Okay, I think I know what I’m taking away from SXSWi and bringing to Birmingham. As with all the best ideas it’s not particularly revolutionary but I think I’m in the right position to put it into practice. Here’s the rough thought process.
The Custard Factory, for whom I work on their website which will be launching properly next month, want to put into place some systems for tenants to network, leveraging the fact that they have hundreds of interesting creative people in the buildings. In other words they’ve got a sort of BarCamp crowd already in place.
So we designate a place, either in one of the cafes (The Kitchen?) or a spare office and say that every Friday morning is the meet day.
Then we have a wiki-style page where people can say if they’re going and what they want to talk about. Also if people are having meetings which would benefit from strangers joining they can say so too. This means there’s a number of loose agendas in place.
Custard Factory provide tea and buns. It’s the least they can do. ;)
Because the wiki is public people from outside the CF can come along, bringing new ideas into the complex and promoting CF to potential new tenants. Dave, the site manager, can be there to talk to the potentials in an informal way whilst showing off the sort of people who are in the building which is one of their major selling points.
Should be nice and simple but very effective. All I’d have to do is manage the wiki and promote it on the blog.
Idea solidified while talking to Rebecca Caroe with whom I’m be going to a Social Media Cafe in London. She also mentioned Pippa Crawford’s Designer Breakfasts which look much slicker than the usual BarCamp / Unconference things, which is interesting for those looking to deal with “professional” types.
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