TIGblogs - Tim Davies

Lots of people have been starting to ask me when the next ‘Connected Generation’ event will be taking place. Well, thanks to the sterling work of Katie Bacon, we’ve just booked The Watershed in Bristol for 7th May 2010 to host Connected Generation 2010 – a one-day conference exploring youth engagement and technology in 2010. Based on feedback from participants at recent training events, and on the positive response to the Beyond Twitter event we ran up in Wrexham last year, we’re trying a mixed Conference and Open Space format again – with a morning of top-quality input from speakers and a range of pre-planned workshops, followed with an afternoon of curated unConference, where delegates can set the agenda and direct the conversations.

Bristol Watershed - the Venue

I’m delighted that key speakers at the event will include a gender balanced panel with:

Amy Sample Ward – co author of ‘Social by Social‘ and expert on the use of social media in non-profit contexts;

Katie Bacon – pioneer of digital youth work in Devon, and founder of Online Youth Outreach digital youth work training.

Joanne Jopling – project worker for the Gateshead Young Women’s Outreach Project

Kieron Kirkland - learning researcher at FutureLab, and lead for the Greater Expectations project

Chris Morgan – from the Communities 2.0 in Wales, talking about digital youth and community work.

We’re still in the process of confirming the workshop programme, but plans include:

Ethics and ICT – workshop with Andy Phippen from Plymouth University;

Promoting Positive Activities with Social Media with Steven Flower from Plings;

Safe and Sound Foundations – proactive approaches to safe social media engagement with young people, staff and volunteers;

If there is a workshop you would particularly like to see, drop in a comment and I’ll see what we can do…

Full details and online booking available here. (If you can’t order online because your organisation needs invoicing etc. just drop me a line…)

Fingers crossed, we’ll also be using the event to launch a new ‘Youth Engagement and Social Media’ resource which Katie and I are hard at work drafting, and, if you want, you can pre-order a copy when booking your place at the conference.