Categories
Digital Life(style)

Slowly, Slowly, Catchee Monkee … #cmn11

Sometimes change has to happen slowly, to allow people to accustom themselves to things! I am very much not for doing things “the way we’ve always done it” because that’s “the way we’ve always done it”, but also not in “change for changes sake”.

The Academy

This year is my fourth at the Church and Media Network conference (starts tomorrow), and it’s been interesting to see how it develops. In 2007 I was in the ‘Academy‘, which seeks to encourage young Christians into media spaces, and I think all those I am still in contact with on Facebook are doing exciting things in the media.. so definitely worthwhile! Meeting Rachel from Rechord (who was training us) was the highlight of that event for me, especially when I realised that I could have run the sessions myself… a great confidence boost which has evidenced itself in later years! Those who are in this year’s Academy are already en route to the conference, if not there already…

The Twitter Feed

Last year I blogged on the growth of the Twitter stream… that the second year I was at the conference (as a delegate), there was around 6 of us tweeting away from a hashtag I’d suggested, last year there was real activity going on, and we suggested this year that there’s to be a third screen to the side of the main conference hall, enabling people to see what goes on on Twitter before choosing whether to join in (many of those at the conference are from a traditional media background (as the conference emerged from BBC meetups), and still getting their heads around social media). I would have been incredibly happy to have offered a ‘How to Tweet’ session, but am instead co-hosting a blogging session with Pete Phillips! These practical sessions, including podcasting, social media apps, etc. are a great step forward, and how much more social media will we see this year, who will join in from the outside (we know that Peter Ould isn’t there, but will be interested in what’s going on), and what will The Church Mouse say about it this year!

http://tweethacking.com/twitter-t-shirts/tweet-no-evil-t-shirt/

If you’re interested in social media and faith, don’t forget about CNMAC11 also!

What to wear?

If you’re there, look forward to seeing you, and in memory of the wonderful John Daniels, need to decide on which are the most appropriate t-shirts for this year… as we’d talked about having a “getting people talking t-shirt” competition this year … although I think most of mine have been seen!!

Categories
Digital Event Life(style)

CODEC, The Big Read, #CNM10, #CMN10, #CMN11

Lots of feedback from a post by ‘The Church Mouse’ in regards to #cmn10 indicating that there was little on new media at the conference… I missed the original post as I was busy talking to another group who are working with others who need some persuasion in using ‘new media’ – those in Higher Education!  There was a fair bit of “New Media” (whatever that may be these days), it just wasn’t central stage, but believe me, after giving this talk, I have never been so in demand to be spoken to s0 the interest is definitely there. I also pushed hard getting Twitter into the conference, using pre-advertising of the hashtag #cmn10, and from last year, when we had around 6 people tweeting, this year we had around 40, including at least 10 who were trying for the first time!  Here’s my summary of the conference… and I am looking forward to preparing for MediaLit which is all next week – and then onto The Big Read!

Here is Pete Phillips reply to the Church Mouse:

“But I wasn’t there and nor was Mouse.  I have to say that I was able to pick up a new media vibe from the Conference through receiving lots of tweets about what was happening (several saying that CODEC seemed to get a good few mentions during the Conference).  If you’re interested, Bex Lewis kept a record of the tweets made with the #cmn10 hashtag here: http://export.twapperkeeper.com/cmn10-4c1365ca31c75.tar.  Don’t you just love the name ‘twapperkeeper’?

Although CODEC wasn’t officially there, Andrew Graystone, CMN Chair, is a good friend of CODEC and is on our Steering Group.  Andrew is working with us next week on our Media training event for clergy and Christian professionals (Medialit).  And the indefatigable Bex Lewis (a polymath, no less) was there and fielding some questions about CODEC and the work we are doing – more on Bex below.

Having said all that, certainly, we’d be more than happy to talk with CMN about #cmn11 and increase our involvement in this important conference.  It is important to push into new areas of thinking (and yes, I think there is a difference between traditional media and new media) – cloud networking, the implications of new technology and the age of distraction, the instantaneous nature of contemporary news media, and the democratization of reporting are key factors of how the media engages with the contemporary world.  I heard of the West Cumbria shootings on Twitter long before the BBC had picked it up.

And talking of the news, Mouse says I can plug some of what CODEC are doing at the moment – so briefly…

Bex Lewis and the Big Read

While I’m posting, Bex Lewis is starting work with us from July 1st for 2.5 days a week based at Premier Christian Media in Pimlico, London.  Bex is going to working with a number of agencies (Premier, SPCK, Biblefresh, Methodist Church, and others) to develop a national version of The Big Read – an initiative launched by Bishop Tom Wright in the NE of England last year.  Watch this space for lots more in preparation for Lent 2011.”

There’s lots more exciting things on, so keep an eye on Pete’s blog too!

Categories
Digital Life(style)

The Journey of a Hashtag: Getting #cmn10 on Twitter

Last year, at the Church and Media Conference, I was attempted to get a Twitter stream going, but there was very few of us who understood the potential and were engaging, I’d say around 6 of us. This year, I was determined that Twitter was going to make a stronger appearance at the conference! For years the Conference has been the ‘Churches’ Media Conference’, but this year was a change of name to the Church and Media Network Conference – the event, however, was advertised on Facebook as the Churches’ Media Conference, but still – I could work with that! I decided that #cmn10 would make a good hashtag, advertised it on Facebook, got responses ranging from ‘what’s a hashtag’ to some people tweeting with the hashtag!

I contacted the organisers of the event and asked them to publicise the hashtag #cmn10, which they did via the regular emails, both from the conference, and I think through the MediaNet, and the information was also in the conference programme (although it was referred to as a feed rather than a hashtag, but no matter). I then went into ‘What the Hashtag‘ and set up a definition (and collected the stats afterwards here):

The first day of the conference, a lighting strike had taken out the internet/wi-fi in the building, although a few of us die-hards who could manage to get a 3G signal on our phones were able to Tweet. On the second day, however, with some (albeit slow) internet connection restored, the hashtag was republicised from the front, and with a number who were prepared to utilise their previously neglected Twitter accounts after the talk I gave on the Monday, the Tweetstream started to make sense!

Whilst at the event I wanted to find a way of keeping hold of all the tweets from #cmn10, and ‘TwapperKeeper‘ seemed to work fine (there’s a slight time-lag on it, but it collected all the previous tweets). At 21:05, we’re on 396 Tweets, with around 40 people contributing to the debates (so a real number up from last year), and a desire from others to get into it when they get home… I think that’s a great result!

I was really pleased to hear from @Sound_Mike that he’d decided that the Tweetstream offered a different layer which enriched the conference for him, something I have always found! Some think that it detracts attention from the speakers, but I feel that it enables a fuller engagement (albeit that you may miss the odd bit of information!). I have found that a build up to an event via social media (often most easily Twitter) allows delegates and themes to emerge before the conference. Once at the conference you can meet those you have previously met in the online space (emphasis online/offline, not virtual/real!) and continue the conversations face-to-face… and then after the conference we can continue the conversation. This conference doesn’t need to be just a once-a-year event any more – we can continue the conversations online!!

Around halfway through the conference, in between sessions, the production team projected a search from the Twitter app onto the screen, but this had a terrible time lag, and wasn’t picking up users, so I suggested that we use Twitterfall, and this worked much much better!

Now to think about next year’s event, for which we already have a hashtag: #cmn11. We are discussing getting a 3rd screen which will have the Twitterfall on consistently throughout the conference, and the event can be advertised much more widely via social media. A theme coming through the conference is that everyone needs to engage with social media, and therefore the organisers need to be ensuring that it’s being used well, so that it’s use can be encouraged – and I was very chuffed in talking to Andrew Graystone to hear that the Church and Media Network is planning on workshops to enable people to use social media, and my name is in the frame for some of those – yeah, let me at it, that’s what I want this business too… I just need to get past the marking so I can concentrate on it!