about the small steps Cornwall Council has taken to engage with the public using social media. There will then be chance to ask questions of Hannah and several of the councillors who are keen Twitter users.

If you’re into social media – for work, study or play – and you’ve never been to a Cornwall Social Media Café meeting before, we’d love to see you. Each month CSMC brings together a great crowd of people from Cornwall’s business, academic, media and public sectors – sometimes just for informal networking and sometimes to hear a guest speaker talk about an interesting aspect of social media and the digital world.

Membership is free – all we ask is that you register your attendance in advance so we have some idea of numbers on the night.

We look forward to seeing you on the 8th!

This month’s event will also serve as pre-tweetup for the Mobile Conference taking place at the Eden project the next day. Along with the normal opportunities to network and catch up with friends, many of the speakers from the conference will be on hand to discuss all aspects of mobile marketing and trends.

If you’re into social media – for work, study or play – and you’ve never been to a Cornwall Social Media Café meeting before, we’d love to see you. Each month CSMC brings together a great crowd of people from Cornwall’s business, academic, media and public sectors – sometimes just for informal networking and sometimes to hear a guest speaker talk about an interesting aspect of social media and the digital world.

Membership is free – all we ask is that you register your attendance in advance so we have some idea of numbers on the night.

We look forward to welcoming you on the 11th.

If you’re into social media – for work, study or play – and you’ve never been to a Cornwall Social Media Café meeting before, we’d love to see you. Each month CSMC brings together a great crowd of people from Cornwall’s business, academic, media and public sectors – sometimes just for informal networking and sometimes to hear a guest speaker talk about an interesting aspect of social media and the digital world.

Membership is free – all we ask is that you register your attendance in advance so we have some idea of numbers on the night.

Look forward to seeing you on the 13th.

Located in an abandoned scallop packing plant overlooking the River Fal, The Fish Factory underwent extensive renovations and opened in May with a launch party attended by 120 people.

The event is a chance to chat to the team behind the new venture, and view and even buy work in two exhibitions from contemporary Cornish artists.

This is Cornwall Social Media Cafe’s first time in Falmouth in over a year, so if you’ve never been to a meeting before we’d love to see you for informal networking and a free drink in a fantastic, atmospheric venue.

You can find The Fish Factory at Falmouth Wharves, North Parade, Falmouth, TR11 2TF, midway between the Greenbank Hotel and Premier Marinas Falmouth. There is parking available nearby on North Parade.

You can view a short video about the venue on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/24582476, follow The Fish Factory on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fishfactoryarts and read all the latest news at www.fishfactoryarts.blogspot.com.

The Cornwall Social Media Cafe is one of the longest established social media cafes in the UK, being the first to launch in the south west, back in April 2009.  Co-founded by social media consultant and trainer Aren Grimshaw and PR professional Laura McKay, CSMC is an informal get together for people interested in or using social media, with the aim of bringing those who may have met online to come together to meet face to face, socialise and share ideas.

The Cornwall Social Media Cafe was the first network of its kind to take place in the south west and it has now proved to be a huge success. With more than 100 different members, and meetings regularly attracting between 20 and 80 people, the network has grown quickly and includes people drawn from the public, private and third sector as well as students, artists, politicians and anyone looking to make the best use of social media in their business or personal lives.

Aren Grimshaw hosted the Birthday bash event on Tuesday 12 April, he said, “It’s great to be celebrating the second birthday of Cornwall Social Media Cafe.  Over the past two year we have run a number of events, from informal drinks get-togethers in social media savvy bars to business presentations and lectures in business hubs and university campuses.

“The CSMC is open to anyone interested in social media and every month we welcome new members to our events. I have no doubt that CSMC will be around for the foreseeable future and we will be looking to hold even more events throughout the county with high profile speakers as well as providing networking opportunities for anyone interested in social media.”

Past events have included informal meet ups at Vertigo in Truro, discussions on Local Enterprise Partnerships, business collaboration presentations and speed networking. During its first year organisers of the CSMC also brought Lloyd Davies, the founder of the original Social Media Cafe in London, to Cornwall to speak at one of the events.

One of the highlights of the Cornwall Social Media Calendar in 2010 was a joint event hosted at University College Falmouth’s Tremough Campus with Jon Morter, the man behind the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to Christmas number one in December 2009. That event attracted more than 100 people and was broadcast live online for those people unable to make it on the night.

Regular attendees of CSMC are encouraged to play a role in raising awareness of effective use of Social Media among their friends, family and business associates. Many people who come along to CSMC also get involved with Twestival (Twitter + Festival). In fact the first CSMC took place just two months after the first Twestival Global event in February 2009. It was the buzz surrounding Twestival that sparked the idea for the CSMC.

The group continues to meet on the second Tuesday of every month at a variety of locations across Cornwall. Anyone is welcome to come along to the events, join in discussions about social media activity, socialise and make new friends and put faces to the names of the online profiles. Details of the events and some of the members of CSMC can be found at www.cornwallcafe.wordpress.com

The team responsible for events now includes Aren Grimshaw (@arengrimshaw) Laura McKay (@_LauraMckay_) Fiona Campbell-Howes (@patroclus), and Shelley Fletcher (@shelleyfletcher).

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Shelley Fletcher, Firegrass Communications

01209 311072 / 07850 937419

shelley@firegrasscommunications.co.uk

As well as being a great opportunity to catch up with CSMC members old and new, there will also be some exciting news about the forthcoming Twestival Cornwall  event on March 24th.

If you’re into social media – for work, study or play – and you’ve never been to a Cornwall Social Media Café meeting before, we’d love to see you. Each month CSMC brings together a great crowd of people from Cornwall’s business, academic, media and public sectors – sometimes just for informal networking and sometimes to hear a guest speaker talk about an interesting aspect of social media and the digital world.

Membership is free – all we ask is that you register your attendance in advance so we have some idea of numbers on the night.

Guests are invited to turn up and chat to other attendees from 6.30pm. 

If you have any questions about CSMC or would like to host the May event please contact Aren, or Martin.

We look forward to seeing you all on the 8th.

Paul Davies

In this guest post, Paul Davies, Founder of ¡design thinkers! and chair of the Cornwall Design Forum, explains why the upcoming InterSections 2011 event, taking place  in Cornwall next month, is not to be missed.

In March the Eden Project hosts one of the largest businesses conferences ever held in Cornwall – InterSections 2011. There has been quite a lot of publicity surrounding the event but I thought it would be good to clarify the purpose of having this conference in Cornwall.

Most importantly this conference is about creativity but not in the ordinary sense, this is not a conference by designers for designers. Instead this is about how your business can leverage creativity to produce innovation for business growth.

Over the two days speakers from leading organisations will talk about techniques and methods that help you move ahead of the competition.

Speakers such as David Rowen from UK Wired Magazine will talk about how smart businesses are using new technologies to enhance their services or products; Tom Hulme from IDEO will talk about how every business can learn from listening to their customers; and Alan Moore reveals the business and marketing challenges for the 21st Century.

As well as the impressive list of speakers you will be able to take part in workshops to discuss your business challenges and opportunities with international experts and network with the likes of CISCO, Unilever, Design Council, Elmwood as well as business mavericks such as Tim Smit, Tom Henderson, Chris Hines, Lucy Jewson and Bonnie Dean.

We hope that people will take away practical ideas of how to grasp new opportunities in Cornwall and how to harness the creativity that we only tend to associate with the larger multi-nationals. We hope that the networking opportunities also help to create in-roads to new work and that this will be seen as a key conference for businesses in Cornwall into the future.

The conference runs over March 2–3 at The Eden Project and tickets are available on the InterSections website. There is also a free business breakfast on 2 March.

More Info:
www.intersections2011.com
@intersections11

As well as being a great opportunity to catch up with CSMC members old and new, there will also be some exciting news about the forthcoming Cornwall Twestival Local event on March 24th.

Mark Smith has kindly offered to take on the role as lead organiser of Cornwall Twestival and will be on hand to update everyone with the plans for what promises to be a great event in aid of an excellent cause.

If you’re into social media – for work, study or play – and you’ve never been to a Cornwall Social Media Café meeting before, we’d love to see you. Each month CSMC brings together a great crowd of people from Cornwall’s business, academic, media and public sectors – sometimes just for informal networking and sometimes to hear a guest speaker talk about an interesting aspect of social media and the digital world.

Membership is free – all we ask is that you register your attendance in advance so we have some idea of numbers on the night.

Look forward to seeing you on the 8th!

An award winning PR practitioner with more than ten years’ experience in marketing and public relations, Shelley founded Firegrass Communications in 2010.

Prior to setting up Firegrass Communications Shelley Fletcher worked in PR and marketing roles, both in-house and agency, managing campaigns and projects on a local, regional, national and international level. Shelley has worked for VisitCornwall and Devon & Cornwall Overseas Marketing, as well as PR agency Deborah Clark Associates, where she managed accounts in the travel, tourism, event, fashion, lifestyle, retail and food and drink sectors.

As well as working with traditional media Shelley is also able to deliver campaigns that make effective use of new media and social media platforms.

Shelley won the Chartered Institute of PR’s award for Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year at the West of England PRide awards in 2008 and was a finalist in the Cornwall Business Awards for Young Business Person of the Year 2009. She was also named in the PR industry’s magazine, PR Week, as one of the top 29 PR practitioners under the age of 29 in the UK in 2009, and featured in South West Business Insider’s 42 under 42 in September 2010. Firegrass Communications was shortlisted for Best Business Startup in the Cornwall Hub Awards.

Links

www.firegrasscommunications.co.uk
www.linkedin.com/in/shelleyfletcher
www.twitter.com/shelleyfletcher