Yes, Its back! We’re bringing back the Social Media Exchange – and this time its Express!  What does that mean?  Well its a different approach to your average conference or training event.  Over the course of a day you’ll have the chance to learn from dozens of different subjects in 1 hour chunks.  You could be starting the day learning how to boost your Twitter productivity, then move on to a video-editing session before getting inspired by Facebook Campaigning.  And that’s all before lunch!

Trainers include:

Rob Dyson, PR Manager – Whizz Kids

Jacqui O’Beirne, Digital Marketing Manager - Dogs Trust

Kat Arney, Science Communicator and presenter/producer of the Cancer Research UK podcast

Simon Berry, the founder of ColaLife, a campaign that’s trying to get Coca-Cola to use its distribution channels to help save lives in developing countries.

Places are strictly limited – to make a booking please email your details to:

socialmediaexchange@sounddelivery.org.uk

Digital postcards, wedding dress designs and virtual tours.

These are just some of the exciting activities and exhibitions taking place within museums in the East Midlands as part of MuBu.  Museum Buddies (as it’s officially known) is about creating, and I quote: “projects generating new audiences through social-networking online. They can also be about learning and community projects that involve a digital element that we want to celebrate online, such as filmmaking, audio, digital art or music.  MuBu projects will enable our audiences to interact with collections and re-interpret them for the 21^st century.”

To support staff undertaking these projects sounddelivery was commissioned to run a series of training sessions to get people up to speed with digital media and ways of telling their stories.  Mark went up to Leicester for the launch of MuBu and ran an Introduction to Social Media session at lightning speed.  Then throughout May and June Mark and Eric delivered three training workshops in Newark covering digital storytelling (audio slideshows), audio podcasts, and video.

It was great to work with a group who we could see develop over the weeks and be able to build on their understanding and creativity week on week.  From the opening session where there was a certain amount of trepidation to the final week where everyone was bounding off on their own with no fears of using the equipment, it was satisfying watching the trainees grow in confidence and capability.  What also worked very well was that the group were all given access to a Wiki which helped them stay in contact and up to date with changes to the workshops and attendees.

As part of our video training workshop (which was the second session of the three) the group got to grips with video cameras and all made their own short film – doing all the editing themselves!  This short piece with Colin Hyde who runs the East Midlands Oral History Archive explaining how his MuBu project will work.

What’s also great about the MuBu project is that we have been commissioned by 2 museums to deliver training and outreach workshops to help them create new content and capture memories and stories of local people.  You can find out more about this work with the Mansfield Museum and the National Tramway Museum here.

If you want to find out more about sounddelivery training and the bespoke courses we offer please do get in touch – info@sounddelivery.org.uk

sounddelivery has worked with several museums, including the Museum of London and National Portrait Gallery, to deliver digital media projects to engage new audiences.  We were commissioned by the Museum of Croydon to work with young people as part of a project called I Am Here to produce audio podcasts based on exhibits in the museum. The Identity themed project involved the group of teenagers thinking about their own lives and how exhibits within the galleries related to them.

The 5 sessions we ran form part of the Stories of the World project – a cornerstone of the Cultural Olympiad – allowing local people to become ‘curators’ of the collections and objects held in museums, libraries and archives. It was fascinating seeing how eager they were and how quickly they mastered the equipment from recording to editing. The content that they produced was extremely powerful.

Here Hanna compares a WWII dog tag to her school exam number:

Kadeem’s poem A Taste of Feeling describes the decline in the use of a typewriter:

The finished podcasts will be made available on the Museum of Croydon website, and will be integrated into the museum’s collection in the coming months.  The museum’s interactive content already stands out, but it has been great to work with them on developing it even further.

“We were impressed with the way sounddelivery worked with and enabled the project’s young people to create high quality, engaging podcasts.”
Gemma Sturtridge, Assistant Collections Officer, Croydon Museum Service

The nominations are out for this year’s Sony Awards – the audio equivalent of the Oscars. As an organisation that is passionate about audio and podcasting we at sounddelivery follow the nominations with great interest.  Over the last few years as charities and community groups have embraced the digital age and started creating their own digital media (including podcasts) their work has been rewarded with nominations and awards. Since 2008 nominees and winners have included The RSPB’s Nature’s Voice, Clifton Diocese and the Prison Radio Association.  This year the Prison Radio Association and Great Ormond Street Hospital have been nominated for their podcasts Behind Bars and Children First for Health. It’s a competitive radio production field and I can assure you everyone wants to win a Sony so it’s fantastic news that these organisations are getting recognition of this kind.  Its also great to see the community podcasts being recognised too – anyone East London based would be advised to check out the Hackney Podcast, which has also been nominated for an award this year.

But podcast production isn’t for the faint-hearted. Although it’s a relatively cost effective digital media tool it does take time and effort to get it right. Listening to some charity podcasts we still worry that organisations are uploading content that simply isn’t strong enough.  We’re still amazed at people who want to create podcasts for their charities – yet don’t listen to podcasts that have been produced – especially ones being produced within the sector.  Audio is a fantastic media and is, quite rightly being embraced by the sector but take your time to get it right. The Sony winners will be announced on the 10th May so stay tuned.

Check out Jude’s top tips for podcast production:

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/archive/786344/Digital-Communication-grab-ears/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

“Voluntary sector”, “charity”, “civil society”, “social action”, “social enterprise”. How should we best describe the third sector? This is the subject of the first of a series of podcasts about the challenges facing not-for-profit organisations, that we have produced for societyguardian and Know How Non Profit.  Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, favours “civil society” – “individual citizens coming together for the public good”; Dame Mary Marsh, former head of the NSPCC and now director of the Clore Social Leadership Programme, prefers “social action”; Paul Palmer, associate dean at the Cass Business School’s centre for charity effectiveness says “charity” is the most recognisable term, which is the reason why Nirjay Mahindru, chief executive of Guardian charity award-winner, InterAct Reading Service, uses it.

According to a marketing expert: “Branding the sector is one of the toughest challenges I’ve been asked to deliver.” The key is to define the sector’s DNA. While Volvo equals safety and Heineken is synonymous with refreshment, what does the sector stand for, he asks?  We’re still taking your suggestions – please email your ideas to: charityeffectiveness@guardian.co.uk, or tweet your ideas making sure to use the hashtag #cepod.

We’re also keen to incorporate as many listeners’ ideas for future topics for the podcast, so please do get in touch!

This first podcast was presented by David Brindle, the Guardian’s Public Services Editor.  It was his first time in the chair, and first time behind the microphone and we think he did a fantastic job.  The next podcast will be available at the beginning of April – you can listen by following the link below:

www.guardian.co.uk/charity-effectiveness

The first week of February this year marks Social Media Week – with the aim of advancing the use and understanding of social media in the corporate, public and not-for-profit sectors.   Events are taking place around the world and sounddelivery is excited to be involved by offering a host of special courses.   On Friday the 5th of February we’re offering a free social-media taster day: come along to our new offices in East London and we can offer help and consultancy in putting together a social-media strategy and show you how you can get the most from Twitter, Facebook and all the rest.  You’ll also get to meet the wonderful team – Jude, Mark, Eric and Kate!  So do get in touch and let us know when you’re coming down!  This month we’re also running courses in podcasting, video, digital stroytelling and social media basics – so do get in touch and book your place!

sounddelivery has won an Award!

We are now the proud winners of a Jodi Award for our project Podcasts from the Past : a joint project with the Museum of London, sounddelivery and VocalEyes.

Our project, which won the Digital Access Online Award, involved a group of unemployed Londoners creating audio description podcasts for blind and partially sighted people for the Museum of London.  Over the course of eight weeks the group developed their writing skills and learnt about audio techniques and recording.

The participants, who were from a rich variety of backgrounds and life stories, came together to work as a team to gain new skills, confidence and experience which they could use in the future.  These workshops created great material for the museum and were a fantastic way of reaching a new audience while inspiring and motivating people.

Martha Lane Fox, the government’s Champion for Digital Inclusion, presented the award to Jude Habib on behalf of the team at sounddelivery alongside Lucie Fitton, the Inclusion Officer at the Museum of London and Tobey Davey from VocalEyes.

The Jodie Award Judges said:

“Podcasts from the Past creates bridges between people and communities. It demonstrates the power of podcasts for a shared experience of collections between disabled and non-disabled people. The experiment of the Museum of London is a timely inspiration for museums, galleries and heritage sites.”

Listen to our audio evaluation of the project:

You can find out more about our work with the Museum of London here

About the Jodi Awards

The awards are named in memory of Jodi Mattes (1973-2001), who worked at the British Museum and RNIB, a tireless champion of equal access to culture for disabled people.

We are currently working on an exciting project for National Portrait Gallery and expanding our work in community engagement so please do get in contact if you want to talk about projects you’ve got in development.

jude@sounddelivery.org.uk

020 8888 2951

We’re putting the spotlight on how you can engage and most importantly retain corporate support for the work you do using multi-media content.  This doesn’t just apply to traditional charities but also organisations including museums and the cultural and heritage sectors many of which now require corporate support.

The Family Holiday Association is a charity which is starting to provide its corporate supporters with a toolkit of multi-media content that can be used to demonstrate to people working within the company the impact their donations are making.

The toolkit includes simple photographs and video, audio case studies and audio slideshow with families who have been on funded breaks.  This approach has been spearheaded by the Chief Executive who, as far as I am aware, is unique in that he actually sent himself on a podcasting workshop and has recognized the impact that these first hand stories are having. sounddelivery has been working with them for a few years to help the charity develop their use of multi media content however it is the charity themselves who’ve been working with their donors to harness this content to raise much needed funds.

One of the audio pieces we produced for the charity which we are most proud of is a short 2 minute profile of one child’s first holiday.  Liam went to Skegness with his mum and cousins and spent a week at Butlins staying in a Family Holiday Association caravan.

“You cannot underestimate the power of audio, photography and video to build closer relationships with your corporate donors. I was at meeting with the marketing director of a large multinational company. I took out my IPhone and showed him an audio slideshow of a family who had directly benefited from funding his company had given our charity. I have no doubts that he left the meeting wanting to do much more to help more families.”
John McDonald, Director – Family Holiday Association

If you want to discuss how sounddelivery can help you build closer relationships with your corporate supporters using multi-media do get in touch.

sounddelivery recently delivered a series of social media workshops as part of the Museums Association 2009 Conference. This included a session with the Museum of London entitled Social Inclusion Through Media Projects which explored a series of projects that have used podcasts and blogs and social networks to encourage accessibility. There was a real buzz about the benefits that these kinds of projects can offer not just to the participants but to the Museum as well. You can view the whole presentation here.

**Breaking News**

We are delighted to hear that the Museum of London has been shortlisted for a Jodi Award for accessible digital culture for Podcasts From The Past a project that sounddelivery played a key role in delivering. Run as part of the Museum’s social inclusion programme of projects, Podcasts from the Past worked one day a week for 8 weeks with a small group of adults who were long-term unemployed.

The participants were a range of ages, with a rich variety of backgrounds and life stories, but came together to work as a team to realize their abilities and gain news skills and experience they could use in the future.

Over the course of eight weeks the group, many of whom had not set foot in the Museum before, received audio-description training and learnt more about visually impaired people through workshops with Vocaleyes, had tours in the galleries with curators, spent time researching the objects chosen for the podcasts and then wrote and edited the scripts.

The final three weeks of the project saw them bring the scripts to life by recording, producing and editing through workshops with sounddelivery. The guys were paired up and worked as either reporter or producer to make sure they got the best quality recording.

These workshops created great material for the museum, but were also a fantastic way of reaching a new audience and helping inspire and motivate people. You can listen to an audio evaluation of the project here.

The winners will be announced at the Jodi Awards event on 2 December 2009 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (6.00-8.30 pm). Fingers Crossed!

After a busy summer of audio and video production we’re ploughing into a busy schedule of training courses.  This Autumn we’ll be travelling up and down the country – taking in Newark and Durham along the way – leading training workshops in social media, podcasting and creative communications.  We’re working with the charity sector, the cultural and heritage sectors and more and more with local and national government agencies and departments.  We believe our training is valuable and of a very high standard.  But we would say that wouldn’t we!  However, our training workshops do consistently receive great feedback.

Here is a copy of an email sent to us by one of our recent course delegates:

“A huge thank you to you for the training session on Tuesday and all the
follow up material. It was one of the most effective training sessions I’ve
ever attended. I came away not just feeling inspired to make a podcast but
knowing that now I could. In fact, I’ve laid down a challenge to colleagues
who handle the technical side here, and to myself, to get our first podcast
out for Armistice Day to promote a display and talk on WWI memorials, and
to hear the colleagues working on this share their knowledge and
enthusiasm. A modest start but once one is done there’s no excuse for not
doing more – and I have a plan! I’ll be badgering the budget holders to
find money for others here to go on the course.

Thanks again for your help, advice, encouragement and patience.

Janet Nixon
Learning Officer (Archives)
Surrey Heritage”

We’ve recently run our Powerful Podcasting and Social Media Basic workshops and wanted to share with you some of the content created on the day.  Our groups were made up of a real mix with people coming from different organisations and sectors.  Janet Nixon of Surrey Heritage teamed up with Daniel Hayes a youth worker from Suffolk to make an opening menu sequence for a podcast for the goth community:

Our Social Media Basics course gives delegates the opportunity to explore different tools and online applications and think about different ways of telling their stories and engaging with their supporters, clients, funders, volunteers, staff, trustees, etc…

As part of the course delegates get the opportunity to try out different audio and video equipment.  Gill, Louise and Lynda used a Flip camera – they each took turns recording each other about what they like about their jobs.