On Screen and On SQair!

Everyone appears to be gearing up or winding down for the festive season so it’s been an opportunity to reflect over a great year. My blog next week will be the reflective one so I thought I’d use this week’s blog to give a heads up on some early 2011 news.

Firstly some great news from our partners at Panj Pani Radio, the internet radio station operating from top-notch studios at the Towers Hospital. They have secured a 28 day FM Radio Licence (RSL) and will be broadcasting on 95.1 FM across Leicester from 5th January to 1st February 2011. The young reporters will be having a show on Monday’s and Andy Cooke returns to the air waves with an Environment Show every Wednesday.

You will be able to listen LIVE to my ‘Reportage News Show’ every Thursday between 2.00-4.00pm on both 95.1 FM and the internet starting Thursday 6th. The show dates are Thursday’s on 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th January. The full listing will be available in the next week or so and I’ve installed a media player at the foot of the Citizens’ Eye home page.

The plan is then to continue the weekly show on the internet with the launch of a new radio station here at Phoenix Square. It’s being developed by the new Reportage Club I’ve set up (see below) and the working name so far is “Radio SQair”.

Next is exciting news of a project I’ve been planning or should I say dreaming about since I first helped Nick Hamer of Intrepid Media bring the Leicester Documentary Club to life back in 2008.

On Saturday January 22nd 2011 the Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre will host the inaugural Leicester Documentary Film Festival called DocFilm Festival.

The Festival, which has been organized by the Reportage Club in partnership with the Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency, will run from 12pm until 11.30pm and feature live music from 9pm.

Screen 2 at the Phoenix will be showing documentaries provided by a selection of their news agency partners including Bike Film Festival, British Silent Film Festival, Leicester Comedy Festival, MACE, LLGB Centre and Leicester Documentary Club.

The Screen Room will also be available to local documentary film-makers wishing to showcase their work and the Screen Lounge will be hosting a special marketplace.

If you wish to submit a documentary for viewing in the Screen Room please contact me on editor@citizenseye.org.

Tickets for the first ever Leicester DocFilm Festival are available from the Phoenix Square Box Office on 0116 242 2800.

A day ticket for the event costs £10 (£5 young people/concessions) with individual film prices of £2 (£1 young people/concessions).

Entrance to the Screen Room is free throughout the day and as films are coming in I may well add an extra room to show them.

I’m working with my media partners in the ‘media2012’ project to screen a documentary called ‘With Glowing Hearts’ that was made during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s the inspiring story of how the disadvantaged community in one part of Vancouver took the opportunity to use the games as a catalyst to get things sorted. An inspiration to my own plans for the nine month Community Media Centre here at the Phoenix.

Please put the date in your diary. It will be an exciting event so hope to see you there.

Next is news of my new Reportage Club that will organize meetings/events & workshops/training for Community Reporters involved in the Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency & its associated news agencies. The following news agencies will be hosting these sessions: 

• HAT News – reports on Refugee & Asylum issues

• INO Mag – Inside ‘n’ Out mag reports on CJS issues

• Dzine – reports on Disability issues

• Wave – Young Peoples newspaper

• Senior Eye – Older Persons issues

• Down Not Out – Homelessness issues

• EWALIN – African Development issues

• Green Issues – the environment

• HowRU? – health & well-being

• CAPs – Community Action Photographers

• DNA – Dad’s News Agency

• LGBT News Agency

• Women’s News Agency

• Bands n Beatz News Agency

Various venues across the city will host the sessions so look out for the timetable in early 2011.

I was very excited to hear about the latest media offering by Soar Media with its innovative partnership with South Leicestershire College. The partnership will involve taking over the Soar Community section of the printed magazine and I wish them well as they forge ahead with this very excitement new development. I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to develop that section and feel confident that it will continue to evolve.

I hope the Reportage Club will have a quarterly double page spread in Soar Magazine from April 2011 and use it to keep the growing ranks of our 2,012 Community Reporters by 2012 project informed of new training opportunities and events.

Pease get a copy of the Leicester Mercury on Wednesday 29th December as the Wave young peoples newspaper will carry details of their recent awards evening. They are an inspiration to me everyday and keep my feet on the ground.

Finally I met with the City Council officer who is coordinating their 2012 plans so hope we can get a bit of joined up thinking going on. I’ll keep you informed. I’ve also spoken to Blueprint about using the wasteland adjacent Phoenix Square for a six week Olympic Village. They said….”umm…that’s interesting!”

So how long to go….

Olympics is 588 days to go

Paralympics is 621 days to go

2012 Plan Starts Taking Shape

Events are being organized in 2011 as part of a planned build up to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. These include some key milestone dates:

• March - 1 day event ‘500 days to London 2012’
• June - 1 day conference - UK wide independent media centre organizers
• July - 2 day ‘Open’ Weekend - 1 year to London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony
• August - Bank Holiday Monday - 1 year to Paralympics 2012 Opening Ceremony

In January 2012 the CMC 2012 will open at Phoenix Square and start a nine month long series of events, workshops and seminars taking place for members of all communities across the city and county. This will include events organized with our many partners including Inspire Leicestershire and working inside schools to develop 2012 related experiences.

During the 2 weeks of the Olympics and the 2 weeks of the Paralympics, the Phoenix location will become the largest independent media centre operating in the UK. It will be run by many of the 2,012 Community Reporters being recruited across the city and county to report on their own communities and the activities taking place. This program is being developed in partnership with the Leicester Mercury and forms a core function of the newsroom based Community Media Hub. 

Our recent association with an independent media backbone stretching from Glasgow to Bristol, organized by the ‘media2012’ group, led by Professor Andy Miah of University of West Scotland (UWS) has taken us from being a standalone project to a key partner in a remarkable coalition of organizations . As editor of the Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency, I appear to have established a benchmark operation that others across the UK are seeking to follow. 

Arrangements are progressing through the close partnership with Simon Gribbon of Leicestershire Promotions, to identify transport providers (train/coach/minibus) interested in shuttling ‘citizen reporters’ to the Games. The vision of a ‘bus stop’ outside the Phoenix taking people down to experience the largest sporting event in the World and to soak up the atmosphere as community reporters is truly inspiring.

Through existing tenancy arrangements I’m hoping to secure all available office space at Phoenix Square to provide serviced workspace for visiting international ‘citizen reporters’. This particular group of people specialize in covering large sports events especially the Olympics across the globe and will make for an exciting collective to have resident in the Cultural Quarter for a few months. Conversations with entertainment organizers are already taking place.

I’m working with Sarah Harrison, the City Centre Director on developing a Gold/Silver & Bronze sponsorship program for Leicester based retailers. This will cover events in the months leading up to and during both London 2012 events. We are also in negotiations with Blueprint (Phoenix Square) in relation to the waste ground adjacent to the building. This will form the location for a unique six week ‘Olympic Village’ experience. 

Finally I’m seeking to discuss with local accommodation providers any possible ‘early bird’ deals we could secure and to start promoting through the existing global ‘media2012’ network in early 2011.

Leicester has a direct train link with London and the Olympic zone, that makes it only a 76 minute journey. This makes our city very attractive to international journalists who will find the costs of London very expensive.

We have a chance to plan sensibly and offer a cost effective solution to this group of individuals. They have to come to our country in 2012 as part of their job and I intend to make sure they choose Leicester.

It’s only 597 days to the Olympics start and 630 days to the Paralympics. Leicester has a chance to play it’s part and shape a 2012 Games experience of it’s own. 

Every piece of community news captured between the Special Olympics in 2009 and Olympics/Paralympics in 2012 will form the collection and archive at the innovative Community News-Museum being opened in the Cultural Quarter (September 2012). 

The first of it’s kind in the UK and a true community legacy of 2012.

Exciting times! Why not join us.