The Speakeasy Club is a new, informal networking group aimed at those wanting to improve their public speaking skills and at the same time revive the fast-disappearing art of conversation.

The monthly forum offers the opportunity to participate in a variety of impromptu speaking exercises in a relaxed and supportive environment. There will also be a sprinkling of more formal speeches – with all participants encouraged to evaluate each other’s contributions and provide useful feedback.

The first meeting

Monday June 9, 2008 at 7.45 pm for 8 pm
@ The Werks, 45 Church Road, Hove
Meetings will then be held at the same venue on the second Monday of each month (except August).

Cost

£4 on the door – including refreshments.

Who can come?

Open to all but aimed particularly at Brighton & Hove’s business and creative communities.

We are looking for 2 people to volunteer to do full speeches each night - please get in touch if you want to do one of these.

Visit the Speakeasy Club website to for more details and to sign up.

Freshen Up Your Writing for Beginners & Professionals

Every second Tuesday (nearly) during school term. Only 6 sessions to go until summer holidays. Book in for 3 or 6 (details below).

What is it about?

Great writing exercises and games that build confidence, dissolve writers block and get your fingers flying across the page or keyboard.

• Connect with your real voice
• Enjoy expressing yourself again (or for the first time?)
• Give the ferocious editor (or "inner critic") a holiday and let your words flow freely
• Learn how to write effectively for different audiences, and even for yourself
• Write authentically and learn to connect, be heard and seen by others for who you are.
• Stand out from the crowd and compete in the "Attention Economy" of the new world order.
• Enjoy writing like a person, not a corporate-speak, "we're not listening anymore" brochure.
• Get help editing and planning your writing projects
• Join our fab new online space and share youre words, projects, ideas - get extra resources (all students eligible to join).

Your teacher Libby Davy from Authentic Blogging has a background in creative and professional writing, editing, education and strategic communications.

Upcoming classes

20th May 2008

How to turn the ferocious editor (or inner critic) into your dream editor ... nurturing, coaxing, cajoling, encouraging... (fill in what's constructive for you).

Plus, LOTS OF FRESH FREE WRITING - short and longer exercises to get your ideas and words flowing across the page.

and EDITING CLINIC - with teacher and/or class input as you wish. Bring your project ideas or words along for feedback... websites, stories, brochures, scripts, novels. OR EXTRA FREE WRITING...leave the editor outside and keep the pen moving across the page.

Next dates

• 3rd of June
• 17th of June
• 1st of July
• 15th of July (to be confirmed)

Put them in your diaries now if you have a positive intention to come and learn / create / express / play.

Full details here

We're organising an informal Geek Lunch for anyone to attend on Friday 23rd of May at Tin Drum in Hove.

It's buy your own lunch.

Come along and be social!

Friday, May 30, 2008 at 5:00 PM

The last Friday of every month we organise After Werk, a social open for anyone to attend. More details for the next one coming soon. In the meantime, have a look at some of the photos from the last event.

Reclaim The Web is a one-day unconference on using participatory web technology for social change. Activists and technologists get together to share ideas, skills and experiences, and to plot and plan future projects. There will be open conversations on topics you suggest, alongside presentations and film showings by seasoned internet activists.

Sign up here

(Limited places available)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Presentation / Talk

Dr. Harry Brignull (Madgex) & Pete Gale (CogApp)

When you tear into the packaging of your newest gadget, the last thing you want to do is stop and read a manual, or sit there scratching your head wondering how to get it working. First impressions count, and although this is commonly known by consumers everywhere, Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) Design has only recently become a hot topic, spurred on by leaders like Apple, Nintendo and Dyson.

Harry and Pete have both had recent experience doing OOBE UX research & consultancy for different clients, so their varying points of view should create an interesting dynamic in this presentation.

Topics will include:

• What things are normally done wrong in OOBE design?
• What's an effective design process for achieving user-centred OOBE design?
• What design principles can be usefully applied?

ALSO: SHOW AND TELL

Following Harry's talk there will be an opportunity to show and tell your work.

You don't have to have a polished presentation or anything just spend 5-10 minutes telling the group about something you're working/have worked on.

Sign up here.

There was something in the air on Friday. Perhaps it was the great blend of 30+ people. Or the fact that we had la fabulosa Cindy Li visiting Brighton and giving a talk. It could have even been that cool connection that Cindy has just done the book cover for Tara Hunt's upcoming book (Tara being one of the ultimate forces behind the coworking movement).

Whatever it was, the vibe was right! Aral and I were busy on the scene recording what we could. He got a pre-talk interview, whilst I *just* managed to get the whole talk and questions on to my camera!

In the spirit of creativity and The Werks (nothing with trying to be young, hip and somewhat cool!) I attended my first ever Scrapbooking class. Infact, it was probably the first arty kind of class I've attended since school - around 15 years ago!

Presenting to a class of 6 eager students, Relly introduced us to the world of a very expensive hobby. Somewhat similar to guys and their DIY tools, Relly came equipped with all bits and bobs to help us magic up some lovely work. If only I could remember the names of all her tools!

The result was our own page about ourselves, somewhat girly for the girls and not so girly for the only guy in the class. There is the promise that next month will have a different (not so girly) theme, even with the mention of a fancy machine that prints big letters.

I had some great fun and plan to attend the classes on a monthly basis - naturally with a secret mission to create some Werk themed stuff!

I mentioned in a previous post that we had set up an online social area as a way to collaborate and get to know people that bit better.

Some of the visions we have are:

• It will be easier to get to know people. This is especially good if you are bad at remembering names! On a slightly more useful level, if you are looking for support in any area it could be the place to hunt down the people with the right skills.
• Every werker should join and set up a profile about themselves. This could included a decsription of what you do, link(s) to your website, blog or other online social spaces (e.g. Flickr, Twitter, FaceBook).
• It is not restrticted to *werkers* we really do welcome interested people to join. It may be the case that you attend some of the events that are held at The Werks...perfect excuse to join!
• If you want to share some thing there's a forum, videos and photos section.
• There's also the ability to create groups...what kind of group would be useful for you?
• It is an evolution. It's still early days and are creating things as we doddle along. We are always looking for feedback and improvements. If you've got any ideas just let us know.

Do come along.

We've found a great excuse to get together and have a drink or two.

The first floor is (pretty much) refurbished and werkers have already started moving into our much cherished creative space. Whether you are a werker or not, we'd like to invite you along. Meet some cool people, have a nosey peek at our space and see some magic happen.

We are doing this After Werk on Friday the 25th of April from 5:30pm, at The Werks of course.

Bring some drinks along. We'll provide some yummy nibbles.

Sign up on Upcoming, leave a comment here or drop us an email to info [at] werkshop [dot] org [dot] uk to let us know whether you plan to come along.

There's a team werking away really hard at getting The Werks to work. Here are some of things we have done recently:

• On Monday the first floor opened it's doors to desk and cowerkers
• We now have a website and a blog...which you are looking at!
• We have a social network which we are slowly announcing, feel free to drop by and participate
• There's a werking video channel too - an ideal place to publish your video.
• A li'l page for those on FaceBook
• Last but not least is Twitter

There's more up our sleeve, so keep your eyes peeled.

Beth Tilston runs Node101 monthly at The Werks. It's a collaborative project designed to teach and spread the word on video blogging (or vlogging). I was keen to go along and pick up a few tips whilst sharing my experience as well.

And sharing was what we did, covering cool vlogs, Freevlog, ccMixter, PodsafeAudio, Voicethread, Frozen Grand Central and more...

I even created my first own seriously cheesy and tacky video.

God bless the internet and all that Web 2.0 stuff, but do forgive me for any cheesy-ness you may stumble upon!

We now have a Werking Video Channel dedicated to our community. The easy part has been setting it up - the hard part is yet to come in producing and publishing videos. With the monthly Video Blogging sessions there shouldn't be any excuse for not giving it a go.

Please get in touch if you would like to contribute.

They're Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side was an article published in The New York Times (written by Dan Fost). It talks about the growing worldwide coworking community trend. It also mentions The Werks which we are ever so proud of. :)

"A coworking site in Brighton and Hove, England, called the Werks, is an example of how the networked world can spread an idea across borders. James McCarthy, a founder, had left his job in information technology at American Express and with a partner rented a 6,000-square-foot building that once belonged to Barclays Bank.

They rent to artists, software developers and designers, among others, with hopes of someday being profitable but also allowing free drop-ins to spread the word."