I had to recite some Rabbie Burns in Russian at a Burns Supper on Sunday night.

Mark Pentleton, of Radio Lingua Network helped me enormously by not only translating 'Red, Red Rose' for me, but recording a guide track in Russian for me to rehearse to.

It has to be said, Mark and I had our work cut out.

Hardly any time to rehearse, my native tongue isn't even English, (it's Yorkshire), and it's 40 years since I was kicked out of Russian class at school.

I hope my mangling of the Russian language (and indeed Burns') will be forgiven.

Not least by Mark, who in spite of being a great teacher, took on a pupil on this occasion who truly was a lost cause.

I had a very pleasurable day yesterday working with, (and it has to be said, learning from), half a dozen key players from some of Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland's top creative businesses.

So take a bow, a curtsy and plaudits:

(Incidentally; Why 2 links per delegate above? First to Twitter, second to website. I am delighted to report that to a man, and woman, everyone in the room had a Twitter account. Do yourself a favour, follow them now.)

Entrepreneurs all, I met the aforementioned luminaries at a day long social media workshop I facilitated in the BBC's impressive Pacific Quay building.

A terribly nice, but scarily smart bunch, the the day was a blend of me pontificating (as usual), about social media, flurries of tough questions, (with occasional soft answers), a large chunk of hands on keyboard engagement with essential social media tools, all wrapped up my the usual over-the-top evangelism and exhortation to get socially stuck in.

The day was part of the year long Cross Creative project, formulated and hosted by TRCMedia, a Glasgow based, and beautifully proportioned, provider of industry-wide training and development for business leaders. 

Their mission is to help delegates make sense of the latest business and technology trends, and how they might respond to new challenges in this era of revolution and reinvention.

(Oh, and, before I go any further, I must also give a huge and significant thank you to Cross Creative Project Manager; Carole Dunlop, for some terrific organisation, for keeping me on track and on brief, and for being totally unflappable.)

During the groups Q&A sessions, we covered such topics as:  How can busy execs find time to engage with appropriate social media channels, how does one separate of person and professional involvement, the distinctions between social media as a productivity tool, and it has to be said, productivity inhibitor, what's the big deal about Twitter, the importance of aggregation with 'search+share', and we even found time to explore the use social tools to find the best haggis in Glasgow. (Joel was on a mission here, with Burns Night looming.)

The team also grilled Damien about ISO's ambitious and fascinating 4ip funded Central Station project. (He was as forthcoming as possible, but understandably wasn't able to give us the full skinny.)

And we discussed the groups upcoming March visit to Silicon Valley to meet with many of the web's great and the good. Including, I must report with not a little envy, appointments at Facebook and Google.

We rounded the day off with a Social Media quiz, shamelessly repackaged fro the previous weeks Edinburgh Coffee Morn birthday celebrations.

All in all a sometimes grueling, sometimes challenging, but always stimulating day.

Would I do it again? Like a shot.

Would I do it again some time soon?

I think I need a bit of a lie-down first.

Till about August.

Flickr set from workshop here:

Last Friday saw the 2nd Anniversary, and so, not co-incidentally the 2nd birthday party of the Edinburgh Coffee Morn.

We celebrated this auspicious event, with a Quiz at Centotre for the great and the good of the city's Social Media Community.

And what a turn out it was, a veritable who's who of bloggers, blaggers, and twittering classes. Web developers, digital agencies, search, mobile, start ups, entrepreneurs, film-makers, writers, community managers, commissioning editors, educationalists, slackers, hangers-on and reprobates were all not only wholesomely represented, but wholeheartedly welcome.

With, in all, well over 30 hardy souls turning up for the bright-lights and cameras at our usual Scottish Presbyterian 0800 start. (Flickr set here.)

7 teams did battle, and wrestled with over 40 fiendishly difficult social media questions.

A damn close run thing, the eventual winners were Nev, Fraser, Jim and Jamie. (A boy-band in the making if ever I saw one.)

Prizes for the winners, appropriately enough, were scented candles, fragrant bath salts plus other sensual goodies from Juliet's Little Dishy collection.

The winners also recieved signed copies of Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom and The Stories or FaceBook, YouTube and MySpace. (Signed by me, not the author, I hasten to add ;-)

Footnote, Jamie was last seen legging it down the road at 09:45 am, with a magnum of Prosecco under his arm. Destination and motive unknown.

A couple of months ago, I blogged about the vodafoneliveguy project created by Dare for (not unsurprisingly, er), vodafone.

If you don't know the back-story, vodafone demonstrated the go-anywhere, super-portable aspects of the Dell Mini 9 Netbook by sending a chap called 'vodafoneliveguy' out and about to 11 cities across the UK.

Anybody in these cities who sussed out where he was, deduced from clues left in real time online via Twitter, YouTube, his blog etc, could win a Netbook by tracking him down and challenging him f2f.

I was determined to be the first person in the UK to track him down, as he kicked off his nationwide tour in Edinburgh.

How did I get to him first?

I cheated of course.

Sending him a DM via Twitter inviting him for a coffee at Edinburgh's Social Media HQ; Centotre.

Incidentally, I also excluded myself from winning a Netbook, I hasten to add, as I wasn't playing by the rules. (Nothing new there then. Ed.)

He sportingly turned up for a chat, along with Alastair from Dare who was riding shotgun for vodafoneliveguy throughout the trip.

And what a good chat it was, I was particularly interested in the marketing strategy, the planning and creative that had gone into the project, how many in the team on the road and back at base, etc. (Full credits here.)

I also shared a few names of pals in other cities who might give them 'social support' in spreading the word, if needed. (Shout out here to @ewanmcintosh, @realfreshtv, @martinsfp, @JohnBradford.)

Once vflg had hit the road to other cities I tracked, searched, shared, blogged and tweeted the story; for a couple of reasons:

1. To support the cause, I really did buy into the idea. (Altruism.)
2: I thought at the end of it, there might be some recognition of my contribution from a brand to a blogger. (Self-Interest-ism.)

And guess what?

Over Christmas, I got a call from Dare asking me what my house address was.

They wanted to thank me for the support during the campaign and were sending me a Netbook.

"Wooooo, Flippin' Hooooo!"

(I know this is geekily sad in the extreme, but I couldn't resist doing a flickr unboxing set.)

Arriving all gleamy, shiny and new early in the New Year, I couldn't believe my luck, (or, if you will and that's the way your mind works; my Machiavellian genius.) .

Result.

(Incidentally, over the course of the campaign, I also got a massive spike in traffic to my blog, and more than a fair few new Twitter followers. = Result. + Result. Even had there been no Netbook swag in the pipeline.)

So what do I think about the Netbook, having given it a fairly rigorous work-out in the 10 days since first opening the lid?

(Full and frank disclosure: I am a Mac nut.)

Well, it it's small and hellish portable that's true. Very light, runs windows XP, has Bluetooth, wi-fi and of course the built-in vodafone mobile broadband.

How have I used it? Well, I've pretty much taken it everywhere, giving my MacBook Pro a rest for a while.

I was out shooting some digital stuff yesterday, hooking my camera up to the Netbook to get the shots online.

A few recent train journeys where considerably enhanced by having the NB to hand.

It even fits in the back of my cycle jersey to check Google maps, (and tweet of course), while out riding my bike. (Mainly there though for posing points/bragging rights with other roadies.)

It's dinky size is also a heck of a conversation starter in wi-fi spots.

And in some ways, it's a more practical alt to my iPhone, which is my usual mobile internet device du jour.

For my size hands and erratic typing style, I did/do make quite a few typos when using the keyboard, but as in many areas of my life I do need to s-l-o-w down, and I'm sure my accuracy will improve.

The only real bad news for and from me, (and something that has nothing to do with the Dell hardware or vodafone's connectivity), is that, of course, this little puppy runs on Microsoft Windows.

Just a personal thing, if you are cool with the Microsoft OS, and software, (as over 90% of the planet is, I hasten to add), no problem.

But me, I'm a Mac I'm afraid.

And find XP, er, wanting.

However even this is no biggie, as I tend to run most of my online life via the cloud, so once the browsers up and running, (I installed FireFox), I'm a happy bunny.

Then the only thing to remind me it's a windows bit of kit is that I keep forgetting where the @ symbol is on the keyboard.

So overall, does the Netbook float my boat: Definitely.

Would I pay my own money to have one: Very probably.

Did I actually pay for this one: No.

Fitting perfectly between my mobile phone, and 15" laptop, it's a heck of a handy addition to my Social Media armoury.

So thank you Vodafone. And thank you Dare.

Here's the most up-to-date list of entrants to this Friday's Social Media Quiz at the Edinburgh Coffee Morn, Centotre, 103 George Street, Edinburgh:

(A glittering who's who, or simply who? of the Edinburgh Social Media scene.)

Hyperlinked to their twitter account:

Jon Mountjoy, Force.com
Juliet Wilson, littledishy
Phil Adams, Blonde
Geoff Ballinger , Mobile Acquity
Jamie Clague, Terinea
Dave Law, BigMouth Media
Andy Hyde,Independent Developer
Fraser Edwards, Affiliatemarketing
Jim Wolff, ki-work.com
Colin Gilchrist, DigitalFace
Ewan McIntosh, Channel 4
Andrew Burnett, Web Architect
Bill Coles, Author
Tim Maguire, Filmaker
Kirsten Campbell, Freelance Writer
Nev Stokes, Developer Nev?
Leanne Rinning, BigMouth Media
Darcie Condie, Thinker & Writer. A Texan Lassie.
Chris Welton, HotTinRoof
Andrew Hood, Lynchpin Web Analytics
Colin Hewitt, If Looks Could Kill
Dr Hazel Hall, Napier Uni

Please let me know by tweet, comment, DM, IM, or e if you're coming as a guest or contestant.

twitter.com/mikecoulter
 

To celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Edinburgh Coffee Morning we're having a bit of a do:

To boot: 'The Social Media Quiz of the Year'.

It will take place this Friday, January 16th, at usual at our techie, geeky, marketingy, social centre and home from home, Centotre, 103 George Street, Edinburgh.

Doors open at a somewhat Scottish Presbyterian 08:00 (yes that is a.m.), with competitors in place with fingers over buzzers for the first question by 08:15.

With the grand prize-giving, hugs, tears and acceptance speeches; 0900.

Friends old and new are welcome to come and compete or watch.

You can enter as a team of 4, or individually, and entry is free, however we will put the hat around to support Edinburgh Twestival and it's chosen charity.

Questions will be based on social media, web 2.0, knowledge of Channel 4's 4ip fund/38minutes, SEO, mobile tech etc. 

Questions will also cover the selected works of JR Tolkien, the history of t-shirts with ironic slogans, Pizza Hut menu options from memory, and the care and maintenance of those wardrobe essentials of Gap combat trousers and Vans skateboard shoes.

(Only joking about those last 4 subjects from Tolkien onwards, I just planted them to stimulate the interest of any web developers reading this.)

And, as I'm the only person at ECM to remember who Bambi Gascoigne (sp?) actually was, will be setting the questions and and giving a shambolic impression of a quiz-master.

As is the convention, points mean prizes, with the best team and best individual competitor picking up a little something donated by the fragrant and lovely littledishy collection of Coffee Morn regular Juliet.

Numbers are limited, and I need to let Centotre how many to expect on the day, so please let me know by e, sms, IM, comment or tweet, if you are competing, (or are just coming to watch), by Noon this Wednesday 14th.