Liverpool SoundCity! 2013

Another year of Liverpool SoundCity! has been and gone and again I've been involved as a Runner for the Expo.

So this time the Expo took place in the Hilton hotel, alongside the conference, but was a totally different experience to last year's Expo. Being in the Hilton it was on a smaller scale and much more business focused this time around. It was interesting to be able to see the business side of the music industry and get to know the people within it. The atmosphere was so different compared to that of the previous year that it made for a really good couple of days.

One of the highlights of the Expo were the music performances that ended up happening on the LAM Music stand. Thursday afternoon saw a few musicians from Argentine bands come together with the guys at LAM for a jam session which sparked an idea that formed into an open mic style session on the Friday afternoon.

Here's some of the talented entertainment we were provided with:



If next year's Expo could incorporate last year along with this year, it would definitely shape up to be the best one yet. It would certainly be good to see all the exhibitors back again.

Once again I've been lucky enough to be able to spend 2 days getting to know some fantastic people, forming new friendships and learning yet more about myself. Along with another Friday night out to remember, seeing some great new music. Bring on 1st-3rd May 2014!

Getting Noticed!

As a bit of a follow on from my FutureEverything blog post, the post has been published on the blog section of their own website and can be viewed here! Also, the videos that I put in the post have been noticed on Twitter after the YouTube links were sent to various members of the #futr production team. Here's what they had to say (or "tweet") about them:

A group of super bright 1st yr students from LJMU collared me RT @Ceri_Scouse @tomhigham here's vlog youtu.be/a2YffK5HQKE #futr
— Tom Higham (@tomhigham) March 24, 2013

Were you this bright at 18? @lofrost @lsslreid @petergreggs and friend sum up @futureverything youtube.com/watch?v=L8_2-S…
— FutureEverything (@FuturEverything) March 24, 2013

Team #futr

So for the last few days I've been having a bit of an adventure to Manchester as I've been volunteering for the FutureEverything Summit - Team #futr. The programme of events covers a Conference, music and art.

"At it's best, FutureEverything is a space to experiment, where new ideas come into the light, and artworks and experiences make tangible and real the possible futures we imagine in the Conference."

Tuesday and Wednesday were largely centred around setting up for the Conference, in Piccadilly Place, that was to be taking place on the Thursday and Friday, as well as holding some fringe events.

For me, these 2 days involved being on the info desk on reception and greeting delegates that were here to register, putting different leaflets in the delegate bags, helping to set up the conference rooms and speaker space and, believe it or not, I've even built a wall!

Thursday saw the start of the Conference, however, I didn't. I had to be in uni all day but was surprised to find that I actually quite missed being in Manchester and being involved. With that in mind, I couldn't wait to get back into it on the Friday - then came the weather warning for Liverpool. Snow or no snow, if the train was getting to Manchester, then I was going to be on it. The snow came!

For Friday I was in the Red Room for the day, stewarding and helping out with the microphones during the Q&A sessions. There was a really diverse range of talks going on all day from Smart Cities to urban ecologies to predicting the weather, most of which I had no clue about but there were some interesting points made and I learnt quite a lot throughout the day.

Whilst all this was going on, there were various other general runner jobs that I was doing, such as running errands, sorting out the different spaces and changing ink cartridges (that in itself was an experiment really). I ended up doing some washing up Friday night as well - that was something I definitely hadn't bargained on doing!

I'm back in again this morning (Saturday) and it's so quiet here compared to the last few days as there's only 2 workshops on today. After sorting out the White Room this morning ready for today's workshop, I'm back where I originally started on the info desk in reception. It's that quiet here I've managed to write this blog post!

The reason that I heard about this event in the first place was because my course wanted to send some student delegates to the Conference. So whilst the first years were here, they made the most of the fact that I was as well. They were doing some filming of the events and wanted to create some vlogs also. Being a part of team #futr, I was able to get hold someone from the FutureEverything production team in order to film a short interview with them - this being Tom, the Senior Producer. In my break on Friday morning I managed to find the time to film a vlog for the first years as they wanted to capture their thoughts of the whole Conference as well.

So here's the videos that they've put together - credit to Lee Reid, Peter Greggs, Lois Frost and Shani Vizma (LJMU Media Professional Studies).




Manchester's been quite an experience for me - even more so than I thought it would be! Travelling to this event has been the first time that I've actually been on a train on my own so that's something that I've learnt that I can do now. It might even be that Manchester will be seeing more of me - I'll have to get myself a map of the city beforehand though as this the first time that I have properly been to the city.

Every time I volunteer for an event such as this, I learn so much about myself and discover that I am capable of doing lots of things that I didn't know I could before. Somehow it always seems to involve some form of heavy lifting, which really isn't my strong point (no pun intended).

I certainly won't miss the 4am and 5am starts that have come with this in order to catch the train though!

Finally - I just want to say a massive "THANK YOU" to Sarah for giving me the opportunity to be involved with FutureEverything and everyone else on the Production team that's looked after me whilst I've been here in Manchester.

@FuturEverything
#futr

Going it Alone...

This morning I went to my first LJMU Centre for Entrepreneurship event that was all about setting up your own small business or going freelance once you've graduated. At the moment I have no plans to go down either of these routes once I finish uni but it was really good to get to meet some LJMU Alumni that have done this. As well as meeting Alumni, there were also several industry professionals at the event. This was my first real chance to network with people who have established themselves in the media industry and it's shown me just how important and useful networking is. From this I've also managed to add to my list of companies that I need to make contact with in terms of work experience placements.

A free lunch is always good as well!

Business & Minicards

So it's probably taken me about a year now to finally get round to getting myself some business cards. I've been through several different design options and various printing companies, ordering samples and seeing which would be the cheapest for me to use. Eventually I came across Moo.com. After seeing an advert for them on TV, I thought I'd check them out and see what they had to offer.

I decided to order 10 sample business (for free!) to see what they were like and then thought I'd treat myself (at last) to 100 minicards - business cards that are half the size, so they're cuter! They weren't a bad price either. With 20% off your first order for students (when you sign up with your uni e-mail) and 10% off with this link: www.moo.com/share/xnhhzg, it's well worth getting some.

I can't wait to start networking and handing them out now!

View from the Flat

View from the Flat, a set on Flickr.

Whilst being a domestic goddess today and finding innovative uses for chopsticks, I also found the time to take yet more photos of the view outside my living room window - something which I can be found doing quite often. The photos that I took today made me think about actually putting them up on my Flickr account. As most of them find their way onto my Facebook, I'm just going to put the prettiest ones on here.

Jack's Back! Or Is He?

The opening episode of Ripper Street (BBC One) saw the possibility of Jack the Ripper being back, terrorising the streets of Whitechapel once more. After establishing that he hadn't returned, the series continued with little mention of him, only shots of newspaper clippings about his murders were shown. Until now. The last episode (to be aired next Sunday, 24th February) sees his work back again, with the discovery of an organ under the floorboards of the living quarters of Captain Jackson...

This is going to make for an interesting last episode to the series.

MediaCityUK

As part of looking for my work experience placement this summer, I have been applying to some placements that have been offered by the BBC. With this in mind, my Dad and I decided to take a trip to MediaCityUK on the train to see how easy it would be for me to get there on my own. (I haven't been on a train for years and was in France the last time I went on one.)

Once you know what platforms you need to be on for the right trains, it's fairly easy. The tram is even easier than that as the line ends at the plaza in front of the BBC.

Hopefully sometime before Easter I'm planning on doing one of the tours of the BBC with my flatmates. Having toured the BBC in London back in year 11 for a media trip, I'm looking forward to being able to have the chance to have a look around the studios at Salford.

Another First!

Today we got back our grades for the TV Studio Production module. Our group had all been hoping to get a first for 'The Alternative Lunch' and we were quite confident about it...and we got one! So we were all really pleased about that. At the same time we were given the grades for our individual dossiers and I was surprised to find I'd got a for that as well.

Knowing that I've got a first overall for this module, it has started me thinking that for my 3rd year production I'd like to do something that is TV studio based.

First!

Today we got our marks back for the Digital Media Culture essay that we submitted before Christmas and I was very surprised and pleased to discover that I'd achieved a First in it! I was aiming for a 2.1 and thought a 1st would be nice but would be a bonus.

The essay question that I chose was 'choose one area of the cultural industry and assess the impact that the Internet has had on the way that particular industry operates' and I decided to focus on the music industry.I found this essay quite difficult to start off but once I'd got going I really quite enjoyed writing it. From writing this essay I've been thinking that this may well be the sort of topic area that I want to focus on for my dissertation next year as it's something that really interests me. I've always had a love of music so being able to mix this with media is something that I'd really like to do, and beyond my degree as well.