Please note: you are free to choose which days you attend. For example, should you wish to attend the Saturday “hack day” but not the Friday, please select a Saturday ticket only.

"Apps for Communities" will be theme of Local by Social: South West Edition, hosted by Bristol City Council's Connecting Bristol team on the 28th and 29th of January 2011.  The venue will be The Council House, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TR.

The event will explore how Apps and Widgets can be used to bring real benefits to citizens, broadening social and economic inclusion and helping the whole community benefit from the power of open data. Council officers, councillors, social innovators, application developers, community developers and local residents from across Bristol and the South West are welcome to attend.

On Friday 28th we will hear from a range of expert and engaging speakers who have experience of creating Apps and Widgets that have value at a local level.  There will be the opportunity to identify needs and problems and to work together to discuss and visualise solutions.

Our headline speaker on Friday will be Emer Coleman, Director of Digital Projects at the Greater London Authority. Emer will be exploring whether open data can save the public realm.

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Clare Reddington, Director of the Bristol-based iShed venture which supports collaboration between computing, communications and creative industries
• Tim Davies, an independent consultant, researcher and social entrepreneur specialising in open data;
• Rich Watts, Director of Essex Coalition of Disabled People (ECDP) and proponent of transparency and open data in the voluntary and community sector.
• Ian Anderson, Chief Executive, Overlay Media Ltd and developer of the “Hills are Evil!” project

Then on Saturday 29th, the event will run as a "Hack Day".  For those of you unfamiliar with this idea, it means developers, local people and other interested parties will work together in an open way to develop the apps that could provide the solutions to the needs and problems that have been identified.

You are free to choose which days you attend. For example, should you wish to attend the Saturday “hack day” but not the Friday, please select a Saturday ticket only. Please book both Friday and Saturday to attend both legs of the event.

Registration for this FREE EVENT is open, so please book your place now.

To be kept up to date with the latest news and developments, please sign up to our Local by Social mailing list by adding your details here.

The draft agenda for day 1 follows below:

Local by Social South West edition: Apps for Communities

Day 1, Fri 28th Jan – Bristol City Council, The Council House, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TR.

0930 – 1000: Registration and coffee

1000 – 1010: Chair's Welcome – Stephen Hilton, Connecting Bristol

10.10 - 10.20: Bristol Digital Futures - Cllr Barbara Janke, Leader of Bristol City Council

1020 – 10.35: Introduction to Local by Social - Ingrid Koehler, Improvement Strategist, Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID)

10.35 – 10.50: Gov 2.0 - Carrie Bishop, FutureGov

Questions and comments

11.00 - 11.15: Coffee break

11.15 – 11.35: Can open data save the public realm? - Emer Coleman, Director of Digital Projects, Greater London Authority (GLA)

Questions and comments

11.45 – 12.15: Generating and filtering ideas for afternoon workshops

12.15 – 1.00: Lunch

1.00 – 2.30: Afternoon speakers

• Social care and location-based social media - Rich Watts, Director, Essex Coalition of Disabled People (ECDP)
• Re-thinking apps: the possibilities of open data - Tim Davies, Independent consultant, researcher and social entrepreneur
• Clare Reddington, Director, iShed
• Ian Anderson, Chief Executive, Overlay Media Ltd and developer of the “Hills are Evil!” project

2.30 – 3.30: Afternoon workshops

3.30 – 4.15: Workshop feedback

4.15 – 4.25: Review of workshop presentations

4.25 – 4.30: Chair's Closing Remarks