Saturday 27th March

A tweet was posted by @ConkerTU after the password for this account had been changed:

ConkerTU yay! - getting ready for mediacamp nottingham upstairs in the web streaming studio (2nd floor) do pop up and take a look! #mcn2  9:20 AM Mar 27th

An identical tweet appears here:

projectsweb 

projectswebmedia | London. Sorta. yay! - getting ready for mediacamp nottingham upstairs in the web streaming studio (2nd floor) do pop up and take a look! #mcn2  9:20 AM Mar 27th

The password was changed, because whilst @ConkerTU appeared to be tweeting from Texas, 

 ConkerTU
5:34pm, Mar 15 from Su.pr

if your in austin at sxsw today, you want to keep an eye on http://su.pr/1D5ibi  - we have the first FIVE cradlepoints to give away! :)

 ConkerTU
6:24pm, Mar 14 from Su.pr

so do you want a free video profile done at sxsw? - come to the heart of england stand - exhibition hall 4 - between aisle 400/500

organisers in the UK were unable to send and receive emails for the event scheduled on 17th April. This event now cannot proceed, despite an investment in marketing for this and the remainder of the programme.

A request was made for the e-mail addresses to be transferred, but there has been no response. Further investigation uncovered that despite the blog post on this site from 10th November 2009 stating: 

Firstly however those that have stepped up to the plate and helped us out.

* 2 years domain name sponsorship from @freshties and @lesant

only one year had been paid for:

http://www.whois-search.com/whois/conkertu.com

   Domain Name: CONKERTU.COM
   Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
   Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
   Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
   Name Server: NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
   Name Server: NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
   Status: ok
   Updated Date: 30-oct-2009
   Creation Date: 30-oct-2009
   Expiration Date: 30-oct-2010

Whilst £10 may not be a large sum to remain unaccounted for (the cost of one year’s domain name sponsorship), it is £10 that was donated to a cause.

As to the future of ConkerTU, please allow us some time to clarify matters.

Zerocredit_UK (Emma Bryn-Jones)

from http://www.zacharyadamcohen.com

Savvy Citizens in the Forest »

In line with our conversations about community involvement at the ConkerTU Local on Saturday 27th February, Savvy Citizens have just produced this excellent guide, giving a range of links for securing more information about public services.

West Street Music Project at the ampitheatre gig for ConkerTU Local

checking out the plantings from the first conker event with jon ofarrell

pictures from the conkertu.com local feb event.

Democracy’s Finest

The weather may have been less than clement, the turnout around a quarter of the 500 or so tickets booked, but we came away from the ConkerTU Local with one overriding impression: you’d go a long way to find a finer bunch of prospective parliamentary candidates than we have in South Derbyshire and North West Leicestershire!

Heather Wheeler (SDerbys Con) inspired us with her account of digital arrangements for new housing development; Paul Reynolds (NWLeics LibDem) had an incisive knowledge of and commitment to doorstep lending; Andrew Bridgen (NWLeics Con) and Ross Wilmott (NWLeics Lab) played the perfect impromptu panto in support of local volunteering and Michael Edwards (SDerbys Lab) and Alexis Diouf (SDerbys LibDem) were charmingly attentive, articulate and supportive of our suggestions to improve digital services in the Forest.

Thanks must also go to the great many local councillors who supported the event, not to mention Alison Adkin of The Forest Communities Pressure Group, David Baldaro of Community Hosts and Gerry O’Brien the Head Ranger at Conkers, for providing fine presentations.

The West Street Music Project which organised the formidable youth gig in the amphitheatre also came away with a massive petition to support future funding applications. And the Conkers Waterside cafe did a roaring trade in jacket potatoes with the young ones!

Aquila TV very kindly recorded a veritable tome of media, so whilst BT failed to install an upgrade after notifying us too late that their line would not support it, we shall no doubt have plenty to share with you over the next few days.

ConkerTU Local - events schedule

All day:

soft play; gaming zone; youth bus; 12.00-5.30: amphitheatre gig

Presentations @ 10-00-11.30 & 2.30-4.00:

hyperlocal Leics online

Moira Fire Station

Overseal Online

SDDC Digital

Community Cooperative

Derbyshire Police (am only)

Gerry the Ranger @ Conkers (pm only)

What’s on in our Forest

Break-out sessions @ 11.30-1.00 & 4.00-5.30:

local councillors & representatives

no rest for the wicked

Just got back from a quick chat with John Dennis of the West Street Music Project and next Saturday’s gig is looking good! Apparently The Derbyshire Youth Services Bus may be able to come down, so we’ll have to check the best location for that with Steve @visitconkers when we see him on Tuesday.

Dave Baldaro of Community Hosts has been working like crazy on the What’s best of What’s on in South Derbyshire / North West Leicestershire and he’ll be talking to us about what Overseal Parish Council has been doing in the Virtual Revolution too! Then there’s updates about the campaign to Save Moira Fire Station, Forest Communities Pressure Group, Fibre in the Forest and South Derbyshire District Council are sending some digital materials over for our benefit too.

Heather Wheeler, Leader of South Derbyshire Council and Conservative candidate for the area will be with us in the morning and Alexis Diouf her Liberal Democrat counterpart, in the afternoon. Almost all other local politicians have confirmed they’re coming though we’re waiting on precise times for the break out sessions. We’re thinking of zoning the Waterside Cafe for these, so it’s easy to spot people and relevant discussions by area, without needing to have official badges - the day’s meant to be informal.

So, less than a week to go before the ConkerTU Local and we’re getting excited. The enthusiasm around Woodville and Swadlincote whilst dishing out flyers yesterday was fantatsic - still having problems getting audioboo to post on tumblr and with Phil Campbell struck down with the flu for over a week now, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that we want him on tip top social media ninja form for next Saturday.   Let’s see what magic Rob can weave…

That’s all for now folks, except to say get in there for those tickets - flyers go out through schools from Tuesday and if you thought three hundred tickets booked so far was massive, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Flying…

ConkerTU flyers arrived yesterday, so it was out in the snow to distribute them around local community centres and retailers in Measham, Overseal, Netherseal, Albert Village and Gresley. The response on the street has been fantastic and judging by ticket bookings last night, pretty immediate too! Can we keep up with it, I wonder? If you have any problems booking a ticket, please post a comment, so we can deal with it, ASAP. More distributions today around Ashby, Woodville and Swadlincote and through local schools in the week. Looking forward to meeting you all!

ConkerTU Local: the world without borders!

oh what a night!

…and what a day as well, really!

While all you lovely readers have been merrily booking tickets on Eventbrite and Tweetvite or what have you, I have been contacting all our contributors to finalise schedules for the 27th (I should have final copy posted here by the middle of next week…)

Anyway, it has, for some time now, been an aim of ours to get the Leicestershire and Derbyshire Constabularies on board for the ConkerTU Local, because rural beats and more particularly county border beats ain’t what they used to be. Moreover, since the Forest Communities Pressure Group wants to explore optimising local resources with perhaps some combined fire and police service based in and around Moira - the fire station is, after all, open until at least other premises are built - as an exceedingly well situated resource, working towards such discussion seemed like a very good idea.

I must say, I could not have met any nicer people than the neighbourhood teams I spoke to today - huge shout outs for Officers Chris James and Trudie Bullick from Derbyshire and Pat McDonald in Leicestershire - all lovely “can do” folk :-) Both constabularies are thrilled at the idea of meeting at ConkerTU and are currently doing everything in their power to organise shifts so as to make this happen. Obviously we’re dependent on a match but it has been a delight to find the will to respond to local demand.

Not bad for a damp evening at the Oakthorpe Leisure Centre, not bad at all! And for future reference, it seems that the hot belly dancers who thrilled all at the Moira Canal Festival last summer rehearse in Oakthorpe on Tuesday nights (you heard it here first, shhhhhhh!).

I might sound tired but my heart is singing!

meh! cannot get audioboo posted… but I will find a way!

Fantastic meeting with Case-DA this morning and a fruitful afternoon confirming politicians’ attendance at the ConkerTU Local - I’ll probably post the full schedule with times for events by the middle of next week :-)

Tickets keep on going and going, which is great and by the end of the week flyers will be going out to more of the local community so it looks like attendance will be somewhere what we’re hoping for!

Hot cakes?

Looks like every time I visit this site more tickets have gone, but then we do have a great line up! Whether it’s local services or local talent that’s bringing you to ConkerTU, you can rest assured that you’ll have every opportunity to rock the Forest!

Another three bands have confirmed for the Amphitheatre gig:

Lesbian Wednesday

Bonfire on the Clump

and

Cure for Callous

bringing the grand total to eleven acts. It’s fantastic to see we have so much home grown talent.

The other great news this week is the stay of execution on closing Moira Fire Station - for at least another three to five years. But the fight is by no means over, so campaigners will be sharing the next steps for keeping vital emergency services in our area.

North West Leicestershire District Councillors John and Annette Bridges joined the digital world last week, with the launch of their Building Bridges blog. Annette is in fact the Leader of North West Leicestershire District Council, making this a huge step in the right direction to unlock democracy.

On a similar note, the Leader of South Derbyshire District Council, Heather Wheeler, has been tweeting her official engagements for some time, making her every move digitally transparent too!

If The Virtual Revolution is new to you, why not catch up with the BBC2 series on iplayer? Or, if you’re unhappy with public services and don’t know where to start, try What do they Know for step by step support with a Freedom of Information request.

All this and more awaits you at ConkerTU, connecting our communities for the future, so book your free tickets now and spread the word!

Another 25 Tickets Added Due to Demand.

We have added another twenty five tickets to the event.  We still have some more capacity possible outside of the tickets we have left up on the site but we might have to start moving furniture around! - things progressing nicely.  have a few conker video pieces and ideas i would like to post.

East / West Rock off @ ConkerTU Local on 27.02

Eight acts have confirmed from the West Street Music Project in Swadlincote, Derbyshire for our youth gig at the ConkerTU Local on Saturday 27th February. Performing live in the amphitheatre from midday are:

Medusa Cascade

Many More

Stereo Espionage

Radio Masquerade

Mongeyfishville

Arts & Crafts

Jaws

and

DJ Reece

We’re in talks with a number of Leicestershire Bands as I blog, so watch this space! Don’t forget to book your FREE tickets on line, as normal admission applies to anyone without an advance booking or Conkers membership.