Tag: upyerbrum

Better Schools for Birmingham? A new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

Naseem Akhtar is angry – quietly, productively, but all the same angry. She believes the families of Birmingham deserve better schools, schools which have greater aspirations for their pupils, schools which aim to do more than achieve an average outcome for children.

Last month she launched a city wide campaign on the quality of education in Birmingham. She wants to apply pressure from parents and professionals to help teachers, heads, school governors and politicians raise their game.

To find out more about Naseem and what motivates here, listen to the latest programme from the Grassroots Channel. Use the link to download notes from the launch of campaign group which set out problems and potential solutions.

 

Birmingham Regurgitated

One of my favourite new blogs in Brum is Strategy – The Digested Read.  No – stop it, don’t yawn.

Dave Harte wittily strips out the essence of turgid reports on the city, the region and the creative industries.   This is him on  Advantage West Midlands Regional Economic Strategy:

Our vision: now we used to think we could be a world-beater at making everybody wealthy but we were a bit hasty and now we just want to be “successful” at making people wealthy since the stats show we’ve not been particularly successful at it so far (although don’t forget we only influence about a fifth of total spend in the region – it’s not all our fault). But if we can pull it off you too could be drinking cappuccino by the canal like our friends on the cover. Those canals are in Birmingham by the way – our beating cultural heart, did I mention that already? (59 times).

This Youtube Film (created from the images of the marvellous Birmingham Group on flickr) is his take on the the Birmingham City Centre Masterplan:

[youtube]xyihjZYBrF0[/youtube]

Podcamp comes to Birmingham

Laura Whitehead and John Buckley first alerted me to this free, international, podcasting, “unconference” being held in Birmingham at the beginning of September.  Here’s the blurb – and please let me know if you’re coming:

In case you haven’t yet heard PodCamp UK is a FREE two-day event bringing all the excitement and ideas and energy of a PodCamp to the UK for the first time. This unique FREE event promises to be a brilliant mix of ideas, LIVE music, FREE food, great people and much more…

It’s being held at the New Technology Institute (NTI) on September 1/2 2007, in Birmingham – It’s only six weeks away!

PodCamps are meetups for anyone interested in New Media. The first PodCamp was held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2006, and they are now spreading across the globe, enabling culture, commerce and connections.

The “Pod” in PodCamp comes from podcasting; but you can expect to find anyone at PodCamp, podcasters, video makers, software developers, entrepreneurs, journalists, musicians, social networkers, marketers, producers, publishers, PR firms, educators, actors, writers, boys, broadcasters, girls and Web 2.0 gurus, all using the internet to communicate with shared media.

Some are beginners, some are experts, but all are enthused by what they are doing, redefining the old media landscape and defining a brand new culture.

PodCamp UK is a free event, an open door on new media, organised by volunteers who have all experienced PodCamps elsewhere in the world. To pay for the venue for two days with food for all attendees, we now have sponsorship from UK businesses Cheeze, Podcast Nation, and Digital Central. Nick Saalfeld from Wells Park has very kindly offered to pick up the refreshments & Jeff Pulver has put a tab behind the bar for the Saturday night social.

Laura Whitehead,  neil Emery and John Buckley first alerted me to this free, international, podcasting, unconference being hosted in Birmingham.  Here’s the blurb:

This is a FIRST – media coverage is bound to increase as we draw nearer to the first weekend in September. Please contact us if you are interested in joining our sponsors, and helping to make PodCamp UK a truly special event.

Sign-up to attend : http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/PodCampUK
Visit the blog : http://podcamp.com