Those moments when I feel like a kid!:) - Visually Create

One of them is happening just now. I was in Brussels hosting EU Commission's social media training when I have received the notification about new Visually tools. Now, I was waiting for a tool to create infographics as there is clearly gap in the market and now we have one! With Visually Create you can graph nicely a hashtag (just imagine how nicely you can present events from now on in this form - specially with growing popularity of Pinterest this is JUST what we need!). I have tested it on #standardstuesday, hashtag I have suggested to IEC and ISO during their communications forum in Geneva and it really, really looks nice! Here is one on #VoiceTweetup:

There are also tools for visualising Facebook profiles and pages!:) I am having so much fun! (And I know that some of it will be really, really useful for work too;))

Voice Social Media Breakfast - now on YouTube

It has been slowly 2 years since I started those virtual events. From chat - which was at the time the best forum for this group discussion - we have moved to Google+ Hangouts and today we have our notes for you...on YouTube. Our kind friend, Michael Tucker has spend his evening last night (11AM GMT) recording our session for us and live-streaming it too and this evening we have it uploaded to YouTube too - for you reference. 

Next time we will use Bambuser, just to see if we can improve on the image quality, though I think considering the fact that Google+ does not allow direct upload to YouTube this is a great achievement! Enjoy - it's longish but it has some really good case studies there for social good and tech.

Oxford Girl Geek Dinners 3

 

photo by @Darthberne

...was a very nice evening. I have learned that building community is a long term process and we need to take small steps but we do need to keep moving. I have been dragging organising of this particular event for quite a while now and I am happy that we have finally met! I have asked everyone for feedback, so I should probably start. What worked?

1. We had a lot of new people - which is great! One of the core ideas behind the GGD events is promoting the notion of women in tech and trust me: we had amazing guests this week!

2. We had quite a few gentlemen - I personally like the idea of mixed group and the fact that it is not an event exclusively for women. We promote openness, so we should remain open! 

3. Networking and presentation - I like the balance of the two. I hope we can build on that in the future.

What needs more work:

1. Communication - keeping in touch with everyone interested. Let's hope that the mailing list helps!

2. More presentations - at the moment I am working a little bit in the dark, I would prefer to know what topics others are interested in and see other ladies presenting too - glad to see Kate and Wendy involved and others proposing new ideas.

3. Dinner itself - we need more food. Pizza at least!

So now over to you - what would you like to see at an event like this one? Let me know! 

ActionAid UK Blogger Tea Party

I was asked to present top 5-10 blogging tips over at ActionAid UK's Blogger Tea Party next week but I am not sure if I can narrow it all down to few tips! I am sure I will suggest using blog and blog post when appropriate;) But if I were to ask you what are the top 5 blogging tips you would share with other bloggers to develop their work - what would your list look like? 

The reason why I am getting involved in this event is the fact that I am really glad to meet other bloggers involved in work of ActionAid and share my tips to help them share their stories even more effectively - though I am sure we will all learn from each other! I have worked with ActionAid UK in the past and remained really good friends with few people there who commit all their time to great causes! I have sponsored a child through ActionAid UK and I know what a great feeling it is to be involved in this process. So now, knowing that I can also contribute to their work with my own skills is a natural step in my relationship with the charity - simply as a blogger.  

I would also like to point out that the event is really well organised - since the first invitation e-mail I really feel that I have been taken care off - I was even offered a creche facilities for my little geek! Well, who knows, I might still live with this opportunity but even if I do not, I really appreciate the gesture - there are hardly any networking events with this option in the UK! (I think you can still join the event btw). 

But going back to the main topic of my presentation - top tips on effective blogging - in this case blogging for a cause. I can think of engaging content, social media positioning, using multiple channels and using disclosures if you want to or do not want to be engaged with brands (even if nonprofits). And of course not referring to your post as "blogs" so people take you seriously. What am I missing? What would you suggest! I have more than a week, so maybe you can help me to prepare for this one? I would hate to go with only my own recommendations! 

Announcing next Oxford Girl Geek Dinner!

It has been a while since I posted about Oxford Girl Geek Dinners but today I would like to invite you to our January event (tickets here). I have been working on a lot of parallel project in 2011 and this event was most of the time delayed, put aside, some even forgotten - and I feel terrible about it! So as one of my few 2012 resolutions I have decided to focus on it a little bit more. Saying that I would like to be careful what I say - there is something int he term "new years resolution" that implies short term nature of the subject:) I am spending a lot of time off-line nowadays using holidays, Christmas, visits of friends and time with family to meditate, re-think last year, summarize and re-set priorities. I know that Oxford Girl Geek Dinners is high up on their list now so stay tuned and if you can, do join us on the day! 

For more info about Oxford Girl Geek Dinners please go to the main event website and blog here.