Well tomorrow's Think2Act conference takes place tomorrow and promises to be an excellent free event for anyone who has recently been made redundant or seeking change.

Mayo's Open Coffee Club are hosting their next event on Wednesday July 1st in the Civic Centre in Belmullet.

The 121 Marketing Network on LinkedIn will be having their First Wednesday event this Wednesday July 1st in the Mint Bar in the Westin Hotel in Dublin city centre. I wrote a case study about the founder a few months back and definitely worth a visit.

Digital Tonic #10 takes place this Thursday July 2nd in Bar Number 3, 3 Fade Street in Dublin city centre. Digital Tonic is a free networking event for digital media professionals in Ireland.

Next Wednesday, July 8th, ICAD are hosting a creative coffee collective inviting anyone who has been made redundant, freelancers and/or people available to meet and chat at 11 in the Radisson on Golden Lane to explore how ICAD could be of help during these tough times.

While on Wednesday evening,there is the inaugural free Business Networking event in Bewleys Hotel in Ballsbridge at 6 p.m. The plan is to run monthly events for a year and it's strictly for business owners only.

So that should keep you busy for the next two weeks, for the record Flexitimers is not affiliated with any of the events and hope they are worthwhile. If you'd like to be included in this round-up, feel free to email me your events two weeks in advance.
Get out there and make your own luck and enjoy yourself. A smile costs nothing!

Labels: Recession, Redundancy, social networking

Flexitimers are attending the IIA Congress tomorrow in Dublin. There's an excellent line-up of speakers including representatives from Realex Payments, dotMobi, Google and Facebook.

I'm also involved in one of the break-out sessions where, along with my colleagues from the IIA Social Media Working Group, we'll be running a workshop entitled 'Establishing a Social Media Strategy in 45 mins' so if you're looking for a hands-on whistle stop tour of blogging, tweeting and general social networking well this is the 45 minutes for you. Hope to see you there.

Labels: Flexitimers, IIA SMWG, Out and About, social media, social networking

If you've been recently made redundant well then this case study I wrote for the Irish Internet Association might cheer you up. It's a story about a fellow marketer called Karina Heavey who was made redundant in January this year but instead of sitting back waiting for the recession to go away, she got proactive and got seriously engaged in social media. Although an experienced marketer, she'd no experience or expertise in social networks but with some extra time and a lot of drive, she turned that around. The story has a happy ending too. Go on, get active, get online and create your own luck too.

Labels: IIA SMWG, jobs, Recession, Redundancy, social media, social networking

Just back from Wexford town where I attended and spoke at an event on social media (blogging, podcasting, social networking) hosted by Wexford County Enterprise Board and the Irish Internet Association. It featured a really good line up of speakers (of course I would say that) starting with an edu-taining piece from Philip Macartney, Head of Sales Ireland for Bebo, then a very funky presentation from Donald Douglas from Return2Sender showcasing all his highly creative mobile media campaigns. After the coffee break (my mint tea), Brain Greene of Doop treated us to history lesson on radio and IT and its convergence today to blog radio, podcasting and general audio recording as a tool for business. Then I spoke about Flexitimers' activities in the social media space and hopefully I imparted some titbits of knowledge for small businesses out there to get out and start their own conversations, communicate and engage with their customers, clients, staff and any other interested parties.
I met some very nice people - yes it is nice to log off every now and again and actually meet people face-to-face. Then had tea in the bar later with my two college buddies Chris and Ed - we all met on the SEEPP programme in WIT this time last year. Also met a few people from the home town including Dave (office neighbour) from Cada Media who was kind enough to email the photos below so thanks a million for that. Overall I had a good day and I hope the delegates did too. Feel free to comment below and they won't be moderated!

Labels: Flexitimers, small business, social media, social networking, web2.o, wexford web