If I don’t see you there, please follow the hashtag to join the conversation.

When: 17 September 2011

Where: Save the Children, St Johns Lane, London, EC1M 4AR

Time: 9.30am for tea and croissants, 10am start, 4pm finish.

Children welcome

Save the Children’s blogging conference is for all bloggers and vloggers. It’s going to be a fun packed and informative day with sessions from leading bloggers, prominent You Tubers and special guests.

Whether you’re a You Tuber, a parenting blogger, food, politics blogger or travel blogger we’d love to see you. We’re putting together a day packed with brilliant workshop sessions for all levels of experience.

Join our campaign

Come and spend the day with your blogging friends, learn new skills, meet Save the Children’s healthworker heros and join our healthworker campaign.

Health workers are critical to saving lives: they are the single most important element of any health service. Without them, no vaccine can be administered, no life-saving drugs prescribed, no family planning advice provided and no woman can be given expert care during childbirth.

We’ll be providing lunch too. Workshop details below.

Register now using the sign-up form to the right of this page.

9.30am: Arrive for tea and croissants

10am : Welcome and introduction

10.10 :  Amanda Mealing, actor and Save the Children Ambassador, talks about her experience visiting our work in Sierra Leone and hosts our live video chat with a healthworker in the field.

11.00 :#Pass it on:

Hear from our three mums who followed the journey of a vaccine from a warehouse in Maputo, Mozambique to a rural clinic. Together we reached just under 30 million on Twitter, had over 150,000 You Tube views, had hundreds of bloggers up and down the country blogging, we met politicians and encouraged world leaders to pledge enough money to pay for vaccines. With Chris Mosler, Tracey Cheetham, Lindsay Atkin and Liz Scarff

11.30:Tea break – sponsored by Netmums

12.00: First workshop sessions:

1) Blogging 101: Everything you need to know about blogging but were afraid to ask

If you are new to blogging or want to know how to set up your blog from scratch and how you can blog to support Save the Children then this session is for you. This roundtable discussion will be led by our expert bloggers.

• Chris Mosler, http://christinemosler.wordpress.com
• Nickie O’Hara,  www.iamtypecast.com
• Kate Gunn – representing Netmums,  http://katetakes5.blogspot.com
• Jennifer Howze -  http://www.britmums.com, www.jenography.net
• Elinor Shields, Mumsnet - http://www.mumsnet.com/
• Sarah Blakemore, Save the Children

2) Get Vlogging: Inspirational stories of how to use YouTube for social good

This roundtable discussion will enable you to get top tips on vlogging from the experts and get inspired as to how you can use your skills to support Save the Children. Our speakers:

• Lindsay Atkin, http://www.youtube.com/user/liliesarelike
• Myles Dyer,  http://www.youtube.com/user/Blade376
• Kristina Horner,  http://www.youtube.com/user/italktosnakes
• Liz Scarff, Save the Children

13:00:  Lunch break: we will be providing lunch.

14:00:  Second workshop sessions:

1) Taking your blog to the next level

Roundtable discussion: this session is designed for those who have been blogging for a while. Learn how to build a loyal following, create quality content and build an audience around a particular niche topic. Our speakers:

• Eva Keogan - www.nixdminx.com
• Sally Whittle - www.tots100.co.uk , www.the-mads.com ,www.whosthemummy.co.uk
• Maggy Woodley - www.redtedart.com
• Josie George - www.sleepisfortheweak.org.uk
• Tracey Cheetham - www.tchee.co.uk
• Saira O’Mallie – Save the Children

2) From floods to famine: multimedia storytelling using photography and film

This practical film session is hosted by Rachel Palmer our multimedia expert. Rachel will give a fascinating behind the scenes insight into both our life-saving work and her job producing and commissioning photography in some of the world’s most challenging environments.

From Niger to Somalia Rachel’s job is to commission and shoot incredible photographs that we can use to bring the world’s attention to events like a forgotten famine or under-reported natural disaster. This session will be practical and you will come away armed with top tips on how to film content for your blog, how to shoot for your edit and what makes a good visual story.

• Hosted by: Rachel Palmer, Save the Children

15:00: Gareth Owen: When disaster strikes- dispatches from East Africa

Gareth is our Director of Emergencies, when a humanitarian disaster strikes Gareth is the first to know. But how do we do what we do? Gareth will be focusing on the current crisis in East Africa.

15:55:Closing statement and thanks.

16:00:Finish.

This magazine wants everyone single one of us lovely ladies to get involved and is calling on all of you real women – whatever your size, shape, height, or age to join the party.

If you would like to appear in a glossy womens lifestyle magazine this is your chance to shine!  Simply visit www.goodtoknow.co.uk/essentials for further details on how to enter, and follow the campaign on our Facebook and Twitter pages…they can’t wait to hear from you.

I’ve been asked to write a little bit about ‘Who is the most important real woman in my life?’.

That’s a hard question to answer because I can’t really go for just one, so I would like this opportunity to call out to all the amazing women I know – you are thought very highly of and you’re incredibly special.

Every minute of every hour, of every day, I’m surrounded by real women who I admire, and also the one who I’ve lost and others who I’ve come close to losing.  It’s all part of life’s beautiful and poignant tapestry which is why it should be celebrated.

I look at the photographs I have of my Mother everyday and even though she has passed away she is with me.  I see her in myself and of course my daughter, who is going to be an amazing woman one day.  And of course there’s my sister and her daughter who is about to become a new Mum.

I’m certainly not forgetting the brilliant friends of mine who I’ve known for so many years and so well that we feel like sisters.  We’ve known each other for decades and through bad hairdos, boyfriends, bumps and more than our fair share of cocktails.

At my daughter’s school there is one amazing woman in particular who runs the before and after school club – we adore her.  There’s also the passionate and caring head mistress who can’t get through a school event dry eyed – we totally love her, please don’t ever stop sobbing at sports day or the end of term, it just wouldn’t be the same.

And finally, here’s to all the amazing working Mums I know who hold it together and carry the can and keep it together wonderfully, come rain, shine or champagne and duvet days!

This a Handpicked Digitorial in association with essentials

Got a blog? Got a switched on tech savvy bunch of friends? Do you have a small business or work in a corporation? If you are one or all of the above, twitter is definitely on your radar.

Twitter is ubiquitous and it’s reached superstar status as a social networking platform. Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry and Lady Gaga have all amassed great followings on their twitter feeds and in turn they’ve managed to create a mass of press coverage about it too. So what does this mean for us lesser mortals?

So many people don’t get twitter and I have to admit, I set up at least three accounts on twitter before I really felt the need to use it. And the reason that I began to use it a lot was that I ‘had stuff’. I had blog posts I could put on twitter, people I knew that I could chat and follow and of course, a desire to try out something new.

If you’re starting out on twitter, you probably just want to know all the basics. I’m going to debunk a few myths for you and also give you some guidance on how to make twitter work for you as a person, a business, a brand and a blogger.

1. Twitter Account
Setting up your account at twitter.com is the way to get started and choose a name which resonates with what you do. Make sure you cover off all the basics on your profile such as gravatar, location, a good description of yourself – including key words for search – and a link to your blog, linkedin profile, company website or another online location which you can direct people too. Get to grips with this and then you might want to try tools like tweetdeck or hootsuite (a business app) to help you make the most of it.

2. Twitter Profile Image
I touched on this in point 1 but your profile image deserves a special mention. If you work for a company, you may think you’re the face of the brand but you should really use a brand avatar. For your own personal twitter photo choose something that works on a small scale and don’t cloud it with too many words because it will be invisible. If you want to make a statement, do so on your twitter page wallpaper which can easily be customised.

3. Attitude
When you start out on twitter you need to enter with a positive attitude – it’s a fast, vast 24/7 world. Twitter is free and that means that people love to use and sadly, abuse it. The thing is, instant karma 2.0 will get you if you start behaving badly. If you get things wrong it comes back at you exponentially; you can be reported, you will also be unfollowed and tweeters will shout beware on their feeds. Twitter is a fun, dynamic environment which you have to treat with respect.

4. Check out your company guidelines
If you are on twitter, you will be on the radar of your social media and comms teams at work, so don’t try and communicate with journalists or talk up company news and gossip. You could end up in big trouble and if you work in a PLC, that’s trouble with a big T.

5. Find Your Friends & Colleagues
This is what we call the real legwork – starting to follow people. Many companies have lists on twitter so that’s a good place to start to find people you know IRL (in real life!). You no doubt have one or two early adopter friends who’ve done a lot of hard work on amassing their lists and you can just jump on their profile to find it. Lots of people will follow you back too, well, fingers crossed they will.

6. Make Friends
Follow people who you want to communicate with. Mr Tweet is a really good tool to help you find people but you can easily discover people you like by using tools such as tweetdeck. Mashable and twopcharts are also good places to look. By simply googling your specific areas of interest such as ‘top travel twitter’ or ‘top beauty twitter’, you’re likely to find interesting people too.

7. What do you say on Twitter
‘Hello’ is a good start and also remember you have 140 digits to get your microblog out there. That’s about 20 words. You will also be including a link (good idea to use a tool like bit.ly to shrink it). If you’ve got a web site or a blog you can always create posts about new deals or new posts with a short headline line. If there’s a call to action, ask people to comment or visit somewhere. Reply to other tweeters if they are posting about something of interest. Start a conversation and get engaged. You’ll soon find your voice and stop feeling self conscious.

8. Twitter lingo
Don’t be put off by the lingo on twitter – it’s pretty easy to pick up and it’s pretty much what you will see everywhere else in social networking. RT = retweet which means you send someone’s tweet on to your followers. Hashtags are just ways of creating a group conversation. Trending topics are the conversations that are dominating the twitter. In my book, if you’re tweeting for work and you’ve become a trending topic you’ve just about hit the jackpot.

9. How to boost your profile
Your twitter feed should always be the destination for something unique and exclusive that people can not get elsewhere. Simple things such as putting your twitter name on your email are ways to help you get more followers. If you are involved in marketing there are many ways to get a ‘Follow Us’ into your outbound comms which include eCRM, blog posts, print advertising and in fact anywhere you publicise your brand. There are also some good trends you should get involved with; #followfriday or #ff is one of the biggest trends on twitter and you nominate your favourite tweeters with a hash tag. If you’re going to a meet up or there’s a big event on, look out for the hashtag and start adding that to your tweets, it will get you involved and your follower numbers will rise.

10. Etiquette
There are no rules on how to behave on twitter but for me there is one which I always respect. If someone retweets your tweet, say thank you. If you are retweeting a post, make sure the original tweeter is included; otherwise you may risk the wrath of the originator. When you’re going on and offline, a simple hello and goodbye also works. Some bloggers have public spats on twitter, I find that pretty distasteful so don’t engage in arguments. It may be amusing to your followers but it’s bad form.

I hope these tips are helpful to you if you’re starting out on twitter.

And finally, enjoy it!

And now it’s my turn to give some of you an early christmas pressie back.

So without further ado, here are the recipients of the goodies, and I only ask that you email me at nixdminx@live.co.uk to organise posting things to you.

Karaoke Golden Ticket

The Lucky Voice Golden Ticket with two hours free singing in this most glamorous of establishments with cocktails and microphones galore goes to: MummyTips

Uh Oh Oh Oh Oh and the song below turns out to be Crazy in Love by Beyonce!

Super Lush Sweet and Dreamy Box

This gorgeous Sweet and Dreamy Lush briar box of rosy dreams and sugar candy baths will be winging it’s way to Sandy Calico.

Festive Fun: Peter Pan tickets

Two tickets to see the Peter Pan show at the 02 from lastminute.com* will be winging their way to Liz a Living with Kids.

The Simple Human Sinky Caddy & Drainer is going to Gotyourhandsfull.

Tickets to SeaLife
And two tickets to Sea Life – take your pick which one you want to go to – are given to The MadHouse

Transformers DVDs
We have four winners of the of Transformers 2 Revenge of The Fallen DVDs and you are:

Amy at and1moremeansfour

Clarebabble at clareybabble

Vic at Glowstars

and finally Insomniac Mummy

Thanks to again for dropping by. And thanks also goes to Lush, lastminute.com, Simple Human, Lucky Voice and Paramount DVD for their generosity.,

*valid for performances Monday to Thursday before December 17 2009

While I’d love to buy a drink for each and every single of the one hundred bloggers heading to the Zoo this Sunday, I don’t think it’s fair on those of you that can’t make it.

How about I make you all some cake? Yes, that photo is me in the kitchen, rustling up something tasty, wonderful and celebratory – but oh, what rotten luck, with our low-tech social networking, you can’t even taste it!

Well fear not, I’ve managed to magic up with a bit of blagging and barefaced cheek blogging goodness some cracking goodies for everyone to have a shot at bagging.

And here they are and they could be yours, just drop me a comment on this post, or a tweet @nixdminx and I’ll pick the winners of these darling goodies by December 10. I’ll be adding a few more over the coming week too, so keep your eyes peeled lovelies x

Karaoke Golden Ticket

I’ve got a Lucky Voice Golden Ticket on offer. That means two hours free singing in this most glamorous of establishments with cocktails and microphones galore!  It’s so much fun, you’ll want to say longer…I ended up staying an extra three hours on my Birthday last year.

If you can work out what this song is below, will you let me know…the lyrics aren’t recognisable but I think we sang it more than once!

Super Lush Sweet and Dreamy Box

This gorgeous Sweet and Dreamy Lush briar box of rosy dreams and sugar candy baths (quite tempted to keep it actually) could be winging it’s way to you ahead of the Christmas Party Season and could help you get over all those dreadful hangovers feel fresh as a winter daisy.

Festive Fun: Peter Pan tickets

This is one hot show this Christmas – I have two tickets to see the Peter Pan show at the 02 from lastminute.com*.  It’s also a little known fact that my birthday falls on the same day that the original book was published (Peter Pan by J M Barrie)

Kitchen Goodies from Simple Human

Thanks to Simple Human for the Sinky Caddy & Drainer – I would hate for you all to be scrubbing pots and pan without some kind of stylish kit…

Tickets to SeaLife

Here’s one to fill the days after Christmas when you simply have to get out of the house, two tickets to Sea Life – take your pick which one you want to go to

Transformers DVDs

Blockbuster movies are always great for rainy days and I know this one is a goodie. I have four, yes four!, DVDs of Transformers 2 Revenge of The Fallen

I really enjoyed the first film, so please let me know what you think of it – but remember it has a 12 rating.

Thanks to Lush, lastminute.com, Simple Human, Lucky Voice and Paramount DVD for their generous offer of prizes – it always helps to keep the readers happy! x

*valid for performances Monday to Thursday before December 17 2009

Ever have those bizarre conversations that verge on the complete abstract and sublime?

I had one of those this morning with my daughter over the breakfast table.

‘Mummy?’ she said, one eyebrow raised to announce that she had a profound statement coming on.

‘Yeah’ I answered distractedly, somewhere between packing lunch, loading laundry, applying lippy.

‘You know when we went to Formentera on holiday this Summer?’

‘Yeah’ I answer, wondering where this is going to go?

‘Well Dad’s friend went there the week before us.’
‘Oh really, that’s cool’
‘Yeah, and do you know what?’
‘What?’
‘He’s going to Morocco, like we are but a month later.’
‘Oh what a coincidence.’

‘It’s like twitter Mummy…isn’t it?’ she says, very seriously.

‘Umm, how do you mean exactly little one?’

‘Well we followed him and now he’s following us back.’

‘That’s hilarious – how did you work that one out…?’ (I’m wondering if the little minx has sneakily set up her own account).

‘Oh, you know, you keep saying so and so’s following you and you follow them back. That’s twitter isn’t it and it’s like holidays too!’

So there you have it, in the mind of a 9 year old, holidays are just like twitter!

Hmmm, I knew Dee might be ‘one of those’ types. This week she has the barefaced cheek to lie to Caroline about her dinner with James but of course is found out as the star-crossed lovers unravel the mystery behind the last evening’s disaster.
Berthea Snark also reveals her duplicitous streak as we learn that she is writing an expose of a Liberal MP disguised as an unauthorised biography. That in itself would be fine, if only it weren’t for the fact that the MP in question, is actually her own son…

So imagine my suprise when I began to review my photos of our recent jaunt to Bognor Regis to experience the new Butlins Ocean Hotel & Spa, when I noticed a lot more of a Warhol intonation than Martin Parr in them. As you’ll see this is more of a photoblog than editorial but it does paint a picture of what we did.

The Train Journey

Miniminx was really excited about going to Butlins and as I mentioned in my earlier post, the train ride was pretty action packed and our carriage was carnival-like with a magician, red coats, beauticians and lots of busy people catering to our every whim. Quite an achievement I have to say when you put broadsheet, tabloid, trade and consumer journalists together and then add Mummy bloggers with kids to the mix. We all muddled along nicely and the atmosphere was really peppy thanks to people visiting us regularly to chat.

First Impressions

We arrived at Bognor Regis and transferred to the resort in a mini coach and there was a sense of anticipation among all the passengers. I never went to Butlins as a kid so I had only second hand stories of what it would be like and was very intrigued to see how my daughter would react when she arrived.

Needless to say she was very excited and we enjoyed the party atmosphere and the sun was shining. Music was supplied by this electro-classical trio which played interpretations of pop songs. They were great. And specially created for the day was this lovely Mermaid sand sculpture.

As well as giant seagulls and a giant robot (which I was terrified of), there were also beautiful butterflies wandering around and I felt like we had walked through the looking glass and into a Lewis Carroll creation.

The Grand Opening

We assembled in the vestibule of the new Ocean hotel where the dignitaries sat awaiting the opening speeches.

And our noisy children were entertained by a Red Coat who tried to keep them as quiet as possible throughout the proceedings.

We all moved into the new restaurant to enjoy a buffet lunch.

The Hotel

This is where it gets quite abstract and I was quite taken with a few things. These glass lights really reminded me of the restaurant at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas – but obviously on a smaller scale but I liked the reference whether it is intentional or not.

These mirror balls are also a fabulous touch. As is the disco lift which has flashing lights and plays music including the Bee Gees!

And these very Pop Art occasional sculptures, don’t they remind you of those Iced Gem biscuits?

The Rooms

I love staying in hotels and quite often if it is just the two of us, Miniminx and I have to share a bed which is not ideal. We did a tour of the hotel and were shown all the different rooms but it wasn’t until we were ready to go to bed that the true experience began.

Check this telly in the kids bedroom…so post modern it hurts. Miniminx was entranced by the lighting so it became more an objet d’art and the telly stayed off!

There were two single beds in the kids room, which by the way has no door but is tucked away neatly. Above each bed were these great images with more than a nod to Lichtenstein.

We both slept very well and I loved my bed – very high, lots of plump non feather pillows and the furnishings were pretty cool. I managed to get online which was a big tick in the box as I was posting from the event and sat out on the balcony which overlooked the fountains outside the hotel and the sea.

After a great sleep, we were keen to go and have another look around. Breakfast was great and the restaurant staff, as all Butlins staff are, were enthusiastic and eager to please.

Thanks to everyone at Butlins for inviting us along for this experience, I appreciate all the hard effort and work they put in to make this event happen and I know it has been a long time in the planning.

When we checked out on Wednesday, the place was really open for business and as I was chatting to the staff on reception, I spotted a few people coming to check in. And that really is the main event – now the launch is out of the way, there are lots of people who are very keen to come and see the embodiment of the new Butlins Hotel – it’s bright, breezy and unashamedly bubbly.

I’ll be posting about the spa in a few days, so please come back to read more.

As for Andy Warhol, his Factory Studio was next to an Amusement Park so, I guess he’d feel right at home in Butlins.

So when the lovely Tara asked me for a photo for her profile on me, I thought, hang on a minute, I’m really happy to talk about my blog and parenting, so I sent her my mugshot.

And she has run a lovely article this month on mychild.co.uk.

Here it is and here I am too…

Thanks to mychild.co.uk for being such a great web site too, we need more of these please.

It’s not that I don’t get out much.

I’ve been all over the social-meeja-blogandbeer-scape this week and I’m also popping to Butlins for their Tweet Up in a couple of weeks. I just can’t get enough of it in fact!

What’s so amazing about all this stuff is there’s room for everyone and it’s not just powerful as a new media (think blogs/twitter/facebook/myspace et al) it’s really getting people together and empowering people to connect and share in new ways.

A few weeks ago I went to SMCLondon and was pretty gobsmacked. VioletPosy recommended it to me some time ago and I offered to guest blog. I met a lot of very cool people with a lot interesting things to say. In fact, I hadn’t felt such positive energy among a bunch of people for a long time. This reminded me of the early days of the dot com boom and it’s a totally invigorating feeling and anitdote to the credit crunch.

So this week, I hightailed to my old hometown; Shoreditch, and popped in to see Vanessa and Katie at The Sway event downstairs at The Great Eastern Dining Rooms. Oh heavens above, this was certainly one step close to career nirvana and an evening full of highjinx. I have fond memories of the venue, when it first opened I had lunch with a fashionista friend and we drooled at Isabella Blow who was dining delicately in the corner, and dressed exquisitely.

The Sway brings a touch of Sex and the City to blogging – I kid you not, it was a very glamorous evening and lots of amazing people there too – the chicks who click are hipsters. My Armani jacket (it’s out of the wasdrobe again!!) and killer heels certainly got a run for their money. I was quite taken with Deluxe – a site I think a lot of you out there probably know already, and if not should check out. There was also a free bar and some lovely canapes provided by the sponsor Skimlinks and I was impressed with the company’s slick social networking products which I hope to look into more.

On the same night, there was the London Bloggers meet up at Shish! on Old Street – another flashback to days and nights gone I thought. As The Sway wrapped up, a few of us went to the Meet Up. It was a good crowd and sadly I’d missed the speaker. I got a chance to chat to all of the people there and had some very big laughs too. Andy who hosts it is great fun as are the other bloggers who I met.

It’s a good time to be a blogger!