#smwgla

#SMWBOOKCLUB is a book club event taking place in Glasgow as part of the global social media week, 24-28 September 2012. I decided to host this event as I've been involved in a book club, organised by friends through a Facebook group. I knew there was a demand outside of this group of friends so I wanted to establish a book group where people have an opportunity to meet socially and talk about their favourite books in an environment with likeminded folk. 

I'm also keen on technology and wanted to explore the opportunities of communication tools like Google+ hangouts for people to join in overseas and for people to be able to participate without having to physically attend a meeting.

Scottish based author, Alan Bissett will be reading from his latest novel, Pack Men. Alan has kindly taken time out of his busy performance schedule for a reading. Finnish based author, Heikki Hietala will read his short story, Lord Stanton's Horse. He's also generously offered a PDF of Filtered Light and a collection of short stories that attendees can download here.

If you'd like to learn more about the event that's happening at Skypark (6th Floor), Glasgow, Tue 25 Sep 7-9pm, you can view the Livestream here: http://bit.ly/SMWBOOKCLUBLIVE or through the Google + hangout: http://bit.ly/SMWBOOKCLUBGPLUS

My #SMWBOOKCLUB event at SkyPark, Glasgow was not only well attended it also included lively open discussion involving many attendees. People had different reasons for attending, not least curiousity about the use of tech in the form of Google Plus hangouts for connecting with a wider audience.

Kicking off the evening with beer kindly supplied by WEST brewery, we had time to talk with each other and get a feel for our reasons for attending. I wanted to create an informal social space where people could talk freely and share their ideas to make what they want out of book club. This was acheived in part although an initial book for discussion will be selected over the coming weeks.

Finnish based author, Heikki read his short story, Lord Stanton's Horse and explained how the award winning 480 word story won the Flash500 short story competition.

In discussions around the future of the printed book, Heikki highlighted the FiveStopStory app that's designed for commuters to be read within the average journey time of 5 station stops.

Alan gave a great performance of an extract of his latest novel PackMen. The subject matter is a little racy, recounting a male on male sexual encounter between university students, it wouldn't make the 9pm watershed.