Middlesbrough, we came, we saw & we loved it. #TAL13

I’m not sure if you heard or not but #TAL13 took place on Saturday at the stunning Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, or MIMA as it is known to its friends.

#TAL13 had a very different feel for me compared to previous unconferences. It was a lot smaller, we had around 55 people turn up on the day and it was a nice mix of some of the regulars from the Hyperlocal scene, Ray from Hedon, Simon & Sally from On The Wight, (which celebrated its eighth birthday on Saturday), Steph & James from WV11 & many others and lots of new faces from around the Tees Valley, around a 50/50 split of old and new.

Because of the new faces there was a level of excitement and chatter over the usual meeting up with people you haven’t seen since the last unconference. Almost everyone who hadn’t been to a previous #TAL event also hadn’t been to an unconference either so they were pleasantly surprised if a little confused that there were no big PowerPoint presentations or reams of literature to take away and recycle. Everyone I spoke to from the new crowd said they loved it, had made new connections and would come to another of our events.

The pitched sessions for the day were:

• Oral History
• Building a national survey of hyperlocal producers
• Getting your blogging mojo back
• Can local websites help sustain local economies
• Help! 48 hours in Teesside

• Other social media, how Facebook & Twitter work with your site
• Out Of Hours Hyperlocal, what is it?
• Taking Hyperlocal Offline
• Harnessing the crowds online to make a living
• Asset mapping the ideal hyperlocal

Lunch

• With all this hyperlocal activity, why do people think the north is desolate
• Funding
• What do we know about our audiences
• What can the Evening Gazette do for you
• Hyperlocal & public arts consultation

• App Happy
• News and how to find it
• Good life online sustainability
• Real world anchoring
• Walking tour

If anyone blogs about any of the sessions or the day in general let me know and I’ll add links to the posts here.

• Ed Walker has published his notes and thoughts on #TAL13 here.

As is tradition, the day ended with the presentation of the glittering unAwards which will feature in a post all of their own shortly.

I’ve embedded a fist full of #TAL13 tweets below and you can see my pictures from the day here on Flickr.

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Mike Rawlins

I look after the technical side of things at Talk About Local.
Away from Talk About Local I take photos, fly my quadcopter and walk my two Beagles.
If I'm not doing any of the above then you'll find me volunteering at my local RNLI station as a press officer.

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Latest posts by Mike Rawlins (see all)

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