Katie Spragg Company: PLOT phone 01902 716055 email plot@light-house.co.uk web www.plotonline.co.uk

PLOT has been supporting creative enterprises across the region since 2002. During that time we have worked with over 200 businesses across the West Midlands and play a strategic role in developing the creative sector in the region.

Josh Hart Company: Live Brum email info@livebrum.co.uk web www.livebrum.co.uk

Launched on 12 May 2008, Live Brum provides comprehensive event listings for the City of Birmingham.

Find events by genre, venue, date and keyword search.

More than just a website, Live Brum is a new, free information service. Data is sourced from the web, email, flyers, word of mouth and more, processed and given back to the world in easy to re-use standard formats. This data can be freely used by anyone and we look forward to seeing what people do with it.

Live Brum is produced by Josh Hart, co-founder and formerly of Made Media Ltd.

Simon Woods Company: European Drama Network phone 07754 888180 email simonwoods@europeandrama.net web www.europeandrama.net European Drama Network is a production and distribution company producing modern movies from classic plays for the home cinema market available to download & on DVD.

Distributed via an IPTV Channel where you can buy the movies and watch documentaries about the making of its movies and download the music, scripts and artwork.

Released on Friday 20th June the first movie is an adaptation Niccolò Machiavelli's comedy hit of 1518, The Mandrake Root, Shot on location in Sardinia in HD directed by award winning theatre director Malachi Bogdanov.

Outdoor screening on the Saturday 21st June in the Curzon Street car park, opposite Millennium Point - entry from 8.30pm, the main feature begins at 10.15pm. Entrance £3.

Neil Hadfield Company: Birmingham City University phone 0121 331 5830 email neil.hadfield@bcu.ac.uk

Precision Portable Motion Control
The Department of Visual Communication
Birmingham City University - Gosta Green Campus

Birmingham City University have obtained a portable Motion Control rig from Mark Roberts Motion Control. This system is the first of its kind to be installed in a British University and we are currently developing projects that will demonstrate and explore its capabilities. Eventually we will be looking to make this facility available as an active working resource for a range of projects both within the University and in partnership with Industry collaborators.

There will be an opportunity to visit the Department of Visual Communication on Wednesday the 18th June. Visitors will see the Rig in action and be briefed on ways in which the University intends to work with Industry on a range of Motion Control projects. There will also be an opportunity to see the Graduate Degree Show and discover ways in which SMEs can benefit through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with Birmingham City Univeristy.

Ian Cook - an experienced freelance journalist and former BBC producer - is running a one day masterclass on how to make money from freelance journalism. The course is being held in Birmingham city centre on Saturday June 28, repeated on Saturday July 26 and on Saturdays in the Autumn.

The course aims to be practical - helping you to tap into a wide variety of different freelance markets. It covers big name magazines and tabloid newspapers - who pay up to £1,000 for stories - down to small special interest magazines.

The course covers real stories written by Ian and successfully sold to publications ranging from The Sun to the Guardian, from Take A Break to the Birmingham Post.

Dr Sara Kalvala Company: Women in Games email nicola@womeningames.com web www.womeningames.com

The Women in Games conference enables communication between the game development industry and academia in addressing issues relating to women - whether as workers and potential workers in the industry, as game players, as personae within games, or as researchers into social, computational and design aspects of games.

This year the conference will be held at the University of Warwick from 10th-12th September. Participation of both women and men is very welcome. Details of how to submit contributions and registration for the conference are available at the conference website: www.womeningames.com

Joint hosts: University of Warwick and Rare Ltd Major industrial
Sponsors: Rare Ltd and Blitz Games Studios

Stef Lewandowski

Pete Ashton

Stef Lewandowski and Pete Ashton
Power Your Business With Web 2.0

Stef Lewsandowksi Company 3form web www.stef.io web www.3form.net

Pete Ashton Company Ash 10 email peteashton@gmail.com web www.peteashton.com/ web www.ash10.com/

Over the past two decades, usage of the Internet has developed from simply 'surfing' inter-linked pages of information, through the boom in on-line retailing and e-commerce, to the present day array of so-called 'Web 2.0' on-line services and applications.

This month's Creative Networks event aimed to de-mystify the terminology of Web 2.0 and demonstrate how the region's creative community can empower their work and businesses with new ways to communicate, collaborate, create and distribute content via the Internet.

We welcomed leading Web 2.0 exponents, Pete Ashton and Stef Lewandowski, from Birmingham's own thriving digital community, who guided us through the bewildering range of Web 2.0 terms, tools and possibilities.

Pete explained that he has been blogging since 2000 and also established Birmingham's 'Flickr' photo-sharing community and set up the 'Created in Birmingham' blog, which recently won a Media Guardian award for 'innovation in an independent blog'.

Stef Lewandowski introduced himself as both the founder and Managing Director of the creative agency 3form and a co-founder of the Birmingham-based creative industries organisation, Creative Republic. He has recently received one of the internationally-recognised 'Webby Awards' for excellence on the Internet.

Stef and Pete first explained that although the term 'Web 2.0' is used widely, its precise definition is as debated, as it is misunderstood. The term '2.0' may appear to imply that there is a new Internet system, but Web 2.0 actually just refers to new ways of using the Internet. We're actually very used to using the Internet in these ways but tend to take it for granted without realising the scope of what is possible or the range of opportunities that can be exploited.

Stef and Pete focussed on the two fundamental Web 2.0 concepts. The first is a change in mindset, where people stop seeing the Internet as a static information silo, but instead use it as an extended suite of tools and services to reach, engage and interact with clients, partners and wider society. The second is the power of distributing content, in text, audio or other visual form, through links and syndication to other Web 2.0 sites and services.

They made the point that whilst the term Web 2.0 may be unfamiliar to some people, popular Web 2.0 services such as the photo sharing website, Flickr, video sharing website YouTube, as well as social networking tools such as Myspace, Bebo and Facebook, are well known and established.

Pete Ashton emphasised that services like Flickr and YouTube are classic Web 2.0, not simply because they enable anyone to publish their content on-line, but because that content can then be taken outside of those services independently of their creators. In essence, it means that content on the Internet can take on a life of its own, as it is used by people as part of their on-line lives.

Another popular Web 2.0 tool is the blog, a term derived from 'web-log'. Blogs can take the form of an on-line diary or journal, or even a platform for news and general comment. The power of blogging is realised through the linkages between blogs and the syndication of blogs around the internet. Blog posts can quickly spread across the Internet, which has led to the rise of so-called 'social media', where users create and distribute their own news content.

Pete suggested that attendees should be able to put their material on-line in a manner that can take advantage of these phenomena and in the process, understand how the conversation that powers Web 2.0 operates.

Many of the audience had questions to put to Stef and Pete which made for an interesting discussion, how's it best to set about blogging, what are the pitfalls, can you be too present on the Internet? to describe just a few of the questions. It was clear that the presentations prompted attendees to examine how they could make Web 2.0 work for them.

Our speakers had given plenty of examples of how these applications and tools could raise awareness and ultimately increase business prospects, their enthusiasm was, as ever, matched with the audience's desire, demonstrated at every Creative Networks event, to innovate and succeed in their chosen fields of creative and business enterprise.

A delighted and genuinely appreciative audience gave a big thank you to our speakers, for giving us their time and their useful tips and for igniting such lively debate.

We are constantly in need of feedback from the members of Creative Networks; it informs what the content of future events might be and ensures that all views are considered. To this end, the evening was brought to a close with a Prize Draw made from the Questionnaire entries we had encouraged people to complete. We shall, of course, examine this feedback and report back to you at the next event.

After much applause and the usual thanks to everyone who participated in another successful evening, a good number of people went to the Woodman pub for yet more networking and a general exchange of news, views and great ideas.