Join us around Teesside to talk about arts, culture and place this winter

How can you play a part in revealing the hidden, and the not-so hidden, stories and treasures of the place you know and love, so that residents and visitors alike discover the charms sometimes taken for granted?

What would your 48 Hours on Teesside with a phone and an appetite to explore feel like?

This was the challenge we posed at one of the sessions at the Talk About Local Unconference this year and it started some fascinating conversations about the Teesside area, its artists and connecting people through their shared passions.

Now, Talk About Local and The Culture Vulture will be building on that by hosting a series of five practical action-orientated workshops to empower and share digital skills to help people locally develop websites, blogs and digital content using a variety of methods.

We’ll hear from inspiring people already sharing the stories of the place they love, their successes, challenges and aspirations as well as introducing some handy tips and tricks using free tools and services.

By the end of our five weeks, we hope to have created a way that people can start sharing the story of the heritage, creativity and culture of the people and places across Teesside.

The workshops are free and we’re looking for people who want to play their part in making connections between places, people and the good stuff happening.

Each event will focus on both the purpose of sharing stories and practical tools to help you create and facilitate great content.

The locations for the first three are Middlesbrough, Stockton and Darlington – full details for times and venues via the Eventbrite links below where you can book your free place today.

The final two locations and focus of the workshops will be partly determined by the collective decision of the participants.

So if you’d like to join us, all we ask is you commit to five Saturdays this winter, be ready to share your skills and enthusiasm and look at where you live with a fresh perspective.

* Also check out our noticeboard for this Talk About Arts, Culture and Place series – we’ll post up any events or news likely to be of interest to this group here – http://teesvalley.n0tice.com – and you’re very welcome to add your own too.

The events

Dundas House, Middlesbrough: Including finding the best free publishing tools or platforms (spaces such as Twitter, Instagram and WordPress for example).

Arc, Stockton: Looking at different storytelling medium such as video, audio, pictures, podcasting etc.Please note: This has been postponed as many people wanting to attend could not make this date. New date tbc.

Cafe Create, Darlington: Concentrating on social media and community aspects of operating a website or blog and touching upon some of the legal and ethical implications for newcomers.