Silent Sunday 30.03.14
Category Archives: Cardiff Stuff
The Foodbank App
This is the second time I’ve started this post. The first time, it turned into a sweary rant about how in TWO THOUSAND AND FOURTEEN we need food banks at all, FFS. Ooops – there I go again. Sorry…
Ok….What I want to tell you about is the Foodbank App. As you’ll no doubt know, all the food distributed by food banks is donated by the general public, either at dedicated collection points, or through workplace collection schemes, or at a supermarket donation point.
One of the problems food banks come up against is that they’ll often end up with a glut of one type of food, and not enough of another. For example, my local food bank is running short of fruit juice and sugar at the moment, but has plenty of baked beans and teabags. While nothing goes to waste, and all donations are welcome, it can be difficult for volunteers to make up balanced food parcels with an unpredictable supply.
Which is why the Foodbank App is such a great idea. It’s a really simple app, that doesn’t take up much space and is free to download, and it features a straightforward red/amber/green system. Foods highlighted in red are needed urgently; those in amber are running low, while green list items are those which aren’t needed just now. It’s a great solution to the difficulty of managing an unpredictable supply of food at your local food bank.
So if you give to your local food bank, please download the app so your donation can be used as effectively as possible. If you don’t donate food already, please consider it – Cardiff Foodbank alone fed 800 people in February – your support is needed.
Thanks for reading,
Michelle
OiConf 14
I’ve always quite enjoyed social media and the opportunities it gives for personal interaction in different ways, but over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to get to grips with how I could be using it to grow our business effectively; and with my ‘day-job’ hat on, exploring its role in sharing, promoting and co-producing good practice throughout the public sector.
One thing I’ve found is that it’s really difficult to find accessible social media learning opportunities at the level I need. I’m beyond the various local courses available which introduce Twitter, Facebook and WordPress; and while there are plenty of higher level, in depth courses which I’d love to sign up to, these require a regular commitment and shedloads of cash (£5k for the Community Building course which I have my eye on!) and as things stand, that’s just not feasible. Of course there are free resources galore available online, but sorting the wheat from the chaff takes a while, and to be totally honest, I seem to remember stuff much better when I’m actually taught it, rather than watching a slideshow or a youtube video.
So I’m pretty excited that the Online Influence Conference (Oiconf 14) is back in Cardiff for the third year running. I was lucky enough to get to the  first Oiconf event back in 2012, and it was absolutely brilliant – I learnt shedloads, and it was the first time that I’d really understood what a powerful business tool social media could be. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to put too much of what I’d learnt into practice straight away because of the specific project I was working on at the time, but I still came away from the day energised and excited, and determined to learn more as and when I could.
And now I can! The lineup for Oiconf  14 is awesome – there are three brilliant keynote speakers lined up, each of whom have achieved a huge amount, with the use of social media being integral to their journeys. Each speaker has an inspirational story to tell, but David Hieatt is someone I’ve long admired from afar for his project to bring jeans manufacturing back to Cardigan, as well as for his vision in creating the Do Lectures.
It’s not just about sitting and listening though – there are masterclasses available for all delegates from experts on Twitter, Brandwatch and Google+. I’m particularly excited about the session on G+ as I just can’t quite get my head around how I should be using it to get the most from it, although I can see that it has the potential to be a very powerful tool for community building. I’m planning to blog what I’ve learnt, so if G+ is a mystery to you too, check back in a few weeks!
However if you work with social media at any level, or even just share a fascination for how it’s changing the way we live our lives on so many levels, I would highly recommend booking yourself a ticket to the event itself. You’ll need to be quick – the last two sold out and my spies tell me that this one is well on the way to doing so also.
Hope to see you there!
