Hi all,
We covered some good ground on Wed night at The Sapphire Lounge and we have some GOOD NEWS! Present were Robb, myself, Martin and a new recruit Keith aka DJMilsy. Dave popped in whenever he had a moment.
So news from Ableton is that they would like to have a launch event for the User Group
This may seem quite a big leap from talking shop over a few beers, but I think over all it's heading in the kind of direction most of us had in mind to begin with. What the Launch Event means in reality is that, Ableton along with Martin's guidance are now looking for a venue etc to put on an event which will announce the London User Group to the world.
As you can imagine this took up most of the rest of the evenings discussion.
Ableton's side:
I guess overall Ableton want to show people that there are a whole bunch of Ableton nuts in London and that the program is popular here, which undoubtedly it is and yet no one has formed a User Group until now, or at least one which Ableton felt it could support.
They would like us therefore to broaden our mailing list and get more people involved in our events, obviously the launch event being their primary concern.
They are also concerned about look and feel and want to make sure the performance and demo quality at the event is of a high standard, so I think, with Martin's assistance, they will carefully select who gets to perform or lead sessions and will hopefully find someone of some celebrity status to represent.
Ableton have also said they would provide some give away merchandise, but what that will be we don't know yet.
In the meantime we have requested that they send us the UG logo artwork so we can set up the Myspace page etc.
Our side:
All though this is very exciting news it brought up all sorts of issues, like what we want the User Group to be about and why we would want a bigger mailing list etc. SO
I think the first thing we discussed is that there are a variety of things we want to get out of being involved in the User Group and we summarized them like this:
DEMOS:
I think most of us would like the opportunity to learn from one another and from visiting facilitators/educators. Since Martin is connected with the music tech/Ableton education arena he is looking into some options for us to plug into ie venue etc.
However this should not deter us from getting together in the meantime if and when we feel the need and I would quite like to see if we can organise a meet up some time in mid-Jan.
PERFORMANCE:
To some degree this particular need has been met by Dave's Hidden Away Electronic evenings, which he described to me as being about 'getting Ableton Users out of their bedrooms and lounges and onto a stage'. (sorry Dave that's probably a total misquote!)
A broader mailing list would obviously be a huge bonus to getting people to the gigs and the UG pages could advertise any related events for those of us who are into performing with Live. Next Hidden Away Electronic is Wed27Jan and we'd like to get a good crowd there for that one.
COMMUNITY
This is just about retaining the spirit of talking shop over beers and meeting up with mates. I suggested that once the UG has gained a bit of momentum we throw ourselves a party too, but that can come in the future... And I'm sure we all have networks to plug into which would make this really happening events.
Also this is about supporting one another, making sure we are not creating a critical or cliquey environment and that all feel welcome to join in.
Support also comes in the form of attending meet ups, making suggestions online and spreading the word, so please feel free to do any these if you're already on the forum
It would be really great to get everyone from the forum onboard when it comes to actual events, whether performances or demos. We've had some really great Spphire Lounge meet ups and I'm sure the demo session will rock, so PLEASE COME ALONG!
Other ideas that came up:
A UG album release/download. Keith said he would look into hooking us up with a label at some point.
Alternating performance and demo formats each month.
Parties at different venues and tying in with Netaudio Festival
How many members do other UGs have?
Facebook/MySpace/Twitter/Reverbnation…etc…Robb talking about how to feed them all updates simultaneously
Keith to work on other forums to build up mailing list and divert to lug
How to set up Laptop Jams and 'drop in' sets with synced computers
So lots to think about and please chip in if you feel anything vital has been left out or you want to build on something that's been mentioned. With any luck we should soon have a venue to do some demo sessions and are looking for a launch event date in late feb.
If anyone has venue ideas for a mid Jan demo meet up, please suggest and don't forget Hidden Away on 27Jan.
Till then Live nuts!