Looking for tea and chatter?

Hello - We have an official date for the next café event so please put the evening of Thursday 4th August in your diaries!

From 6-8pm at Pepper Crescent, social media enthusiasts are welcome to gather, chat about work, life and all things digital, whilst drinking delicious cider, wine, coffee etc and eating cake. It’s a great opportunity to put faces to Twitter handles, spot the people who look like their avatar and generally socialise with other ‘geeks’.

Remember, it’s an informal meeting and although we provide optional name badges there’s no need for business cards or sales pitches. We’re open to people from any industry just so long as you’re interested (professionally or privately) in social media.

Now then, I’m off to set up the Facebook event page and tweet about this. Hope to see you there!

Enjoy a glass of wine with Cheltenham Social Media Cafe

Woohoo! Our next event is in the diary as the lovely folks at Pepper Crescent have confirmed our slot. From 6-8pm on Thursday 3rd March join us for coffee and cake (or maybe a glass of wine or Westons’ Cider) and some social media related chatter.

Guests and new faces are all welcome but remember - this is networking sans business cards. That means leave your sales pitch at the door! The event is free to attend and it’s a great way of putting avatars and twitter handles to real faces. It’s also worth it just for the mocha but we do encourage conversation too!

You can follow the café on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with all our events, pictures and random ramblings. You can also search previous blog entries for our event write-ups which are useful for newcomers to get an idea of how they ‘work’.

It’s a timely reminder for us at the Cheltenham Social Media Café as we haven’t devoted much attention to social media lately. Work has been hectic and, although social media has remained a feature of our lives, it hasn’t really been given the attention it deserves. I am now on Foursquare. I still tweet from the café account. Today I also remembered to update the café’s Facebook status. And yet, it all seems a little half-hearted.

We hope to rectify this situation by recommencing our café events and the conversation with @peppercrescent has begun. In the meantime, don’t forget @jonnop has some wonderful and informative events coming up and he never takes as long as we do to get things moving!

You can join us from 6pm for cake, drinks and chatter or come along at 5.30pm to see Jonathan Pollinger talk about the business benefits of using Foursquare.

We’re open to everyone – so long as you have an interest in social media and you’re happy to spend a few hours being sociable without giving any sales pitches! So far we’ve met lots of interesting, intelligent, charming and useful people so why not come along and be one of them?

Got any questions? You can post them here as a comment and someone will get back to you! Alternatively, talk to us on Twitter or Facebook.

Why not make it part of your weekend celebrations? Spend two hours with cake, drinks and conversation to kick off your evening before heading out for dinner and/or more drinks after the café event has finished! (Well, that’s up to you of course, it’s just an idea.)

Whatever your plans for the weekend, we hope to see you there!

PS. A while ago we blogged about Jonathan Pollinger’s FREE foursquare for business taster workshop that was due to take place at Pepper Crescent before our café event. This has also been rescheduled and will be starting at 5.30pm on the 9th July before the café begins.

Two potential dates have been put forward. These are Friday 9th July and Thursday 15th July. If you have a preference or you think one of these dates clashes with another big event please let us know in the comments section, or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter.

Once again, sorry for the inconvenience. We hope lots of you can still make it!

There are some photos available to view on our Facebook page. Just go to www.facebook.com/Cheltsocialmediacafe and you’ll see them along with our stream of ‘witty’ banter on the wall.

If you don’t Tweet you can leave comments or queries on the FB page and someone will get back to you pronto! Or leave your comment under the blog post.

We’re already thinking about our next event and we’re aiming for mid-July. We’ll keep you posted so you’ll know as soon as we’ve fixed a date. Until then, we can heartily recommend a few other social events in Cheltenham. Look out for #Chelttweetdrinks and Digitalks and I think @Cheltconnect also arrange a few Bath Road-based get-togethers! We can’t make the next Chelttweetdrinks on Tuesday 18th but we’ve been hearing good things about them – @chrish10 is the man to talk to. The next Digitalks is on Thursday 20th and we’re hoping to attend – find @Rich_copy for info.

For freelancers who are tired to talking to themselves (or annoying their local barrista) check out a Jelly event. Local Jellies are organised by @hojomo who’s a lovely bloke.

Anyway, that’s enough of me wittering. Enjoy!

If you’re still not sure the media cafe is for you why not read what some happy Tweeters said about our last gathering?

“Informal, friendly and informative people in relaxed venue.” (@jonnop)

“Had a great night @cheltsocmedcafe – thanks very much for arranging it. Looking forward to the next one. Great choice of cafe!” (@Rich_copy)

“Back from a meeting @cheltsocmedcafe Some interesting chats and several good cups of tea.” (@tingenek)

“Thanks to @cheltsocmedcafe for a great launch event, looking forward to the next one.” (@satoricreative)

“Had a brilliant time @cheltsocmedcafe last night.” (@hojomo)

“Great Twestival good to meet up…” (@jealousdesign)

 “Good to meet up with @jonnop @Rich_copy @tapbusdev @jealousdesign at @cheltsocmedcafe tonight at Pepper Crescent.” (@innov8iveCMS)

“Great night @cheltsocmedcafe with fellow yetis!” (@emmalouisekent)

As you can see, it’s all rather flattering so let’s make the next event just as good or even better!

Linda has asked if we’d like tapas as well as cake – please let us know if you’re interested in this! I can personally recommend the bread, olives, manchego, patatas bravas, empanadas…etc, etc.

As before, a heads up would be welcome but people can also bring guests and turn up at random on the night (like Pip from Superdry did). Hope to see you there!

PS. Details of the event are also listed on our facebook page!

First Prize – @Tapbusdev (Also known as Mike Payton)
Second Prize – Mike and Ann

So, is Mike a lucky name?  Congratulations to all our winners. Mike has won the afternoon tea for two at Pepper Crescent and Mike and Ann will receive a bottle of champagne from Firehoop.

As you can see, Mike is on Twitter so we’ll be Tweeting to let him know. Mike and Ann aren’t on Twitter so I guess I’ll have to give them a call or something. What’s that about?

Winners can claim their prize at the next café event, which we are currently planning for mid May. If you can’t make it or you simply can’t wait that long please let us know and we’ll arrange alternative delivery.

As I tweeted the other day, the funds have been sent to Concern Worldwide. It wasn’t a massive amount, but it will make a significant impact so thanks to everybody for joining in. We feel confident that the next annual Global Twestival Event will be bigger and better as we’ll know what we’re doing by then!

In the meantime, look out for our updates about the next Café event which should be in May.

We’d also like to wish @hojomo good luck with his first ever Costwold Jelly on the 9th April and @rich_copy for his next DigiTalks event on the 20th May.

It’s been a busy morning for us so far and we’re not yet in a position to reveal how much was raised for Concern or who the lucky raffle winners are! Don’t worry – it’s not forgotten – and we will let you know all the details soon.

I had a great time, and I think that between us, the whole team did a good job of working the room and getting to know our café enthusiasts. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves – the feedback so far has been very positive!

If anyone is struggling to remember a name or (more likely) a Twitter ID from the attendees last night please let us know and we’ll try to help.

Come again?If you have any ideas or suggestions that could benefit our next café event please get in touch! We are keen to keep them coming (but not clashing with DigiTalks!) so your input is very welcome, whether it’s a suggested date or a cake request.

You can add a comment, email us, or tweet.

You can also tweet members of the organising team individually if you have a specific query for your favourite SMC MC. We are Rachel, Chris and Karen.

Yeti vox pops and other coverage

Our big cheese Chris was interviewed last night by the lovely and helpful chaps at 10 Yetis. We’re looking forward to seeing their coverage of the event and if you follow them on Twitter you can keep your eyes peeled for it too!

If anyone else is blogging or has pictures of the event please let us know. Good or bad, the feedback is valuable as well as interesting and possibly embarrassing (for Chris).

Now then, that’s enough waffle from me. It’s time to start planning and looking forward to the next one!