You may have heard me wanging on about the BBC Radio 1 and 1xtra Academy, coming out of the Hackney Picturehouse for three weeks in June.
The academy will hold workshops, Q&A’s and networking events in 9 different areas - music, film, comedy, journalism, careers, online (gaming / programming), radio, fashion and business.
Many things created at the Academy will point towards the Hackney Weekend (eg the fashion stream will create the unofficial weekend t-shirt to be sold at the event.)
There will also be live lounges, a takeover day on 1Xtra, a Hackney Dragons pitching event, a comedy night at the Empire filmed by BBC 3 and lots of massive names passing through.
Follow the FACEBOOK page for all the latest updates.
Never been to Hackney? Check out Jenkins as he introduces us to Hackney slang...
Lots of people ask me about getting into the radio industry. Students at Roundhouse Radio asked alot of people from the radio industry, including me, for their top tips for starting in radio. Its full of good advice (and a few embarrassing stories from me!) have a listen!
I am working to build hype around the BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Academy which is coming to Hackney in June. The academy will be FREE drop in workshops and Q&A's with BIG names (seriously big!)
I am working to get the young people of Hackney aware that we're coming. I'm meeting groups of young people from Hackney and making films, radio trails, holding dance workshops, fashion blogging sessions, photography workshops, all about THEIR Hackney.
Like Plan B says in this inspirational TED talk, I want to 'plant the seed, find out what they're good at' and let them have ownership of telling the rest of the world about THEIR HACKNEY, through their voices and on their social spaces.
Big up Plan B; engaging, intelligent, relevant and inspiring. Really proud to be a part of the positive change he speaks of and that he's a part of our Hackney Weekend.
Amy Redmond is the Creative Director of London nightlife collective Sink The Pink, which has organised events at Glastonbury, Bestival, Lovebox and the ICA. She tells IdeasMag why she can't work without Facebook, fancy dress and a sense of humour...
Promoting and hosting regular club nights, events, performances and DJ sets at venues across the country and international music festivals.
Press, PR, promotion, marketing, DJ mixes, booking acts, booking venues, building strong relationships with acts, pluggers, festivals and venues – everything it takes to run a successful club night!
Five things you couldn't work without:
1. Facebook
It is the key to talking directly to our Sink The Pink family. Facebook events are our main promotion tool for the club.
2. Fancy dress
Each night is themed, so we prepare loads of fancy dress, make up and homemade outfits and props for each party. People know to expect outfit changes and mayhem when they arrive at the club.
3. My iPhone
We tweet and Facebook pictures during the night, and upload and add pictures of people. I am always on the go and couldn’t live without checking my emails and Facebook constantly all day. The kind of work I do means being contactable all the time!
4. A sense of humour
At the end of the day, we are just running a club – it’s not life or death. It is the calm, fun, relaxed vibe that keeps people wanting to come down and be a part of the fun. No one wants to work with a boring person, and definitely no one wants to go out partying with one! Being fun and having fun makes my job more successful and fun; it’s a win-win.
5. Glitter
We believe that glitter makes everything better. I always have pots of glitter on me, for making people up, or adding glitter to sets, costumes or props. Also the eBay app because I am constantly buying glitter on eBay!
Amy Redmond runs East London club Sink The Pink, DJing and running tents at Bestival, Lovebox and Glastonbury. She is also a Radio 1 producer and DJs as a duo with her friend Gemma Cairney from Radio 1.
What's the current climate out there for women in clubland? Its still not an equal playing field, but i'm seeing alot more female DJs out around East London and people in clubs respond really well to a girl DJ. Why do you think it's only in the last 5 or so years that we're starting to see a flux of female DJs and promoters - considering the power of house and techno music and how liberating it was when it first came out? What's changed? I think theres been some really positive female DJ role models, Annie Mac, Hannah Holland, really lovely talented women, passionate about music and bloody good DJ's. Its so inspiring for young girls to see other females working in a scene that was once dominated by men. Do you think you're treated differently as a female DJ (positively or negatively)? Most people, particuarly other girls are always so supportive and come and dance and enjoy the music. Male DJs and techie boys love to come over and twiddle with knobs which can sometimes be a bit patronising. But i'm just always really nice to them and thank them, if you put good vibes out you get good vibes back! To be noticed throughout clubland do you think it helps to stand out in heels? To be noticed is to be comfortable, is to be yourself. If you feel confident/happy in heels, rock your heels, I stand by that for boys or girls! (I run a club with lots of trannies!) If you feel happy in high-tops, rock your high-tops. I wear whatever I feel like wearing because thats what I feel happy in. Last week I DJed in pink kickers and bounced behind the decks all night, no one can see your feet once your back there anyway! Have you ever encountered any sexism when DJing, producing putting on nights? I run my night with my best (male) friend, but I often DJ as a girl duo with my friend Gemma, and I can honestly say that I haven't encountered any sexism, if anything its the opposite, people are just like 'Cool! Girl DJ!' Do you ever feel you're competing/have to prove yourself as a woman against men? Or is it, now, a non-issue? Non issue! What would you say to the hyped reaction when mags brought out their DJ lists with very few women on them? Do you think it's even an issue? Its a shame. We had the same thing recently in radio, where Soundwomen have started a collective encouraging the radio industry to get more women in radio jobs. These movements are very important. A DJ list without a female DJ on it is ridiculous, the music industry can be a total boys club sometimes. Could we have too much positive discrimination in line with female DJs? Of course things can go too far the other way, I mean, the Spice Girls took the girl power thing and stuck it on a can of pepsi, and no one wants that to happen again! But its about equality, moderation, realness, looking around and recognising talent. Talent before boobs! And for the girls, being confident in yourself and your talent and knowing that you can do whatever it is you want to do, you really can! Will the ladies ever truly takeover the dancefloor? I hope not, its a place for all, equally! Do you feel radio and the growing representation of female DJs and presenters has had an impact on clubland? Totally, Annie Mac presents is a great example of a shared night out. You used to go out to a big club and just see boys, if you go to one of Annie's nights there's girls that know her from her show and are into the music she plays. Hannah Holland's Batty Bass nights are a great mixed crowd too. I hope this is filtering out into the rest of the country and the same is happening outside the London scene too.
Do you feel radio and the growing representation of female DJs and
presenters has had an impact on clubland? Again, Annies show on a friday night has made a massive difference, girls are more likely to go out to a night if its someone they've heard on Annies show, she is an accessible, friendly voice for introducing new music. Its not elitist or unwelcoming, as some old dance radio DJs used to be, its completely welcoming and about the music. I would say Annie has been a pioneer for this change, just by being true to herself and being so passionate about music. Its an inspiration for any music/club fan.
People listen on wind up radios, and the Nokia phone with the torch on it that has radio is still the best seller in the world! It also has weeks of battery life, so is invaluable in third world countries.
There were no more cholera deaths after a community run radio station in Mozambique started. Also there has been less abuse to women, and more readily available and trusted vaccines for children. Radio builds trust, confidence and reliability in communities.
It was wonderful to hear these speakers talk so passionately about the medium of radio, that in this country we can take for granted because we are lucky to have so many other ways to communicate.
The next talk was called 'How To Hit 500,000 YouTube Views In 3 Days'. This confirmed my suspicion that Social Media success comes mainly from celebrity retweets!
The talk was by an agency called Lexis who made the Barclays Football video with Dynamo, doing tricks on various footballers:
Their steps to success were:
-content is king
-talents social media presence is vital
-re-edit, dont go over 2 1/2 mins
-create a youtubeplaylist/build subscribers
-brand your channel
-time your release carefully
-keep it exclusive to your followers
-plan your sell in
-Target key websites
-tag your video well
-define your audience
-use SM yourself to fully understand it
-reward your followers - give back/prizes/exclusive views
-analyse and adjust
You can't buy friends.
Some brands spend all their ad budgets on buying banner ads on Facebook or YouTube. They have found that for alot less money (around £20K they implied) you can build trust, a brand and a strong following using Social Media well. If you have a good idea and talent, the tools are free to use to make them happen.
The next workshop i went to was called Me! Me! Me! Battle of The Brands.
A nice bearded chap from Yorkshire Tea told us about his successes with using Social Media to build awareness of his brand. He sent an ice cream van giving away free tea to parts of the world that housed Brits longing for a 'proper brew', and filmed the reactions. It got alot of love online:
He talked about using a friendly, normal, nice tone of voice on Social Media, and his personality clearly comes across (he's all quirky and nice on his FB page and Twitter.) He is also promoting a product that people naturally have passion for, tea!
On the other end of the scale, next up was a young but clearly massively savvy guy fromNokia. He had strong opinions on Print and TV being on their way out, saying that the model of the way we consume media has changed. He predicts a mass unfollowing, with people culling their facebook friends, and sniffing out any sort of adverts from their pages/friends.
He knows bribing for likes doesn't' work, says SEO is killing copy writing on the web and that a genuine voice and a good product is all you need. For Nokia the plan is to integrate Social Media into the normal communication practice, to be used as commonly as telephone customer services. He wants all staff to have Social Media presences, making the company a human part of the strategy. 'Be nice, real voices are trusted.'
He ended saying the Facebook will be a public company within a year and to turn our attention to Tumblr...
The next session had 3 young entrepreneurs, including:
Jess from online video game sharing site Gaboom, who recommended stalking on twitter to email your heros! And she said that 10.30am on a tuesday was the ideal time to email someone.
Andrew from Enfuse Youth, who jumped up and down alot and shouted about optimism in our face, optimistically.
I then went to 'Get Social at The Social', which had a free bar and was therefore really busy! ;)
Radio 1 were number 12 in 2011, I want to get that to number 1!
Social Media - Surviving In House Talks from Boaden, B Sky B and Marie Curie Cancer's Social Media managers.
Wise words from them included:
simple statuses work best
create a brand and evangelise!
unplanned/unusual stuff rules - so be random!
consistency doesn't matter with posts, it can depend on the day
building TRUST is key
Next was...
Should brands be banned from Social Media?
This was a breakfast meeting in the basement of the Hospital Club, and started with a man, seemingly in fear of Social Media, saying:
'Social media is fickle, dangerous and out of control. You have given the platform your IP. We should stick to traditional PR routes. People are stupid. They can make so much noise that by taking your business onto Social Media you just have to deal with the idiots and it distorts your view of who your consumers are.'
He went on to say 'ROI successes are exceptional cases, they are not the norm' it's not proven that they succeed.
It's not free advertising, you end up spending money on paying a company who tell you how you should be spending money.'
He used the example that Charlie Sheen gets paid £600 a tweet, I don't know if this is true, but wow.
Next up was a speaker on the other side to him, arguing the case FOR Social Media. This resonated with most people in the room.
She talked about celebrities having largest amount of followers and how traditionally word of mouth and trust are key to spreading information, and through Social Media you can get word out. She said:
'Users can become advocate of the brand, you help them they help you. Customer services become much quicker and efficient. People who've asked the same questions answers can be found and answered. Social Media makes everything have a transparency and be held to account'. This certainly keeps businesses on their toes!
This led to much debating and passionate questioning, all before i'd even had my morning cuppa! What a start to the day!
I also made it to the BBC Olympics and Social Media session, featuring 3 athletes and some BBC sports journalists, talking about how Social Media seems set to change to Olympics coverage. It became a slightly indulgent Q&A towards the athletes and less about the BBC, but it still proved a very interesting talk. Plus it was fun to watch them "cringe" as they has their old tweets read back to them (I think they loved it really!)
The speaker also did a very interesting poll on all of us attending the talk to see if we'd like to see live rolling tweets accompanying Olympics coverage on the BBC, hardly anyone did. This was surprising to some, especially as we were a Social Media crew. But not surprising to me, come one, this is what we have the second screen for, not everyone wants/needs to see us all talking on Twitter about stuff. The BBC TV coverage of the Olympics should be sacred and not split its screen to hear what some ego wants to say about the games. There's a time and a place... (BBC 3?!) Or just keep it on your computers and phones! It was good to see most of the room agree with this.
I did end up finding out some more BBC twitter info through this though:
How BBC News uses Twitter; by social media ed @chrishamson Friday's Newswatch.
I'll finish on a funny quote from the Social Media Survival session:
"People seem to be on google+ "just incase."
This made me LOL, because its totally true.
All in all an interesting week of workshops, food for thought for where I plan to take Radio 1's use of Social Media for the Hackney Weekend, watch this space....!
Technology has completely altered all previous forms of communication.
Why call when you can Skype? Why visit the library when you can purchase a Kindle with 3 million historic books? And why listen to the radio when you can browse through expertly crafted podcasts?
Roundhouse Rising is set to shine a light on the rise of the Podcast with the one off Penniless Podcaster seminar on February 18th. Radio 1 producer Amy Redmond is set to guide attendees through the process of making a Podcast, while also discussing its importance and the ramifications the format holds for accepted media.
Ahead of the event, ClashMusic asked Amy Redmond to introduce the Podcast and some of the themes running through her seminar.
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Radio 1's new controller Ben Cooper said this week: "Traditional radio for young people is dead in about a generation. We've got to work out what radio looks like on a smartphone, iPad, IPTV".
As a fan of radio and new technology I second that, and I enjoy hearing and being a part of where radio goes next. Why listen to some ego play songs and waffle, with, worst still, radio adverts (my pet hate) when you can choose exactly the programmes you want to hear and listen to them anywhere you are?
Welcome to podcasts: a confusing/stupid sounding word? Fear not, it's just a little radio programme (they can also be video too), chose ones you like and BAM! they appear in your iTunes. How many people haven't yet clicked the Podcasts tab on their itunes?! It's right there, have a go! It's free!
The BBC pioneers the game, from Annie Mac's minimix to Radio 4 Science, there are podcasts about whatever you're into. But there's a world of interesting free programmes waiting for you - I listened to a drum and bass one in the gym then one at home on knitting this week, gangsta!
People podcast to share their passions, it's a quick and easy way for anyone to become broadcasters. If you feel passionate about something, you could make a programme about it using free software, get it online, gain followers and potentially make your passion your career. It could be just a fun side project, it could add to your business, but it's proven that it works. You can start online communities, or tap into already existing ones by making your podcast, having a blog and open comments.
Tempted to make your own? If you have a computer you can, its freakin simps! Mac? Use Garageband. PC? Download Audacity. Record whatever it is you want to straight into the timeline, or using your phone/separate mic/recorder. Then mix with music/sound FX and BOOM! Stick it online with Soundcloud. Listen to some to get an idea of whats out there / what you do / don't want to sound like.
Podcasting, alongside mainstream radio has had and increasingly is having a massive effect on the music industry. In an industry where Lana Del Ray can blow up within a month, or Madonna's new video can be trending within minutes we are living in fast-share, immediate access times. Musicians and their teams and radio and podcasters work hand in hand to keep listeners up to date with latest artists, releases and industry information.
Check out the award winning Hackney Podcast, celebrating Hackney creatively with audio. Also you must hear some Guardian Podcasts, its first rate shiz! I also really rate The Other Woman podcast, a great example of getting opinions and issues talked about in an accessible, fun format. And I may be slightly biased cos I work there, but the BBC Podcasts are to me, the best in the world, the variety and quality are astounding, I can't recommend them highly enough.
Think you haven't got time to listen to podcasts? YOU DO! Bored on the train? Then! Watching shit TV? Then! Jogging? Then! Driving? Then! Have them on your iPhone / pod / whatever and you're free to hear quality programmes and music FOR FREE whenever and wherever, it's the future! Oh no it's not, its the NOW! Get in!
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The Penniless Podcaster takes place between 1pm - 5pm on February 18th at the Roundhouse, London.
is an international celebration/gathering of Social Media types. With talks, workshops, panels and events from SM dons all over the world. To tie in with my new job as Social Media Producer for Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, I attended lots of talks at 
