That is probably the best thing I can say about this weekends event.

We were not really sure what to expect on Saturday morning, we had spent the whole of the last week planning the un-conference getting swhag from sponsors and working out the logistics of getting it all to Stoke-on-Trent. On Saturday morning once we had set up at the uni, we said well all we need now are people.  At 9am the first delegates started to arrive, at 9:30 there was a queue and the breakfast oatcakes had gone! By 10 we had about 50 people signed in, this was our personal success point, we had said all along if we get 50 or 60 people we’d be happy.  At 1030 there were still people arriving the room was getting pretty full and people were starting to organise the days sessions on the boards.

People! Photo Simon Perry

Post-it notes on the board with the days sessions on

The final delegate count was 88, which is fantastic number for our first event and the free lunch seemed to go down well.

In the afternoon Nicky did a session on games which culminated with a game of pork pie rounders, yes you read correctly PORK PIE rounders..

Pork Pie Rounders Picture Will Perrin

We are not sure that Nicky will be allowed in to Stoke-on-Trent again as she used the local Wrights pies for the game and this would be treated as sacrilege, but if we don’t tell anyone she might be ok…

There were too many sessions to mention here but some of the highlights were Andrew Stott speaking about data.gov, Nick Booth on Social Media Surgeries, Will Perrin on Talk About Local and the future of Hyperlocal blogging.

I personally got a lot from it, met up with some old friends made a lot of new friends and contacts and I hope that each delegate not only made some connections and contacts but also learnt something or shared something that will help others who are hyperlocal publishing.

Since the event a number of posts have been written and videos uploaded by people who attended so we thought we should try and list as many as we can here.

RaveCam

The #TAL09 rave cam, @franbury got feedback from people as they were leaving the Un-Conference

A full playlist of TAL09 Videos on YouTube can be viewed here

Twitter

26 pages of Twittery goodness can be seen here on Tweet Doc

If you prefer something a little more animated look at #tal09 on Visible Tweets

Flickr

A lot of delegates took pictures at the event and posted them to our Flickr pool.  If you took pictures please feel free to add them to the pool for us to share

There have been many blog posts about the un-conference most of which are linked in the comments below.  If you know of any posts that we haven’t  got a link to or have not had a pingback drop us a quick mail at the address below and we’ll sort it out.

Feel free to leave feedback here or drop us a mail to info[@]talkaboutlocal.org

Directions to the campus can be found here

Stoke is easily accessible from most rail routes, the M6 and even canal.

The conference is not for you to come and be comatised by web 2.0 marketeers telling you how you can monetize 24/365 relationships or transition viral ROI it is for real people, running real hyperlocal sites to network with people who are doing the same thing.

The thing people say to us most when we are talking about Talk About Local (and you may have noticed we love to talk about it!) is ‘I didn’t know anyone else was doing this’  so we are giving you the chance to meet up with all the other people who you didn’t know were doing the same as you!

The format is going to be Unconference, fun, relaxed and informal.    As well and the unconference event, we will be holding social media surgeries where you can come along and speak to friendly developers and experts to get advice about your site or how to fix that niggling problem you just can’t seem to get your head around.

The best bit is it’s free! Yes FREE!

But there is no such thing as a free lunch I hear you cry.

Well actually there is because we will even feed you during the day!

Please click HERE and fill in our very simple pre registration form and we’ll add you to our mailing list, as soon as we have the venue confirmed we’ll drop you a mail with all the details.