Wow!
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
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
Many thanks + well done to the TAL ’09 team. I’m still buzzing from the fantastic people I got to meet and the amazing projects I got to hear about – very positive + totally inspiring!
[...] this background comes Talk About Local, an Unconference held last Saturday in Stoke-on-Trent that brought together 88 community bloggers [...]
[...] Talk About Local » #TAL09 (tags: #tal09 tal09reports) [...]
I wish I could find someone saying that it wasn’t worth going to TAL09, just to make me feel better about the fact that I couldn’t make it. But I can’t.
All I can find is lots of people being really really positive about having an opportunity to be in the same space as someone who shares their passion and enthusiasm and talent for unlocking local stories.
HURRAH! and I hope to see you next time….
Mark
Just occasionally in life something comes along to to give you that buzz, rush and drive to get out there and do somrthing more than you expected – #TAL09 was that something for me!
Thanks to the team that organised the event; to the participants that created the event; and to everyone near and far who contributed on the day and afterwards and turned an event into an ‘inspiration’!
Ray:)
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[...] a few people made a comparison with the free unconference organised the previous Saturday in Stoke on Trent by the Talk About Local team led by Will Perrin. [...]
Sounds great, though not keen on the wasting of food.
[...] in Stoke-on-Trent in October, we will be using the Un-Conference format and we hope to have some of the very best hyperlocal [...]
[...] was at Talk About Local’s second un-conference, this time held in Leeds. The last one – in Stoke-on-Trent – was full of enthusiastic people wanting to do great things; but [...]
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[...] at Old Broadcasting House in Leeds, was attended by many hyperlocal site owners but in contrast to TAL09 it also attracted more journalists included those from mainstream media such as Trinity Mirror and [...]
[...] 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, [...]