UX Brighton held an event called Objects and Play recently. Presented by Thomas Forsyth. Here is the video.

When: Thursday 4th of September 2008 at 9:30am (half day workshop)

Where: The Werks

Cost: £50 - Register and pay online

with Stewart Mader

Teams can use a wiki to organize and work on critical documents and project plans. It lets people work more efficiently between face to face meetings and becomes a magnet for all the information relevant to a project. This workshop will show you how to:

• Organize your project on a wiki
• Help your team make the change from trading emails and attachments to gathering, building, and editing information on the wiki
• Manage everything related to the project, including background research, notes, URLs, timesheets, meetings agendas & minutes, action items, and finished documents, presentations, and files

Register online.

When: Wednesday 3rd September 2008 - 7-9pm

Where: The Werks

Cost: Contribution based - feed the piggy

Grow Your Wiki

What’s the best way to grow wiki use at work? Should you even call it a “wiki”? What are the best uses? Who are the best promoters?

Stewart Mader, Wiki Evangelist, adoption expert, and author of Wikipatterns and Grow Your Wiki, will answer these and take your questions.

We’ll explore:

• What’s the business value of wikis?
• How to make the case for using a wiki in your group or team
• How to encourage participation
• Build excitement and drive adoption using examples of current wiki success
• How do wikis change an organization’s culture for the better?
• How do wikis “fit” with other business tools like SharePoint, blogs, content management systems, and email?

With Pure360 and Callender Creates.

When: Thursday 21st August, 18:30 - 20:30

Where: The Werks

Cost: Open Contribution - Feed the piggy

Register to attend.

Proposed agenda

How will I benefit?

Building

• Increase deliverability - and email view-ability through minimising the impact of SPAM filters and different email reader platforms
• Increase response - Creative, copy and designs that stands-out in customers inbox which converts readers to action

Sending

• Select the most appropriate (audience) segmentation and targeting options - show groups/lists within Pure360's system
• Demonstration of bulk email tool (Pure360's)

Reporting

• Full reporting - Demonstration of types of results using Pure360's system
• Tips on adopting an approach of continuous improvement to your email campaigns from reporting measurement metrics

Evaluation

• Assessing current e-newsletter effectiveness beyond open and click rates
• Briefing on the latest privacy laws, guidelines and codes

If we have time, possibly a sequel to this event based on demand:

• HTML Development Do's and Dont's of email templates, by Jim Callender, Callender Creates.

Register to attend.

When: 7th of August 2008 from 7pm

Where: The Werks

Cost: Feed the shiny piggy (make a contribution)

Full details and sign up here

Wordpress is traditionally known as a blogging tool. More recently it has become a popular tool to manage small websites, aka a CMS (Content Management System).

This is a small hands-on workshop delivered by Mark Kirby which will cover the basics of how to create a client site using Wordpress as a simple CMS. Mark will explore some of the pro’s and con’s of using Wordpress as a CMS and show you how to quickly turn a site’s HTML and CSS into a Wordpress template.

You are expected to have basic knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Mark Kirby is a web developer in Brighton.

Full details and sign up here

When: Friday July 25th from 5:30pm at The Werks

After Werk is a regular monthly social at The Werks. No agenda, just great people and space to be social with.

It is open to attend though bring your own drinks, food, music, games....

It is after work at The Werks, join us.

We made it into The Telegraph recently, read all about it.

When: Friday 25th of July from midday

Where: Palmeira Square if nice 'n' sunny, if not at The Werks

Sign up: register online

Davide of Radikio is starting a personal chef and catering business and has been trialing out some of his lovely food on some of us lucky werkers. Now we are organising a proper picnic for everyone to enjoy the wonders of his food PLUS the great company of werkers and friends.

Come along and join us. The cost is £5 which needs to be paid up front to guarantee numbers. Registration is online, payment must be made by the 18th of July at the very latest.

The Picnic Buffet Menu

New potatoes , butternut squash, red peppers, red onions , chestnut mushrooms salad
Tossed with parsley and smoked paprika dressing (vegan)
Black Sea Bream, fennel , radish and juniper ceviche
With garlic bruschetta
Caprese: sun blushed tomatoes, mozzarella, black olives and basil (vegetarian)
Grilled vegetables and cous cous (vegan)
Sliced braised Pork loin with caper “tonnata” salsa

Dessert

Mix berries , white chocolate custard , crumbled amaretti biscuits

We have badges for you to stick on your website or blog, go on, stick 'em on

Formal Consensus is a clear formal decision-making structure, simpler than the parliamentary procedure of Robert's Rules of Order, and better for bringing together the group's best creative thinking. (Do adversarial politics and a majority-rule vote capture our best thinking? I don't think so). Want to combine clear agreements and decision-making processes with deep democracy and participatory governance? Want to bring out the best in your team mates and your self? Learn Formal Consensus!

Formal Consensus emerged from the US anti-nuclear movement as a way of quickly making good decisions among a group of hundreds of loosely affiliated individuals, some of whom might be government agents provocateurs (An organizational nightmare...). It has been successfully adopted by businesses, intentional communities, and the global activist group Food Not Bombs. Nathaniel White trained with the author of the Formal Consensus manual, C.T. Butler, in 1997. Nathaniel uses the method in his paid and voluntary work, and contributed to the most recent version of the manual.

The training will go from 11am to 4pm, and focus on the structure of a Formal Consensus meeting and on the facilitation skills useful for generating high-quality collaborative decisions. The training will be downstairs at The Werks, 45 Church Road, Hove BN3 2BE.

The fee is sliding scale (£5 to £40, so extremely affordable).

This training is targeted to serve three groups: Transition Town Brighton and Hove, the Source Village ecovillage development group, and the Pioneers of Change (London) hosting team. First priority will be reserved for members of those groups, but other members of the public are welcome. To reserve a place, contact Nathaniel White (white@magicatechne.com) and put Formal Consensus in the Subject line.

When: Friday July 11th

Nodestone have a long-term, genuine commitment to helping make your sector’s impact in the world be as positive as possible - with a whole lot of help from the wonders of the world wide web.

Part One & Part Two will be specially tailored to your sector’s own context, looking at issues like fundraising, running campaigns, local and global issues on social justice and environment. Case studies (including your own) will get right into the nitty gritty of how social media can be integrated to achieve your goals.

Who will benefit?

• Communications/PR/Marketing people
• Project Leaders
• Senior Management

…within charities, volunteer & community groups, NGOs, social enterprises and other third sector organisations small or large. What will you get?

• More attention on the internet, from the people that matter to you
• Higher search engine rankings
• New ways to attract funding
• Greater participation from stakeholders
• How to manage your online presence
• Conceptual framework for understanding social media / web 2.0
• Knowledge to set up your own website, blog, social network, Facebook campaign, etc
• Confidence in being up-to-date and understanding the future of communications
• Actual service delivery via social media (in some cases)
• Case studies specific to your sector
• Practical help with solving your problems
• Ways to measure your impact online
• Cost effective capacity building
• A great day’s learning and networking in Brighton
• Ongoing support.

Key dates? (pencil them in)

Stage One

• Commitment required from early July for needs analysis and induction.
• Group learning day is 11 July

Can’t clear your diary for 11 July? Call to find out about future dates…

Stage Two

• Book before 15 July for a 20% discount.
• 3 x 1 coaching session a week. Weeks beginning 14 July / 21 July / 28 July or by arrangement.

What do they cost?

From as little as £290 for Stage One (£75 for an assisted place).

Contact Nodestone

This event is being run by Nodestone, please get in contact with them regarding any queries.

When: Friday 20th of June from 5pm

Where: The Werks

After Werk is a monthly social, usually held on the last Friday of the month, but lovingly moved forward this month to bid farewell to Hendrik - the most loved German Geek in Brighton.

Come along, bring drinks/food and bid farewell to Hendrik.

Where: The Werks

When: Thursday 10th, 17th & 24th of July 2008 from 6-8:30pm

How much: Open contribution

Sign up online

A series of events to make things different

• Do you want to develop an enterprise?
• Do you want to generate income?
• Do you have ideas you are passionate about?
• Do you want creativity to work for you?

The Werks presents a series of 3 events to start with and change your life.

They will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday evenings. Payment is ‘Open’*.

Day 1

• What is each person doing?
• Why are you doing it?
• Could you do it better?

Day 2

• How to re-invent yourself
• How to achieve the things you really want to do

Day 3

Where now?

Each member will come away with a series of steps to achieve their goals

Sessions

Each session is from 6 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. split as:

• 1 HOUR: Asking questions/ information exchange/ discussion
• 0.5 HOUR: Interaction and drinks/snacks
• 1 HOUR: Answers and agreement

The first sessions are weekly on: Thursday July 3rd, 10th and 17th @ 6 p.m.

Between each session you are asked to develop the themes which have been covered and relate these to your working life.

Werking principles

Werkshop and The Werks are part of Werkshop CIC which is a social enterprise dedicated to support for creativity and enterprise. The ways in which this is done are by:

• Supporting creative networks
• Creating supportive environments
• Developing links with education, public and private enterprise.
• Developing access to information, workshops and other events
• Providing support through mentoring, advice and routes to finance

Facilitation

‘We Can Werk it Out’ is facilitated by The Werks and Ian Elwick. Ian has extensive experience in mentoring, workshop delivery and consultancy. Clients have included:

• BT
• Natwest
• Grandmet
• SEEDA, LDA
• Councils: Croydon, Brighton & Hove, Hastings, Wandsworth, Milton Keynes & East Sussex
• Universities: Brighton, Sussex, City, Goldsmiths, Portsmouth & UCCA
• Theatre Resource
• Sea Space
• More than 400 SMEs and freelancers

Ian has also been the founder or director of 25 companies including The Werks, Werkshop, Brighton Media Centre, Bizvizion, Innovate South London, Digital Content Forum & StreetVibes Youth.

Other Events

Please ask about follow-up workshops and events:

• One day Business Plan
• Marketing for Creatives
• Creative Enterprise: How to develop and grow
• Social Enterprise: What is it and how do you make one?

Open Payment:

At The Werks we operate payment either on fixed fees or on Open Payment.

If it is the ‘Open’ option as with these workshops you are asked to contribute through a donation or some other method by discussion. A basic figure for each event will be suggested.

Sign up online

Where?: here at The Werks

When?: Sunday July 13th 2 - 6 pm

An excuse to get a bit social comes AfternoonTeaCamp. It’s on the weekend (this Sunday), in the afternoon at The Werks. The idea is that everyone brings something to share and that we can all enjoy each others company.

Good company and social interaction is essential!

How does AfternoonTeaCamp work?

• Bring something related to afternoon tea. E.g tea bags, milk, sandwiches, scones….
• Sign up on the list where people should say what they are going to bring. (We wouldn’t want everyone to bring just milk ‘n’ tea!)
• There will be slots for people to give presentations (BarCamp style)
• Kids are welcome, perhaps they could make something too and show it off.
• Any sponsors want to help out with costs?