Photo by Sasha Taylor
We love our TAL unconferences, it’s great to get so many enthusiastic people together to chat about their passion. We get rave feedback from participants and it’s been flattering to have so many people asking about this year’s event – before we had even got to the end of January. Read more
For those of you who are heading in to Birmingham on Saturday for #TAL12 here are the session times for the day.
We have tried to make #TAL12 busy but leisurely, so you won’t be racing between rooms, the rough timings for the day are:
09:30 – Doors open for the early birds to start registering
10:30 – 10:40 Hello & House keeping
10:40 – 11:00 Pitches – want to run a session? Now’s your chance to shine.
11:00 – 11:45 Session 1 X 5
12:00 – 12:45 Session 2 X 5
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 14:45 Session 3 X 5
15:00 – 15:45 Session 4 X 5
16:00 – 16:30 Final speeches, self adulation, mutual back patting and observations
16:45 – 17:45 The glittering no expense spent Un Awards!
17:45 – 18:00 Grab your prizes and head to Bennetts Pub / Station / Airport
We have been very generous with the sessions timings allowing for slight over runs and for people to grab a drink in between.
As ever with unconferences the timings are all flexible but, we will start at 10:30 and we absolutely must be out of the building by 18:00.
The Google group gets active
To help with those important pre-unconference conversations we have invited all confirmed attendees to the #TAL12 Google group, which you can use to introduce yourselves, suggest and discuss session ideas, make shared travel arrangements, etc. If you have not received an email invitation, you can join the #TAL12 Google group here and join in the conversation!
NESTA to sponsor #TAL12
We are delighted to confirm that NESTA, along with the Guardian Media Group, will be supporting #TAL12. Innovation funders NESTA are currently working to “understand and stimulate the development of a UK hyperlocal media sector” with the newly announced Destination Local programme, which NESTA are leading in conjunction with the Technology Strategy Board. NESTA have just announced their Destination Local funding scheme for the development of new content services and have also published a comprehensive landscape review Here and Now: UK hyperlocal media today. We are looking forward to some interesting discussion at #TAL12 around the opportunities and findings presented to the hyperlocal sector by NESTA.
Pre and post Unconference entertainment
Photo by Henry Lawford
If any of you are in Birmingham on the evening of Friday 27th April before the Unconference please let us know as the TAL team fully intend on sampling some of the famous Brummie curry and would love some company! We shall post where and when we’ll be on Friday evening on the #TAL12 Google group nearer the time.
After the Unconference on Saturday 28th April we shall be staying on at the Maple House venue for a drink or two whilst the much-coveted #TAL12 Unawards are announced (more on that later!) . Afterwards we shall be heading to the nearby Bennetts Pub (map) for a few more drinks and nibbles. It’s very near Birmingham New Street so good for those with a train to catch.
Stay tuned for more #tal12 news!
Follow us on twitter @talkaboutlocal
#TAL11 in Cardiff
The first batch of tickets for the #TAL12 Unconference on Saturday 28th April are now available at tal12.eventbrite.com.
We have released 20 ‘#hyperlocal early bird’ tickets at this stage but a second batch will be released soon. #TAL12 is a joint event from Talk About Local and online community noticeboard n0tice, which will be held in central Birmingham at Maple House.
#TAL11 in Cardiff
We are very happy to announce our next unconference, which will be a joint event from Talk About Local and online community noticeboard n0tice. #TAL12 will be held on Saturday 28th April at Maple House in central Birmingham. Further details and free tickets will be released very soon.
This will be the fourth unconference for Talk About Local, following the successful #TAL09 in Stoke-on-Trent, #TAL10 in Leeds and #TAL11 in Cardiff. We’re hoping #TAL12 will be another well-attended, action-packed and thought-provoking meeting of the locally minded – be you a hyperlocal blogger, community activist or reporter, local government employee or n0tice community member!
As this is an unconference style event, there is no set agenda for the day – attendees will decide the programme at the beginning, so what’s discussed and produced over the course of the day is up to you!
Guardian Media Group are kindly sponsoring the event, but that’s not to say we couldn’t do with more support to help make it all happen. So there are further sponsorship opportunities available for those of you that might like to show your support, be you a large or small organisation or one man band:
Room Sponsor (for each of the 4 breakout rooms): £500 Room Sponsors will be named as the ‘company name breakout room’ with their printed logo on door(s) and direction signs. Room Sponsors can place an unobtrusive stand in the corner of their room. Also logo and link on the event’s blog post/pages online and posters at venue.
Corporate Supporter: £250 Corporate Supporters will be named, with their logo and link on the event’s blog post/pages online and posters at venue.
Named Individual Supporter: £25 will named and linked on on the event’s blog post/pages online.
Suggested Individual Donation: £10 if you would like to give! 
You will be able to make your donation on the #TAL12 Eventbrite page when tickets are released.
If you would like to enquire about supporting or sponsoring #TAL12 please contact Mike Rawlins at mike@talkaboutlocal.org or tel. 0121 288 2910.