Gold Coast

Slide Deck on Social Media for Skool Project 2009

September 15, 2009 By Des Walsh

I had been apprehensive in advance of my presentation on social media today at Griffith University, as a contribution to the Skool Project 2009, organised by cricketer and Griffith staffer Michael Jeh and which I posted about earlier this afternoon. After all, I would be presenting to a group of digital immigrants and I was frankly not sure I would be able to say a lot that was news to them.

They took it in good part when I showed them in the slides how I had envisaged them as an audience in relation to me (slide 2), bringing gifts they would know all about.

Skoolproject2009

View more presentations from Des Walsh.

I really don’t know how much I achieved my goal of helping the group see the value of developing their own social media strategy as part of building and caring for their own brand, but I had fun, several people thanked me and a few said they got good value from it.

And I learnt things.

A few things that, if there is a next time with a young group like this, I will want to definitely include:

introducing them to VisualCV – this was a big hit (practical for young people going for jobs)
more on a practical approach to having a blog without it being a burden
explaining and illustrating RSS more and how it can help you manage information and promote yourself
explaining why and how to get your own domain as an investment in your career and your branding, and how you can park it until ready

They liked posterous and I would not be surprised to find that several participants have posterous sites before the week is out.

Filed Under: Events, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: Gold Coast, Griffith University, Michael Jeh, Skool Project 2009, Social Media, young elite athletes, young elite performers, youth

Social Media for Young Elite Athletes and Performers

September 15, 2009 By Des Walsh

When I first met Michael Jeh, former top cricketer and now staff member at Griffith University on Australia’s Gold Coast, back in June, I was impressed by the story he told me of his Skool Project and was very pleased to sign up. Today I had the privilege of participating.

I did a 90 minute session with the students about social media and social networking, with an emphasis on developing and protecting their personal/career brand. More of that in a separate post.

Right now, here is a short interview I did with Michael just before the next lot of presenters kicked off with the final sessions of the project’s second day. The Gold Coast City Council gets an appreciative mention and there is a challenge to other levels of government and the business sector to get behind this terrific project to support and develop our young leaders.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: elite athletes, elite performers, Gold Coast, Griffith University, Queensland, SEQ, Skool Poject 2009, young leaders, youth

Social Media Roadmap Workshop at Gold Coast

August 20, 2009 By Des Walsh

I knew I’d been talking, more than doing, about my social media roadmap workshop concept when the last person’s eyes glazed over. Yes, it’s been a while coming!

But at last, in tandem with my friend and colleague Associate Professor Michael Rees (@mrees on Twitter) from nearby Bond University, I’ll be presenting the first workshop next Tuesday evening, August 25th, from 6 pm to 8 pm, here on Australia’s Gold Coast.

The workshop is one of a series being organised by, and under the banner of, the Centre for Executive Education (CEE) at Bond. This will be a condensed, 2 hour version. Full day workshops are being planned for late September to early October, in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and in Sydney.

In the video here, CEE Director Melinda Muir talks to Michael and me about the workshop and what benefit people can expect to get from it.

We are planning a dynamic workshop and the numbers are already looking good, but I understand there are still some seats available.

For more information and/or to register for the event, check out the Contact page for CEE (there is currently a glitch with trying to reach the registration page from the link on the CEE events page, which is why I’m recommending making contact with the Centre via the contact page).

Filed Under: Events, Social Media, Social networking, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Bond CEE, Gold Coast, Michael Rees, social media roadmap, workshop

Social Media Club Events Canberra, Gold Coast and Brisbane

January 15, 2009 By Des Walsh

Looks like Social Media Club is on the move in Australia.

I’m so excited!

In March last year I asked whether Brisbane, an hour and a half drive north of where I live on Australi’s east coast, was ready for a Social Media Club. .

Entering 2009 it is clear that Brisbane was ready: Social Media Club Brisbane has an event scheduled for next week (see below). But not just Brisbane.

Gold Coast, the region where I live, and the Australian National Capital city of Canberra are not just ready but launchingt their own Social Media Clubs.

My guess is that other Australian cities, including the major conurbations of Sydney and Melbourne, will join in sooner rather than later.

Social Media Club Canberra, with the leadership of social media expert Stephen Collins (@trib on Twitter), kicks off tomorrow morning, Friday Jan 16, with a breakfast at Cafe CREAM in Bunda St, Civic, 8 am to 10 am. I noticed at least a couple of Twitter-savvy politicians have been pinged on Twitter to come. On Friday, in Canberra? Well, you never know. You can join SMC Canberra at the Facebook site. And you can RSVP (please, so Steve and the cafe have an idea) at the event site also on FB.

Social Media Club Gold Coast has a committee let by Associate Professor Michael Rees – a social media enthusiast par excellence – from Bond University and we have our inaugural event at Bond on Thursday January 29, at 6 pm. We also have a Facebook site. If you would like to join and get all the info about events, use the contact form on this site.

The inaugural event for the year for Social Media Club Brisbane is next week, on Tuesday January 20, commencing at 5.30 pm. This will be at what looks to me from the website as being rather more stylish than your average pub, the Melbourne Hotel in West End, Brisbane. Co-hosting this event with SMC Brisbane, and generously covering venue costs and providing refreshments, is the blogger advertising network Nuffnang, established recently in Australia. Nuffnang Co-Founder, Cheo Ming Shen is flying in from Singapore that afternoon and will be at the function, explaining for 15 minutes or so how interested bloggers might be able to benefit from being part of the Nuffnang network. Should be great fun as well as informative. RSVP (please) at the Facebook site for this event.

So much for the idea of us all lazing around on the beach in mid-summer. It’s not even Australia Day yet and it looks as if Social Media Club in Australia is Going Off!

By the way, you don’t have to be in a city to have or be part of a Social Media Club. Whether you are in Sydney or the Back of Bourke, and want to know more, please contact me via the contact page, or go to the top via the main Social Media Club site.

Filed Under: Blogging, Events, Social Media, Social networking, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Australia, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, SMC, Social Media Club

Barcamp a First for the Gold Coast and for Me

July 7, 2008 By Des Walsh

The weather here on the Gold Coast last Saturday was stormy, but not stormy enough to keep me from attending my first Barcamp, which was also the first Barcamp to be held on the Gold Coast, at Griffith University’s leafy campus at Southport.

It was a thoroughly absorbing event for me. I learned new things, met – or re-met – some very interesting people, enjoyed several varieties of pizza and an uncharacteristically late but excellent first coffee of the day from the coffee van man.

“Unorganiser” Steve Dalton has posted about the day at Bar Camp Gold Coast 1 – Mission Complete (Update 2011: link does not work now).

Congratulations to Steve and his fellow unorganisers and to the day’s sponsors Linux Australia, inQbator, Apress Books, Griffith University and Dalton Technology (update: also Brisbane-based Custom Tees).

DJ Paine has some great pics at the BarCamp Gold Coast Flickr site

Photo by dj paine posted here under a Creative Commons licence

Bond University’s Michael Rees has a succinct writeup of the day’s events.

As promised in my post on Friday last, about going to Barcamp, I took my camera and eee PC. Without a full size keyboard, even Twittering was a challenge, so one of those foldable keyboards is on my list of future acquisitions for the travel kit. And while the eee has a card reader I was not able to edit the size of the pictures I took, so I was not able to upload pictures to my blog site as I normally do: there is evidently some software I can download to eee that will enable me to do that – next time!

Matt Hooper has a Barcamp Gold Coast 1 wrap up, which includes some notes on my unscheduled session on Social Media Clubs.

As Matt reports, that session gave me the opportunity to put people in the picture about Social Media Club Brisbane (being launched Friday, 11th July) and to sound out the people present – a mixture of Brisbane and Gold Coast residents – on whether there would be sufficient interest in establishing a separate Social Media Club at the Gold Coast. The upshot was that Michael Rees and I will work on convening a coffee session some time soon to discuss the possibilities, just as a bunch of us had done for Brisbane.

If there is enough interest we could have two Social Media Clubs in South East Queensland before the end of the year. Given that there are no “live” Social Media Clubs outside the USA plus one in Paris, France, that would be a neat achievement for Queensland. Maybe not on a par with providing the first Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister, first woman Governor-General, etc., but an achievement nevertheless.

Anyone interested in knowing more about the new Social Media Club Brisbane or the possibilities for a Gold Coast one, please get in touch with me, either via the Contact form on this site, or by emailing me at deswalsh(at)gmail(dot)com.

Filed Under: Social Media, Web 2.0 Tagged With: barcamp, barcampgc, Gold Coast, SMC Brisbane, Social Media Club, unconference