4 days to go and there's a spring in our step!

ConkerTU just gets better and better! Determined to source local foods for you all, we had some difficulty in finding large sponsors - I guess they wanted the brand recognition / product placement and all. We took the decision not to compromise our ideals, even if it meant paying for your refreshments ourselves!

No doubt, you can imagine our glee just now,when Swithland Spring Water agreed to donate two HUGE bottles of local spring water to our cause! This rocks in more ways than one:

The water comes from deep under the rocks of the Charnwood Hills, an area rich in ancient forest which is just down the road from Conkers;

and Swithland are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts - they’re keen to keep water miles low. Not all our participants are potential customers so to speak.

Don’t you just love it when people share your ideals and give a little?  As Phil would say *awesome* - but then I have a funny feeling the ConkerTU launch is going to be just that!

Emma

Sustainability Panelist, Julian Dobson

A writer, speaker and commentator on regeneration and social policy issues, Julian is editorial director and was the founding editor of New Start, a magazine established in 1999 as the UK’s first weekly publication for people involved in community regeneration.  Now a monthly, with a focus on in-depth analysis and showcase learning, New Start aims to inspire and inform the people who make a difference where it matters: the professionals, practitioners and public involved in tackliing disadvantage, building sustainable communities and renewing our neighbourhoods.

Julian is also director of NS+ Limited which helps makes sense of regeneration through research, writing, editing, face to face learning and communications services.  He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a voluntary board member of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, and on the board of the journal Local Economy.

No such thing as a free lunch? Say cheese!

A huge shout out for the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company who have just given us a great discount on the Sparkenhoe Red Leicester we plan to serve on Saturday lunch time.

This is the ONLY genuine Leicestershire cheese produced in the County and is utterly delicious! Though I must say I’m glad they called it Sparkenhoe and not Gorsey Nob, which is apparently what Sparkenhoe means!

And don’t forget to bring your veggie to participate in our Buy Nothing Day free lunch at ConkerTU!  Steve is plotting his assault on the cauldron already!

Emma

@sianfiddle

Why am I supporting ConkerTU?  Well, apart from Emma being a long lost school friend, I might be able to help a cause now to create an effect in the future.

What with the environment and global warming being in the limelight last week, with yet more storms and rain of biblical proportions, some might say it’s too late - we’ve messed up…

I believe that little by little everyone can do something - even if it’s just me playing my fiddle! Ask me what the logic is behind that, when you see me!

Sianfiddle will be playing in The Pavillion at lunch time!

I can't bear it!

I’ve been spending my Sunday afternoon collating materials for next week’s ConkerTU launch and came across the really sad news that the Low Impact Living Initiative has suffered a major theft - £30,000 to be precise.

The resource offered by LILI is second to none, clear, concise, plenty of freebies to read up on before you part with any cash and all in all promoting the kind of independence from consumerism we need for sustainable living.

So, even though we have struggled to get in all the pennies we wanted to launch ConkerTU, right now, we’re comfy enough and have a damned fine day planned for you all.  There will be plenty of other times for swanky budgets, right?

Me? I get paid on Wednesday so I’ll be dipping into my Zerocredit pennies then, but in the meantime if you find you can’t Buy Nothing on 28th November, how about you slip a few quid to this lot?  They’ll be glad of your donation, I’m sure!

Emma

Let the train take the strain! - get our wifi ready greenbus next saturday morning!

Winding up for the last week now and more people appear to be signing up which is great.   If your travelling down to conkers do consider taking the train to tamworth station as we have made some transport arrangements for you.   We will have the free greenbus outside the train station and leaving for conkers at 8:45am (so don’t be late) and the bus will make a trip back around later on in the day.    Do let us know if you do intend to travel in this way.

Either drop me or emma an email and let us know.

emma@conkertu.com
phil@conkertu.com

Green Voice of the UK, Piper Terrett, opens ConkerTU

Piper Terrett is a financial journalist and author.  She writes the Frugal Life blog for MSN.co.uk and her book of moneysaving tips The Frugal Life: How to Spend Less and Live More was published in April 2009 by the Good Life Press. A former Financial Times Group journalist, she was recently crowned Green Voice of the UK by the Energy Saving Trust.  She will spend the next 12 months in the voluntary role representing the public’s views on green issues.  Piper lives in Essex, with her partner Doug, pet chickens and vegetable patch.

Spend a day without spending at Conkers

Here at virtual conker tweetup hq we are pulling together our last push for the next 10 days or so to increase the numbers of people attending, we already have a reasonable turnout but we would really like to double it! - as we are currently chasing and updating local newspapers and media machines about what we plan to do we are also pulling together content for Buy Nothing Day!

On Saturday 28 November 2009, one of the year’s busiest shopping days, just as people are starting to stock up for the Festive Season, Buy Nothing Day is asking you to stop shopping - for a whole day!  Why? Well, how many things do you buy without really thinking about whether you need them?

We live in a throwaway economy where convenience goods are discarded without a thought, plastic bottles, cardboard coffee cups, food packaging.  For every £70 you spend at a supermarket £10 goes towards packaging, so if you think about it, you’re paying for rubbish that your Council Tax pays to recycle.

Over the Festive Season we’ll throw away over 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, 6 million Christmas trees and 83 square km of wrapping paper in the UK. Buy Nothing Day is not anti-Christmas or anti-consumerist, however, it is an opportunity to challenge how much, what and where we buy.

If you’re looking for ways to cut waste and make your money go further, then why not join us on Buy Nothing Day at Conkers?  People from all over the country are coming to share experiences of sustainable living at “ConkerTU”, from energy saving systems to low impact living – practical ideas that you can use in your home.

A ticket to ConkerTU gives you free entry to Conkers, free films, videos and presentations and a free lunch – all at no cost to you!

Tickets are limited so visit http://www.conkertu.com to book soon.  If you can’t make it, follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ConkerTU. And if you really can’t Buy Nothing, save fuel, packaging and pennies by shopping locally - you’ll find some great ideas here: http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/

Vegetal Inclusion for the Conker Tweetup!

original photo from here by valjk | creative commons license

How would your carrot like to tweet up with my potato for a bit of potage bonne forme?  Closet Chef, Steve @visitconkers is offering to Ready Steady Cook a dish for our delight, if we can bring a veggie for @philcampbell to twitpic whilst I compose an ode to the Cauldron of ConkerTU!

Seriously though, we can only campaign effectively if we nurture our sense of fun, so why not infect ConkerTU with a little laughter?  What better gift can we share on Buy Nothing Day than the soulfood of a shared creation to nourish our zero-carbon thoughts?

If you’re new to this site, forgive us!  Steve, Phil and I have been working on ConkerTU for little more than a month.  Sharing sustainable lifestyles is a mission for us – I think you’ll save money, Steve believes you’ll save the planet and Phil knows he can connect people who want to share ideas.

Maybe we are ideallists, but we’ve done this at short notice because we think it needs to happen now.  There are too many arguments about the economy and climate change to make easy sense of it, yet each have folk we can rely on in a crisis and sustainability helps us to strengthen such networks.

Whilst “vegetal inclusion” is the jokey banter of a tired team, there is a certain poetry in the promordial soup of new beginnings. To take part in our light relilef, you will need to bring a home or locally grown vegetable – that’s it – except to say that we do have alternative sustenance for the less adventurous amongst you!

by emma (@zerocredit_uk)

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

18 plays

As we are fully supporting Buy Nothing Day also on the 28th we thought we would repost this great track Peter Lundy has recorded - ‘Stop Your Shopping’ - you can download it for free from http://pharaohhousecrash.blogspot.com.

We are currently working away to get more promotion regarding our event on the 28th and are in the process in contacting all the local newspapers and media makers.   If you have any direct contacts please forward them on.

ConkerTU Line Up

08.45 The Green Bus departs Tamworth Station GPS & WIFI enabled journey into the Forest

09.30 Meet, greet & tweet over caffeine fuelled infusions @ Waterside, Conkers!

10.15 Conkerchoo or saunter over to the Discovery Centre, Conkers

10.30 Green Voice of Britain, Piper Terrett officially opens ConkerTU

11.00 Sustainable communities panel, including Penney Poyzer & Julian Dobson

12.00 Musical interlude, from celtic folk fiddler, Sian Phillips

12.30 Voyage of Discovery - extended lunch to explore Conkers & tweet with Millie, the owl!

02.00 Rural Energy explain how Conkers’ new Biomass heating system works

03.00 Hyperlocal pecha kucha, a quick fired contrast and compare, session with Q&A
including Nottngham Eco House, Lammas Project, Ibstock does Climate Change,
Self help housing

04.00 Summing up and thanks

05.00 The Green Bus returns to Tamworth Station - Bon Voyage!

In addition to the above there will screenings of various Buy Nothing Day and Climate Change media in the Discovery Hall, with a further last minute surprise to be confirmed!

Transport from Tamworth Station via thegreenbus.co.uk

for those travelling down by train we have a bus organized via thegreenbus company that probably takes a more countryside route than the m42 above.  conkers is roughly ten miles away from tamworth station.

Tamworth railway station is located where the Cross Country Route passes over the West Coast Main Line, in the United Kingdom, although there is no rail link between the two lines. There are four platforms: platforms 1 and 2 on the low level (the West Coast Main Line) and platforms 3 and 4 on the high level (on the Cross Country Route)

Please let emma@conkertu.com or phil@conkertu.com if you are travelling in on the train and your expected time of arrival we really hope to have everyone arrive around similar times so we can get everyone on in one go.   the bus will also take people back at the end of the day - ideally all in one go also.

Transportation from Tamworth Train Station to Conkers - Numbers Required

We need to finalise numbers for pick up from Tamworth Station.  As you know The Peel Hotel has offered anyone attending ConkerTU a massive 25% discount on standard rates for the Friday Night.

Not only this, but The Green Bus Company is offering ConkerTu participants a free bus service to and from Tamworth Station!

And if that doesn’t suit you, then Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council have allowed us to lift share through their leicestershare.com account!

role of honor and sponsor update.

two and half weeks to go | need you to register else you will not get in for free - http://tweetvite.com/event/conkers - you can use either you twitter or facebook login details.  it is totally secure.  if you have neither drop us an email at phil@conkertu.com or emma@conkertu.com and we will get you added manually.



i know emma is absolutely running around like a mad person in between all the work she already does to make this happen.   i thought i would fill you in a bit with sponsors we have had so far and a bit of ‘call for action’ for other bits of sponsoring we still require to make it go smoothly.

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

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

* £60 in cash from @pjb_58 to get the tumblr custom theme sliced up

* celtic folk fiddler @sianphillips has waived her significant gig fee, not only to play for us on the day, but also donating her Brynach y Mynach track for free use in our video edit of the lammas project video

* of Cae Mabon fame @ericmaddern has donated a recording of his ‘Buy Nothing Day’ anthem “Shop and Buy” for free!

* waived the directory and networking fees @richardbeldon enabling us to promote conkertu to local businesses free of charge - good on yer mate!

But we still need your help on pushing through and finding some more sponsoring - i’ll be putting some link locations in the sidebar as people help us out with sponsoring and they will get a link through to their website - we will do this for each event and you can sure that the website will be getting a lot of coverage when we start to contact *all* the newspapers in the local area.  we also hope you see this as a positive local move for tweetups in general and our locality.

We are looking for the following help and sponsoring for the following items.

* a food sponsor (a £400 sponsor is required) will provide local produce for all in attendance.

* a targeted Facebook campaign for those in the locality and engaged into the issues we are covering.  we will also record a video of us setting this up so others can learn how to do this (a £400 sponsor is required)

* we are looking for £23 for a years 10 pro credits for widgetbox - this will allow us some neater embeds for our website so you can find information easier.

and not crucial (because we will find a way) but would be fantastic if we can unload my stress of sorting out some level of redundancy to the internet connectivity on the day.

* a data tariff sponsor for our t-mobile sim cards for data - we are building a small grid of about 5 connections so we need £15 per 3gb sim card - looking for separate sponsors for those.  we will use this for our mobile wifi cloud that we will provide for you - so rural here we tested all the other networks first and t-mobile seems to be the best at conkers (so looking for a £75 sponsor)

* we have the wifi units from the ammoboxproject that were sponsored by cradlepoint but we need four more usb dongles to make it happen - we have one but we need more.  £40 each from ebay (so looking for a £160 sponsor in total or per usb dongle £40)

Also are also setting up twitter micropayment methods on the website and we will be posting a video demonstrating how you can help make small donations that will go into the conkertu pot very simply towards this and other events for next year from the comfort of your twitter account - every donation will be listed on the website with a simple text from you.

The Tree that Sat Down

I can’t seem to find my copy of this childhood book and that bugs me. It seems so relevant right now. Set in a forest (now there’s a surprise!), all the little animals are taken in by some nasty techno-witch who rides on a vacuum cleaner and has some evil plot to get them all buying boxes of “nichts” (German for nothing, which is also relevant to the GCSE course I’m teaching this year) from the corner shop. Ultimately, one great old tree in the forest sits down so as to bring the whole heady mess to a halt. Think rampant consumerism and climate change. I’m sure if I found my copy I’d summarise, if not quote it, far better than I’m doing now.

So where does this bring me? Well, I’ve had a few questions in the past week or so as to what ConkerTU is all about. One of the problems with a rolling blog like this (although I understand Phil’s doing amazing things to classify our posts) is that prior commentary seems lost in the retrospective. So, I need you understand: who we are, what we’re doing, and why.

Me? Well, I’m a 44 year old mum who teaches part-time in a secondary school so I can afford to take on projects which interest me. Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching, but my other great mission is to dispel the myth that we can’t live without credit, not least because what’s sold as cheap often costs us dear in the long run and isn’t sustainable. Indeed, it never ceases to amaze me how many money saving ideas I come across as I learn more about sustainable living. And as a digital dinosaur who’s gained immeasurably from the social media phenomenon, I want others to experience a similar liberation from old thinking.

Cue Phil Campbell, as it happens, on my doorstep! As a teacher, I should have loved nothing better than to have Phil in my class - he’s one of those people who take an idea and come up with all sorts of new ways of looking it, creating avenues you’d never have dreamed of. The man’s a genius - no seriously - he is! To my social interest, add Phil’s technical know-how and you have state of the art digital, meeting excluded and vulnerable communities, with an immediacy that empowers directly. I can’t think of anything more effective to kick start our economy and promote innovation in a thoroughly inclusive and sustainable way!

And so to our venue. It so happens that both Phil and I live a stone’s throw from the geographic centre of England, in the middle of the UK’s boldest environmental project, the now thirty year old National Forest. Conkers is the principal visitor centre for this 200 square mile expanse, so you can imagine how delighted we were when General Manager, Steve Hamilton, gave us a big, fat juicy yes to holding a series of tweet ups, themed around sustainable living on the premises! The scene was set…

Since International Buy Nothing Day falls on Saturday 28th November, what better date could there be for the tree to sit down and question consumerist values? Tweet ups are free, sustainable living is economically the most advantageous and social media is accessible in real and virtual time, both during and after an event. We had a fit!

Although getting a first tweet up together in less than two months is far from ideal and the cynics amongst you may think that we could have done this or we should have done that, I ask you, what point is there in shoulda, coulda, woulda at this time? Will waiting effect change? Our purpose is not to tell you how it is, but for you to join us in setting the agenda. This is dialogue for goodness sake!

We now have a programme of eight tweet ups themed around different aspects of household expenditure, launching with property because that’s where National Statistics tell us folk spend most. Then, every six to eight weeks we pick up a new theme as follows:

January: employment and training
February: low carbon holidays
April: household goods
May: fashion
July: transport
August: communications
October: finance

Our aim is to share as many examples of sustainable living from across the UK as possible - so if you have one, for crying out loud, come and share it! Lifestyles which bear no relation to our own, seem intangible, too complex, impracticable, whereas examples that reflect our local environment give a point of reference, a starting point, a benchmark. There are no prizes for recognising that if we do not share what’s best about sustainable living, sustainability will pass us all by.

So, if you’re truly committed to tackling climate change and embracing a sustainable future, ConkerTU is where you need to be. Whether you come in real time or attend virtually, you’ll always be welcome, because our aim is beyond individual achievement. We look forward to seeing you in person or online on 28th November!

Emma Bryn-Jones (@Zerocredit_UK)