Social Media Club Brisbane Launches Today

July 11, 2008 By

Social Media ClubBack in March this year I asked Is Brisbane Australia Ready for a Social Media Club?

Today I have not only an affirmative answer to that (rhetorical) question, but the very pleasing prospect of participating in the official launch, at 6pm this evening, of Social Media Club Brisbane.

This is the first Social Media Club chapter to be formed in Australia.

The fact that we are able to mark the launch with more than a blog post, indeed as a suitably Queensland/Aussie manifestation of the Social Media Club concept, i.e. with a barbecue, has been made possible by the generous sponsorship of SJK Consulting. SJK describe what they do as being “about turning improbable ideas into functional prototypes and prototypes into scalable commercial software”.

As well as the support from SJK Consulting, we are developing some exciting connections in the higher education and research sector.

One of the things I like best about the preliminary discussions some of us have had about how SMC Brisbane might function is that we are agreed that we intend this to be a group which will be very welcoming for non-geeks as well as geeks. We want to attract people who are interested in ways they can use social media for practical outcomes. We want to help “de-geekify” social media.

We drew up a “thought-starter” list of things that might form part of the purpose and goals framework for this local chapter of Social Media Club:

  • social networking – as in meeting with people with some common interests
  • technology presentation/discussion, including evangelism for social media in government, education, business…
  • imparting knowledge to the novice user
  • surfacing clever ideas which could become business opportunities
  • highlighting/demonstrating the potential of social media tools
  • providing examples of how people can be genuinely engaged with these tools
  • encouraging local developer talent and also providing some wise advice

(Should keep us going.)

If you see something there that you, or someone you know, could find interesting to learn about or talk about, visit the Social Media Club Brisbane wiki and feel free to get in touch via the email address there (or via the Contact page on this site).

Filed Under: Coaching, Enterprise 2.0, Resources, Social Media, Social networking Tagged With: , , ,

Social Media Club Assembles Interim Advisory Board

July 11, 2008 By

Social Media Club The word is now well and truly out in the blogosphere about the Social Media Club Interim Advisory Board.

I’d had every intention of being quick to post about it, once the covers were lifted off the media release. That was not to be, and a combination of time zone differences and my main computer seizing up (and not recovering) yesterday morning left me playing catchup.

But it’s great to see the initiative actually launched and to have the honour, and it is that indeed, of being part of it.

Although that was not a foregone conclusion. In fact, when eleven days ago I received an invitation from Social Media Club co-founder Chris Heuer to join this process, it was not more than a week after I had declared to myself and anyone who was listening that I was not going to accept, for the foreseeable future, any more invitations to join boards.

But getting the invitation from Chris, a real giver and highly respected, in itself put a dent in my resolution. Then when I looked at the list of others being invited it took me about 10 seconds, max, to decide “well, no more after this one”.

Among the “key organizational and strategic deliverables” we will be addressing are:

  • development of membership goals
  • acceleration of local chapter development
  • increase in adoption of industry standards and
  • implementation of a new legal structure to enhance future growth

The timing of this announcement is particularly serendipitious for me, in that tonight we are launching, with generous sponsorship from SJK Consulting, the Social Media Club Brisbane (Queensland, Australia).

For more about Social Media Club and how to meet up with other practitioners and enthusiasts, visit the Social Media Club wiki.

Filed Under: Social Media, Social networking Tagged With: , , ,