Live! At the BBC:

I had a very pleasurable day yesterday working with, (and it has to be said, learning from), half a dozen key players from some of Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland's top creative businesses.

So take a bow, a curtsy and plaudits:

Kenny Shaw from Screenmedia Design, Joel Simon from Flickerpix Animations, Nicola Black from Blackwatch Productions, Damien Smith from ISO, Dom Raban from Corporation Pop & Andrew Crawshaw from Tuna Technologies.

(Incidentally; Why 2 links per delegate above? First to Twitter, second to website. I am delighted to report that to a man, and woman, everyone in the room had a Twitter account. Do yourself a favour, follow them now.)

Entrepreneurs all, I met the aforementioned luminaries at a day long social media workshop I facilitated in the BBC's impressive Pacific Quay building.

A terribly nice, but scarily smart bunch, the the day was a blend of me pontificating (as usual), about social media, flurries of tough questions, (with occasional soft answers), a large chunk of hands on keyboard engagement with essential social media tools, all wrapped up my the usual over-the-top evangelism and exhortation to get socially stuck in.

The day was part of the year long Cross Creative project, formulated and hosted by TRCMedia, a Glasgow based, and beautifully proportioned, provider of industry-wide training and development for business leaders. 

Their mission is to help delegates make sense of the latest business and technology trends, and how they might respond to new challenges in this era of revolution and reinvention.

(Oh, and, before I go any further, I must also give a huge and significant thank you to Cross Creative Project Manager; Carole Dunlop, for some terrific organisation, for keeping me on track and on brief, and for being totally unflappable.)

During the groups Q&A sessions, we covered such topics as:  How can busy execs find time to engage with appropriate social media channels, how does one separate of person and professional involvement, the distinctions between social media as a productivity tool, and it has to be said, productivity inhibitor, what's the big deal about Twitter, the importance of aggregation with 'search+share', and we even found time to explore the use social tools to find the best haggis in Glasgow. (Joel was on a mission here, with Burns Night looming.)

The team also grilled Damien about ISO's ambitious and fascinating 4ip funded Central Station project. (He was as forthcoming as possible, but understandably wasn't able to give us the full skinny.)

And we discussed the groups upcoming March visit to Silicon Valley to meet with many of the web's great and the good. Including, I must report with not a little envy, appointments at Facebook and Google.

We rounded the day off with a Social Media quiz, shamelessly repackaged fro the previous weeks Edinburgh Coffee Morn birthday celebrations.

All in all a sometimes grueling, sometimes challenging, but always stimulating day.

Would I do it again? Like a shot.

Would I do it again some time soon?

I think I need a bit of a lie-down first.

Till about August.

Flickr set from workshop here:

Comments

[Andrew Crawshaw]

Thursday was fun and very worthwhile. I've even done my 'homework' and blogged about it myself; http://thunkd.com/blog/2009/01/27/tweet-think-and-be-merry/ Thanks once again. Oh, and you were spot on about 'Wossy'.

[nicblack]

thanks mike brilliant day on thurs - really enjoyed getting socially stuck in!