John Peel used to say that punk was great because of the DIY ethic.
All you had to do was knock over a phone box, sell your brother’s motorbike and you had enough to record and release a 7″ single.
I quite like that.
Few things have given me greater satisfaction than a DIY project I’ve been involved with that has grown and evolved over the past three years with Si Whitehouse, Andy Mabbett, Kate Sahota, Mike Rawlins and others.
The project, called Brewcamp, brings people together to talk, learn and share in and around local government in the West Midlands. We even have a sporadically updated website here.
I’ve blogged about it before here and I’m re-posting this advice to encourage you to do something similar.
Basically, every two months we find a cafe to meet up for three sessions.
It’s very simple.
1. You find a cafe that opens in the evening and is willing to take 15 or 20 extra customers.
2. Wifi is nice but not essential.
3. You find three people to each talk about a topic.
4. You don’t allow presentations. They gets in the way.
5. You think of a name for it that means something to your area.
6. You put up an eventbrite with the location, date and time so you can issue tickets.
7. You carry it out.
8. You learn things and enjoy.
9. If you fancy changing these rules to suit yourself you can.
10. That’s it.
If ever you fancied learning about the changing landscape, felt like learning something and think that tea, cake and conversation is a good idea you should do this.
So, what’s stopping you?
Creative commons credit
Records http://www.flickr.com/photos/69769313@N00/5279401411/
Reblogged this on Andrew Clayton and commented:
I like this idea. It could be a great deal of fun. If you don’t already, I suggest you follow Dan Slee on Twitter (search for @DanSlee) and read his blog.