Brrism #3: Who Are You?

The Lowdown

On Wednesday evening, I had the privilege to attend the third #Brrism (“it’s Brrizzle for Social Media”) at Pervasive Media Studio with a bunch of likeminds and social media folk, from various organisations and backgrounds.

Mostly creatives of some sort, the group of about 25 were a colourful collection of writers, bloggers, trainers, designers, social media geeks, photographers and more. Many were just getting started with Twitter and Linkedin, and others had been with “social media” since its conception in the late 90s.

Facilitator Michael Corbett (@KobB) hosted the first Brrism in August this year as a social media meet-up based on a central theme (with a few ideas for breaking the ice and networking) where attendees could then self-organise during the meeting and discuss related topics of interest.


The Hoedown

Wednesday’s meeting was based on the theme of identity and how one presents oneself online, and therefore began with a “Who Are You? Hoedown” designed to break the ice and get everyone talking about what they do. All participants had a name badge complete with organisation and self-appointed tagline, with the idea being that if people could correctly guess your job, then your tagline was therefore an accurate representation of yourself.

I carried “Jack of all trades – master of fun!” – Based more on myself as an individual, than the organisation I work for. (Although that’s pretty fun too).

After this initial icebreaker, we then formed groups to discuss several topics offered by members of the group. My group for example was “Google Wave; is it just a massive timesuck?” Of course, these topics were quickly strayed from, but resulted in equally interesting debates.


The Slowdown

The group then reformed as one, and discussed some of the behind the scenes action of Brrism and where to find information on events.


After a brief tidy-up session (Pervasive Media Studio kindly provides the space to Michael and Brrism for free), the majority decamped to The Watershed and continued discussing the event.

Brrism was an excellent opportunity to meet fellow social media aficionados and discuss everything from post-apocalyptic fiction, to older generations using Twitter (case in point: @ivybean104).

For more info on Brrism, visit the blog or the wiki and follow Michael Corbett on Twitter. You can also follow the #Brrism hashtag on Twitter. And hope to see you at the next one!