Created in Birmingham

• Fused Magazine – final call for delegates
  If you are a manager of a band, promoter, record label owner, music journalist, A&R, Label, DJ – anything related to music in the region and are interested in attending the SXSW festival at a subsidised rate contact Kerry Thomas on 0121 246 1946 / kerry@fusedmagazine.com.
• Burn fm’s Battle of the Bands
  Burn fm is holding a BOTB with a few other societies (Rock Society, Band Society) and Vale Fest, a charity festival entirely run by students. Any profits from the £5 ticket price will go towards the Vale Festival charities.
• Punch Records are looking for an intern
  The successful applicant will be working with the Bass Festival’s marketing team. Interested? Call Sophie in the Punch office on 0121 224 7444 or email sophie@punch-records.co.uk
• Joanna Geary on Social Media
  Insightful presentation from Development Editor Jo Geary on some of the lessons she’s learned while building the Birmingham Post’s presence in social media.
• Art Connect
  Created in Birmingham has been profiled and reviewed on the website Art Connect. The site looks at the importance of arts blogs, and said some very nice things about this one!

A few weeks ago I set out an idea for a CiB charity project involving a design competition resulting in the production of a limited edition CiB t-shirt which will raise money for a Birmingham based charity. Now, two weeks on, I have done a bit of research, taken on-board all of your suggestions and found lots of helpful people who would like to get involved.

We have decided to money raised will go to a popular choice for a Birmingham based charity: Acorns Children’s  Hospice.

This is the first call for submissions and here is how it will work:

• Anyone can submit a design entry to the competition, as long as you follow the specifications needed for printing.
• From the entries 20 final designs will be chosen and made into 50 limited edition pin badge sets.
• One final design will be chosen and will be made into 50 limited edition t-shirts and 50 limited edition canvas bags.
• All items will be lovingly screenprinted by hand and sold online by Cut – Out, a fantasic DIY print company based in the West Midlands. All items will be printed with eco friendly inks and on top quality Earth Positive apparel.

The brief:

We want to make a t-shirt that people will really want to wear, so the brief is very loose. The emphasis here is celebrating creative talent in Birmingham and raising some money in the process. You could design something which reflects the creativity of the city, or just your own style, it’s up to you!

Submission guidelines:

• The design should work using one colour, if the image is a photograph it needs to be converted to half tone.
• The design you submit needs to be 300 dpi (usual print quality).
• The design should be no bigger than A3 in size.

Deadline: Friday 6th March 5pm. Send your design as a PDF or JPG file to Createdinbirmingham[at]gmail.com, and hang on to your originals.

Created in Birmingham has been officially announced as the winner of the Best UK Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards.

A HUGE thanks

I’d first like to congratulate the other finalists who took part (list here) and say thanks to the organisers for making things run surprisingly smoothly. I’d like to thank everyone who supported us and made this happen – ‘us’ being Pete Ashton, Julia Gilbert, Danny Smith, Frankie Ward, Stef Lewandowski, Kate Spragg and myself, Chris Unitt.

There are so many of you but I’ve tried to keep track of everyone who spread the word for us (especially online, which is easy enough to track if you know how) and have listed as many as I could find below. However, I know there are many who I’ll have missed – feel free to take a bow in the comments.

The important bit

What this means for CiB can be discussed elsewhere.  In fact a few blogs, linked to below, have already started chewing the fat and drawing lessons from this.

For me, what’s immediately apparent is that to foster a loyal community of people who will go out of their way to support you, you must first of all be generous. Give freely and give often. Expect nothing and you’ll be surprised how many times over you will be repaid.

In that spirit I’d like to quickly mention Baldy’s Blog. Written by Adrian Sudbury until his death, this blog was another of the finalists in the Best UK Blog category and has been described briefly as:

Young local journalist/web editor gets ill. Complex leukaemia. Starts Blog to describe and explain the disease and treatment. Bone marrow transplant is successful. Post transplant complications set in. Proposes on Christmas eve to long term girlfriend. She accepts. Wedding plans begin in earnest. Fiancee leaves him. Broken heart. Leukaemia comes screaming back. Terminal prognosis. Campaign begins to teach all 17/18 year olds about how simple it is to be a bone marrow donor. Huge petition presented to Downing Street. Support from Gordon Brown, Alan Johnson, Ed Balls. Many media appearances nationally to push campaign. Dies 20 August aged 27. Campaign continues…..and succeeds

Please read the blog. It’s quite amazing.

As a result of our win, and in Adrian’s memory, I’ve donated £50 to Leukaemia Research. What’s more, as soon as I can arrange it, I’m going to do something I’ve always told myself I couldn’t and give blood. I can’t tell you how much I’m not looking forward to that.

Right, that dealt with…

On with the thank yous!

The following good people used their Twitter accounts to spread the word. Apologies to anyone using Twitter who got hacked off with the number of messages flying around.

7breaths_ abbycorfan AdFundAl AlbertoNardelli AlexBermingham Alfie alncl anamilgram Andy383 andylockran annettenaudin anthonyherron Azeem_A b33god benga benjaminbrum BenjaminEllis benrmatthews bhampostjoanna bigdaddymerk BirminghamJazz blacklooks boofie BostinBloke bounder brianfitfriends brucel brumcityuni brumeastside campbellX CapsuleFilms carocharlton CathElliott catherinepope catnip chrisunitt citizensheep ClareWhite cmbainbridge coupde craig_fots createdinbrum crispeater crowdSPRING cyberwebmedia DanielBigCat danux davebriggs daveharte davidjstringer DavidLouisDsign davidnikel deplorableword digibrum_si digitalyw dilyan_damyanov discodrive Documentally dougald dracos dstrawberrygirl dubber duncautumnstore Ed_Hart editorialgirl edrussell ellielovell Enduring Essitam eunice007 ExpatBama exsanguinator FionaHandscomb foodiesarah frontrowphotos gabysslave garymuircroft gavinwray gecal genzaichi getgood giagia graphiquillan gtoss hackneye hanuman HarryJA helenbyrne hmobius Ianhlhm ianshepherd ihatemornings iheartjoan InBlogs jacksunday jaynehowarth jezs joannageary john383 johnbradford johnmostyn johnpopham jonhickman josiefraser kanter karenstrunks karlbinder karmadillo katchoo KatieSpragg kcorrick kerryfused kincowbag kristianc laurenceexigent lee_jordan leekemp leight leonardomorgado lexiconmark LightHouseMedia Lil_asha lisibo LittleLaura Lizlxer LloydDavis lowcarbondiary lylebignon m4rcuk marcreeves markmedia marksteadman martinwake martinxo matgb mediaczar MerseyMal midge_uk mikedunn Mizgrimalkin msemaj MyJQ mykitchenstore neil_raygun nickcarson NinaGleams Nosemonkey parboo paulbradshaw paulhenderson peteashton pezholio pigsonthewing podnosh politicspenguin practicaleq procrastinatrix puffrichie qwghlm regengirl ReTweetTrends rhubarbradio RichBatsford richpayne88 robotvsdinosaur RussL sambeckwith SamShepherd shanitomorrow sharl shuckle SickTrumpet sidlangley simonhowes sixball Sizemore sleepydog SoullaStylianou star_one stef stevechapman141 stevebridger stevegerrard SteveKubrick StevenTuck strix_aluco stuartfowkes sue_atkins supercoolkp taratomes TessyBritton theaardvark thestage tom_watson tombeardshaw Tweejay twofootedtackle urbancomms urbanfly Viscount_one winkysmileyface Yak101 yiannopoulos zurichstudios

Blogs (and other sites) that supported us:

Birmingham: it’s Not Shit
Pete Ashton
Podnosh and an earlier links round-up
Spaghetti Gazetti
The Deplorable Word
Graphiquillan
Joanna Geary
Parboo
White Like Milk
Citizensheep
Catnip
Chris Unitt
Nosemonkey
I So Wish (and again)
Digbeth is Good
Daily Mail Watch
Bob Piper
Nunovo
Bluemilkshake
Feeder
Rumproast
Dougald Hine
Blue Gal
Banditry
John Mostyn
Queersighted
The Sharpener
Pickled Politics
Film Forum West Midlands
The Stirrer
Medialens forum
Peter Bacon
Who Needs The Sea
Karen Strunks
Anthony Herron
Daniel Davies
Hanuman
Indymedia Ireland
Indymedia UK
The Birmingham Post
Liberal Conspiracy
Ógra Shinn Féin
Ordo Paginarum
Paul Henderson (great pic)
Never Trust A Hippy
Hippodrome
‘I’m Voting for Created in Birmingham’ Facebook group
Ewan Spence
Laura Whitehead
Local Democracy
Skyscraper City
Democratic Underground
Kebablog
Moseley Free
Amortize (another good pic)
Drum & Bass Arena
Rachel Gillies
Parboo
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Stumpy Moose
Haloscan.com
Clare Edwards
John Popham

By the way, CiB doesn’t necessarily endorse or condone the views espoused on a few of those blogs.

Thanks also to the Birmingham City Council webteam (screenshot), everyone at Culturedeluxe, the Birmingham Bloggers, Birmingham Social Media Cafe, Fierce, 4Talent, THSH, 7 Inch Cinema/Flatpack Festival, Creative Republic, Bostin, Gigbeth, BBC Birmingham and everyone who voted.

In case you’re interested, here’s some post-award discussion:

Nosemonkey
Pete Ashton
The Daily Dust
The Exile
Enduring America
Neil Clark

Polls close at 10pm tonight so this’ll be the last time I ask here. Please clink on the link and vote Created in Birmingham for Best UK Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards.

It only takes a second. If you know anyone else who might give us a vote please send them a link this to this.

The support so far has been incredible and I’ve got a thank you list longer than my leg (which, if you’ve met me you’ll know is pretty long). We’re nearly there so just one last push should do it for us.

As a quick thanks in the meantime, here’s a kitty (with thanks to Amortize):

Let me introduce myself, I’m Kate Spragg and I am taking the reins of Created in Birmingham from Chris. I’m sure you’ll agree that Chris has done a fantastic job since taking over in May 2008. The blog has brought together the Birmingham creative community which I look forward to becoming a part of, and finding out what makes it so vibrant, tenacious and proud of the city it belongs to.

I should point out that I don’t live in Birmingham – I live in Wolverhampton, but hopefully my passion for Brum’s creativity should make up for that. I have a Fine Art degree, but have moved into more digital creative pursuits since graduating in 2004. In the last couple of years I have worked in marketing and creative business development at Light House in Wolverhampton, co-organised the Flip Animation Festival, including running the event’s blog. I also co-run Colour with my fiancé Matthew. We put on live music events and write a blog.

As well as listings and regular news updates, I want to investigate how your creative endeavours impact on the city as a whole, and to find out how creative types can get ahead. I would like to continue the good work of Chris and Pete before him, and encourage others to utilise online media and tools to create, promote and reach out.

Please say hello if you see me out and about and you can follow me on Twitter, if you like.

RSS.

Feeds.

Horrible, nasty words that scare normal folk and have them running from the internet to take refuge with their library cards.

They’re not that tricky though. I’ve been keeping track of hundreds of websites to find stuff to post here. Visiting them all daily would have taken too long and cost me my sanity, so instead I used RSS. Most competent websites have an ‘RSS feed’ sending out the latest updates. All you need to do is use an RSS reader (I use Google Reader, there are others) and you’ve got a time-saving one-stop-shop for all your favourite websites.

Anyway, point being, as I’ve sent Kate a file listing pretty much all my Birmingham RSS feeds I thought I’d put a copy here and share it.

The file is here. Import it into Google Reader by going to ‘Settings’ then ‘Import/Export’ and follow the instructions.

Disclaimer – for various reasons, not every Birmingham blog is in there and some that are are now defunct, etc and so on. Basically, this is not comprehensive.

Also worth checking out – last month Substrakt compiled a list of their favourite Birmingham blogs.

On 1 February I’m going to stop running Created in Birmingham. It’ll be run by Kate Spragg instead.

Before I start waffling, you may care to know that the ways to get your stuff on CiB won’t change much. Email createdinbirmingham at gmail dot com or, much better, blog about it somewhere yourself (your info needs to be online somewhere to be linkable to, anyway). Or you could advertise on CiB (it’s ridiculously cheap after all).

For those that don’t know Kate, and I’m sure she’ll introduce herself soon enough, I think CiB will be safe in her hands. A while back I blogged about looking for the next CiB person with a list of ideal criteria. I reckon Kate fits the bill well.

I’ll hang around, as Pete has, as a kind of ‘blogger emeritus’ but I doubt very much that Kate will need my help and I’m really looking forward to seeing how she develops the site during her tenure.

I’ve loved running Created in Birmingham but at the same time definitely feel the need to pass it on. I’ve got other projects I want to devote my time to and, besides, I think I’m a little too settled in the role now; it’s a good time to inject some fresh impetus.

Until 1 Feb I’ll post a few more things from my current backlog and am hell-bent on CiB winning the Best UK Blog Award (although that just got a lot tougher) so expect more reminders and please vote daily until Tuesday 13 Jan. Otherwise, I’m going to start stepping back as Kate gets into the swing of things.

If you’re interested in what I’ll be up to you can follow me over at chrisunitt.co.uk and/or on Twitter. I have a few projects I’m working on – Cquestrate, the next Film Dash, Osiris Licensing and a few other things (including Meshed Media) – but I’m always up for discussing interesting projects, especially if there’s a blogging/social media angle.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me, commented, introduced themselves at an event or just read something on this here blog over the past few months – I’m truly grateful to all of you.

My backlog’s built up a bit so expect a fair few shortish items today/this weekend while I blast through all the good stuff going on.

Before that though (and following a couple of recent-ish conversations) there are a few quick things I should mention.  If these are obvious to you then please skim on.

Subscribe to CiB for free

You don’t contact all your friends daily in case they’ve got something important to tell you – they’ll email or call you if they have news.

Similarly there’s no need to visit CiB in case there’s some new info.  You’re very welcome to, but instead you might like to save time and get a daily email with all the things I’ve written about.  It’s free and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

There’s also an ‘RSS feed‘.  RSS can be an off-putting term but basically it involves using Google Reader (or another RSS reader) as your ‘website-watcher’.  Tell it what sites you check regularly and it’ll become your time-saving one-stop-shop.  It’s how I keep track of almost 400 sites without going mental and it costs nothing.

Links

Text in pink (or blue and underlined if you get RSS or email updates) is a ‘link’ which will send you to another website for further information.  Finding other sites to send people to is kinda what CiB is all about.  For example, here’s a link to the Film Dash challenge I’m organising (yes, that was also a shameless plug).

Blogging for creatives

There are so many small arts organisations around the West Mids that have zero (or very poor/neglected) web presence who could benefit from a blog.  They’re very cheap, easy to use (if you can use Word you’re most of the way there), versatile and they’re a credible and easily updateable web presence for anyone who needs one.

If you want a hand getting started then don’t ponder about it, just give me a shout or pop down to Pete Ashton’s social media surgery on Thursdays at Rooty’s in the Custard Factory, 4-6pm.

Advertising on Created in Birmingham

Ok, one last thing – apparently £50 for 2 weeks is outrageously cheap for what you get, but hopefully that makes it accessible to the smaller orgs/companies/events/etc.

Hope that was useful to someone.  Most people might take things like links for granted but it seems not everyone knows this stuff.

I’ve added a couple of things to Created in Birmingham that you might not have noticed, especially if you don’t tend to visit the site itself because of the genius that is RSS.

Calendar/Listings

On the listings page (there’s a link below the title of the blog too) I’ve embedded a calendar from my own GCal account.

I use that calendar to keep track of the various events covered on CiB, plus a few added extras.  If you use Google Calendar (and possibly several others, like iCal and maybe Outlook) then you can subscribe to the CiB calendar too.

The listings page also pulls in a feed from Live Brum showing the day’s events.

CiB on Twitter

There’s a Created in Birmingham Twitter account too at http://twitter.com/createdinbrum.  I tend to use this to flag up events that are happening nearer the time, kinda like a reminder service.

Before the non-Twitterers among you switch off, these work as free SMS updates too.  Just send:

follow + createdinbrum

to 07624 801423 and you’ll get those CiB updates as free text messages.  Pretty groovy, no?

You may remember Frankie Ward, the newest addition to CiB, from her interview with Soweto Kinch.  I’ve not really introduced her properly yet but her she is to do that herself:

For some info about the 101 things Frankie’s doing (Gigbeth, Birmingham Live, BBC Blast Arts Reporter, Burn FM Programme Controller and so on), check out Frankie Ward’s blog, her MySpace (especially if you’re a local band – send her your tunes) or her Twitter.

As part of the (ongoing) site redesign I thought it’d be nice to have some more visible contributor profiles so you know who’s writing this stuff. I asked Steve Gerrard if he’d take some snaps of us and the results are in.

So from left to right that’s Danny Smith, Chris Unitt (me), Frankie Ward and Pete Ashton. Hi there. If you see us out at something arty then please come and say hello.

If you’ve not come across him before, Steve is known for his photography (rock gigs, weddings and sometimes both) and has recently opened a studio in the Custard Factory. He’s also the man behind Birmingham Live which gives aspiring music reviewers/photographers a platform and a place to develop.

Welcome to the new design of Created in Birmingham.

We felt that the site could do with a spring clean and some updating, with the layout top of the list.  We we’ve not gone for a major overhaul, just a few changes that will allow the site to grow a little.

The extra sidebar will allow some extra functionality and features to be added which will make the site an even more useful place to visit. These will be brought in over the next week(ish) so keep your eyes peeled.

There are still a few things to tweak and some other changes going on, so please consider this a work in progress. Allow me one more bit of navel-gazing for now though…

The font we’ve used is Baskerville, which was created by Birmingham’s celebrated typographer and printer John Baskerville in the 1700s. It’s simple, elegant and, still in use worldwide 200 years later, and therefore a shining example of the city’s creative endeavours.

As from next week it’ll be possible to advertise on CiB. In order to guarantee the independence and sustainability of the site it’s necessary. Readers – rest assured that, in Pete’s words, we’re not going to NASCAR the baby.

Interested in advertising?

Here’s how it’ll work:

• A small number of adverts will run concurrently and appear to visitors randomly but equally
• Ads will be text only (so no-one has to pay for a banner to be designed)
• The adverts will appear high up ‘above the fold’
• You’ll be able to submit and pay for your advert via the link on this site – the process is very simple indeed
• Your advert must be manually approved before it can appear
• Guidelines will point out what’s suitable as far as format and content are concerned but really it should be a matter of common sense
• We will control all content on the site and this includes adverts. If we say an advert is unsuitable then it won’t run.

As an introductory offer, a two-week advert will cost £50 and a four-week advert will cost £100.

Why advertise on the site?

We try to cover as much of the interesting stuff in the Birmingham as possible but we can’t cover everything. If there’s an event, conference or festival coming up then any mention we give it will disappear down the page as soon as new posts are added. The benefit in keeping a notice of your event on the front page should be clear.

CiB is fortunate to have a strong community of readers who are actively interested in art, design, music and other matters of a ‘creative’ nature with unique visitors currently averaging around 40,000 per month. If you want to reach them then you’ll be able to do so without submitting to our editorial whims.

What will happen to the cash?

It’ll cover the site’s existing costs – my wages plus hosting/domain registration and such. Any surplus will be reinvested into what we’re loosely calling ‘interesting things’ that will fit in with CiB’s general overall purpose.

In March I posted a short post on CrIB about the Surface Unsigned festival. Following questions in the comments I extended this post with some speculation about an item in their terms and conditions. CiB was contacted by someone at Surface demanding the post be removed from the internet citing the printing of an excerpt of their terms and conditions as copyright infringement. We’ve replaced the quote with a paraphrased version but the post itself will stay up.

Yesterday, after a two-week handover period, I officially took over Created In Birmingham from Pete Ashton. I’d like to take this chance to introduce myself properly.

My name’s Chris Unitt. That’s my real name, not an internet pseudonym as some have assumed. I’ve lived around Birmingham for most of my life, I’m a qualified lawyer (no longer practising, I’m pleased to say) and know a fair bit about alcohol and entertainment licensing. I’m also a director of a small record label, I DJ occasionally and play a lot of football.

In terms of blogging and suchlike I’ve been reviewing gigs in Birmingham for the past few years for Culturedeluxe and, more recently, Birmingham Live. I’ve got my own blog too.

I’ve also been involved with the online promotion/blogging for the Fierce Festival this year (line-up just announced!) and I’m covering the ‘online interactive’ aspects of the upcoming New Generation Arts Festival on their site too.

Despite that I’d say I’m pretty much an outsider to the Birmingham creative scene. I’ve been involved a little but not so much that I know many people (or anyone knows me). Pete described his experience with this blog as a journey and I’m expecting to go through a similar learning process.

So much for me, what about this site? Well, you may be pleased to know that I’m not planning many changes. I like how Pete’s run CiB and the visitor stats would suggest I’m not alone in that view. There are a few things I’d like to give more coverage to and a few features I’m keen to reinstate/continue. For now though, I just want to get comfortable with sifting the emails and RSS feeds and keeping on top of everything.

In terms of personnel, Pete will be around in the background and Danny Smith‘s still going to chip in with the bits n bobs that I miss. I am and will be grateful to them both.

That’s enough navel-gazing for now though. If you’ve got something you want mentioned here then following the advice on the ‘getting on the blog‘ page will help your chances no end. Otherwise I look forward to seeing you at an event/exhibition/show/whatever soon.

Chris