BeCareful !

We’re off to see the local fireworks. Hope you enjoy yours if you are out and about. Check out the photo on belocal.com - we thought it captured the spirit of Bonfire night quite well - thanks http://www.flickr.com/photos/78164632@N00/308019923/

BeScared…

We found this picture on Flickr and thought it was great so we’ve put it at belocal.com - thanks http://www.flickr.com/people/lobo235/

We’ll be out later with the ghosts and goblins. We won’t BeScared!

Local in Blighty

We recently went on our family summer holiday to the Suffolk coast near Southwold. On the way I saw a local village shop in Franlingham with about 50 British flags outside it. We really enjoyed staying local - with a total journey - door to field (we were camping) - of just 1 hour it was amazing - within 2 hours we were on the beach and then to the local pub for a pint of Adnams.

Mike discovers BeLocal

Ahead of the first BeLocal BBQ (see next post) at The Five Bells, Hessett I demonstrated BeLocal to Mike (part of the new management team) down at our local. He liked the idea so much he insisted on doing this video - thanks Mike!

Prince Charles backs ‘Shop Local’ campaign

From the East Anglian Daily Times - our ‘local’ paper: “Prince Charles will stamp a Royal seal of approval on the campaign to promote small shops when he meets some of Suffolk’s successful producers.”

We fully support the Shop Local campaign - the major supermarkets have a role to play but as more and more people recognise the benefits of ‘being local’ we think the local shop *will* return.

Where do you shop - get in touch and let us know about your local shops.

Gordon goes local

Gordon Brown is opting for a British holiday this year, along with many people I’ve spoken to over the past few weeks he’s decided to stay closer to home. A trip to Southwold and Scotland will do him, and why not.

Southwold beach huts image from zoer on flickr

Local news - what is local news ?

From Stowe Boyd:

I predict a surge in hyperlocal writing and connecting — I stop short of referring to it as ‘news’ or ‘journalism’ — linked with various aspects of living locally. Since these various threads may not be mutually supportive, they won’t add up to anything like the strange combination of things that we have in the modern newspaper, with its funnies, horoscopes, national news, local sports, classifieds, Sunday supplements, food coupons. I believe that hyperlocal = hypersocial and not just news within some zipcode, it will not just be ‘about’ people, it will be the means through which people connect locally, a social medium, not a news medium.

Local characters …

I popped down to my ‘local’ on Friday for a drink with the team.

We’d like to find a way to bring the sense of character & community you can sometimes find in local pubs into BeLocal. Suggestions welcome - team@belocal.com.

Simon Amstell gets ‘it’

Just seen this (below) over at WeLoveLocal - nice.

And the original advert.

mashup* Event - Local

As a member of the mashup* Event team (I founded the event series around 2 years ago) I am privileged to get an inside view on what events the organisation is planning and can help contribute to the planning and invitation of speakers and panel members. So when we decided to host an event themed Local I was thrilled to be asked who to invite to speak and sit on the panel.

I suggested an ‘all star’ cast of ‘local services’ in the UK including 118118, TrustedPlaces, WeLoveLocal, Tipped, UpMyStreet, Northcliffe Media, TouchLocal, Qype & Rummble.I think the team managed to accomodate most of the entrepreneurs behind these businesses and we had a very lively and interesting debate about the future of local services and the changes taking place in the directories business. TrustedPlaces did a demo as did TouchLocal and I announced that BeLocal will be in private beta later this year.

I’ve uploaded a summary video below.

Following the event there were quite a few blog posts discussing the evening.

http://digital-examples.blogspot.com/2008/01/solving-plumber-problem.html

http://barbd.net/2008/01/18/what-is-local/

http://nakedlaw.typepad.com/naked_law/2008/01/making-a-local.html

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