If anyone would like hi-res versions of any of the pics then please get in touch with Rosie…

Come Away In…

Getting Social…

Cupcake Nails & Yummy Coffee…

Cupcakes & Badges…

Cupcakes Galore…

The afternoon kicked off with a round the room introduction over a fine selection of coffees and teas in fun vintage crockery before our event sponsor, Rob from Carrobes IT took to the floor to do a very informative short talk on Business IT giving everyone some great hints and tips to take away. There was then some time for quality networking and yummy carrot cupcakes which seemed to go down very well! :)

The final part of the afternoon saw the group divided into four breakout groups to discuss and feed back on current social media topics, these were; Facebook competitions - Yes or no? LinkedIn Groups - Which ones to follow and why? Twitter Hashtags - Where/when to use them and good examples? Google+ - Is it worth joining and why? Some great ideas and pointers came back from the lively group discussions.

Rosie from Love Skye Photography was once again our fantastic event photographer and got super duper snap happy within the funky surroundings of Velocity! Photos from the event will be shared via the Facebook page and on here next week.

Due to the positive feedback we received from this event re the format, timing, venue and atmosphere we are going to look at getting another one set up with Velocity for sometime in May…

Velocity Loves Coffee, Cupcakes & Chat! - 19th April 2013 - Informal coffee & cupcake meet up to network & discuss social media - Velocity Café & Bicycle Workshop - £12.50 per person - Limited tickets! - http://velocitylovescupcakes.eventbrite.com

Highland Social BBQ Tour - 26th June 2013 - Fun Inverness walking tour with Gordon from WOW Scotland, BBQ & beer/wine, guest speaker & networking - Glen Mhor Hotel - £25 early bird (only available until 5th April) per person or £30 full price per person - http://socialbbqtour.eventbrite.com

Getting Social at Artysans - 7th August 2013 - Informal coffee & cupcake meet up to network & discuss social media - Artysans Cafe - £12.50 per person - Limited tickets! - http://socialartysans.eventbrite.com

Highland Social VI - Second main event of the year with a host of guest speakers, cocktails, canapés, cupcakes & lots of networking - Glen Mhor Hotel - £25 early bird (only available until 30th April) per person or £30 full price per person - http://hsocial6.eventbrite.com

Sponsorship opportunities are available for our main event in September at only £75 per business (including VAT) and can be booked at http://highlandsocial.co.uk/sponsorship

We are also looking for one main sponsor for our event on the 19th April at Velocity Cafe for only £50 (including VAT) and one main sponsor for our event on the 7th August at Artysans Cafe for only £50 (including VAT). Sponsorship for these events will include the opportunity to do a short talk on the day as well as a number of other benefits, please get in touch asap if you would be interested in taking up one of these opportunities.

Look forward to seeing you a Highland Social event sometime soon!

Throughout the evening we heard interesting talks from a varied selection of guest speakers and also had a fun marketing quiz from Eleanor and Louise at Dynam.

As usual the ‘social’ cupcakes went down a storm as did the fruity cocktails and the delicious canapés.

We are also pleased to announce that an amazing £185 was raised on the night for the Archie Foundation, our nominated charity.

Rosie from Love Skye Photography was once again our event photographer and captured some great pics from the evening. All images can now be viewed on our Facebook page. Thanks to Rosie for sparing the time to get involved.

Huge thanks to all our event sponsors and speakers and to main sponsor Dynam for their continued support at our main events. It was great to see such a varied selection of businesses in attendance on the night from right across the Highlands and we look forward to seeing you all at another event soon! :)

The line up for this event is the biggest one to date. Speakers for the night include Mary from Inverness Chamber of Commerce who will tell us how to make the most out of marketing, Eleanor & Louise from Dynam, Mairi from The Drawing Room who will tell us about how she uses social media for the shop, Rosie from Love Skye Photography who will talk about the importance of professional images for websites/social media and David from Open Brolly who will be telling us all about mobile websites and apps, wow it’s going to be some night!

As always the main sponsors for the event are Dynam and Snow Marketing but we have also got a number of event sponsors this time round who will be there on the night with display tables for everyone to look at. Event sponsors for this event are Jamie Tulloch Personal Training, The Drawing Room, ITP Training, Customised, Summit Web Solutions, Open Brolly and Love Skye Photography.

If you are coming along on the night then don’t forget to start using the hashtag #highlandsocial now to get involved with the event build up.

And just to get your tastebuds tingling in anticipation of next week here’s a great pic by Rosie from Love Skye Photography from the last main event…

The Highland Social V will take place on the 21st March 2013 at the Glen Mhor Hotel in Inverness with another great line up of cocktails, canapés, cupcakes, networking, great speakers and lots of social media discussions all done in relaxing and friendly surroundings.

As with previous events we have a special early bird discount available to those who book their tickets now and this time round we also have a great sponsorship early bird discount available too!

For more information on this event and to book your tickets click here.

Main event sponsor Inverness Chamber of Commerce, regular social media supporter AC Gliders and the multi-tasking Naomi from VA Velocity all pulled together to make sure everyone who came along had an exciting, fun and interesting day!

The day kicked off at The Kingsmills Hotel, Inverness with a surprise visit from Santa, gliding in on his rather fancy looking Segway and then everyone got their own chance to try out gliding in the ‘Eggway & Spoon’ race, set up by Daniel from AC Gliders. Whilst one group enjoying the refreshing and maybe slightly chilly air blowing through their hair outside the other group joined Andy from Inverness Chamber of Commerce in the warm comfort of The Kingsmills Hotel lounge for a bit of networking fun.

Following on from the initial group sessions everyone sat down to indulge in a delicious two course Christmas lunch and yummy mini cupcakes by Debbie from Cupcake Creations before showing off their creativity, imagination and presentation skills in the ‘Is Santa real?’ group challenge set by Daniel from AC Gliders and rounding off the day with a short social media quiz with rather challenging questions set by Michelle from Snow Marketing.

The whole group was broken down into four teams who throughout the day who battled it out to score points with the winning team going home with some great discount vouchers, freebies and sweets! :)

For this exciting event we have teamed up with Kingsmills Hotel, Boots N Paddles, AC Gliders, Inverness Chamber of Commerce and Jamie Tulloch Personal Training to bring you a day filled with activities, fun, quality networking, social media chat and great food!

For the activities/networking everyone will be divided up into 4 groups with 2 teams in each group and throughout the day each team will be able to accumulate points from the group sessions leaving us with one overall winning team and one team in second place with some great prizes on offer.

Early bird tickets are available but be quick and book in before the 23rd October!

BOOK NOW!

Our main sponsors for this event are Inverness Chamber of Commerce and Jamie Tulloch Personal Training.

View Highland Social IV images…

Unfortunately our main event sponsor Dynam couldn’t be there on the night but our additional sponsors Clockstudio, ITP Training, Tuminds Social Media and Landscapes 365 put on a great display for all attendees to peruse at their leisure whilst enjoying some ‘social’ cocktails, canapés and cupcakes.

The evening also saw great talks from Mary from Inverness Chamber of Commerce, Rosie from Landscapes 365 and Paula from Kingsmills Hotel, all of whom explained how they use social media for business and what they find works and doesn’t work. Michelle from Snow Marketing pointed out some useful items for attendees to consider for their own businesses including the addition of Twitter headers, the importance of mobile websites and making full use of Facebook Offers before opening up the floor for discussion.

The Archie Foundation were once again the nominated charity for the event and Allana and Katy from the charity came along to let us know all about the great work they have been doing recently along with holding a fantastic raffle. Between the raffle, the sponsored cupcakes and donations a fantastic £150 was raised for the charity on the night!

We are also pleased to have a number of other sponsors as listed below supporting this event and look forward to welcoming them and seeing what they have on offer for everyone on Thursday night!

Tuminds Social Media
Landscapes 365
Clockstudio
ITP Training

The line up for the event so far includes various sponsors from across the Highlands, the Archie Foundation on hand to raise funds for this very worthwhile charity with another great raffle, lots of delicious food and drink (including the famous ‘social’ cupcakes) and of course lots of social media discussions.

Come join is on Thursday 14th June 2012 for an evening of beer/cocktails, BBQ, famous ‘social’ cupcakes, lots of networking and of course lots of social media discussions, hints and tips.

Booking for the event closes tonight (13th June 2012) so make sure you get booked in now!

As always the cupcakes by Cupcake Creations Inverness were a huge hit and our last minute addition of sponsored logo cupcakes in aid of The Archie Foundation were also a great success raising an additional £30, making their overall total for funds raised on the evening £130!

A big thank you goes out to our main event sponsor Dynam for their continued support and their set up of the Twitter hashtag feed LCD screen on the evening. Thank you also to Kathryn from Lazy Daisy Glass, Clare from Clockstudio and Allana from The Archie Foundation for their great talks on the night on using social media for a wide range of purposes…just shows how flexible and useful social media can be!

It will allow you to keep up to date with all the latest event information and Dynam have got a fantastic Twitter feed set up for the hashtag which will be shown live throughout the evening tomorrow!

So get tweeting!!

#highlandsocial

- A table at Contrast, Inverness on the evening of the 22nd March 2012 to display, sell and promote your business. Includes space for a pop up banner.
- 1 ticket for admission to the Highland Social worth £15.
- Your logo (with web link) featured in the ‘Highland Social Sponsors’ area of the website as soon as the sponsorship fee is paid.
- Mentions via Highland Social Twitter and Facebook accounts leading up to and on the 22nd March 2012 for your business.
- Your logo included on the event programme for the evening.

If you would like more information on becoming a sponsor then please email michelle@snowmarketing.co.uk or to book your spot go to http://highlandsocial.co.uk/sponsorship

And don’t forget to get involved with the ‘social’ buzz on Twitter by using #highlandsocial in your tweets!

If you book by the 23rd February 2012 at http://hsocial3.eventbrite.co.uk you will get your tickets at the fantastic early bird rate of only £10 per person! Tickets purchased after that date will cost the normal £15 per person. Ticket price includes entry, cocktail, canapes and the famous ‘social’ cupcakes by Cupcake Creations Inverness!

The event will begin at 7pm at Contrast in Inverness and will be the ideal opportunity to catch up with fellow tweeps and find out how other businesses throughout the Highlands are making use of social media. More details will follow very soon but in the meantime make sure you get your tickets booked as places are limited.

Sponsorship opportunities are also available for this event priced at only £50 per business. It’s a great way for you to get more involved with the Highland Social and also showcase your business online and at the event.

As always our hashtag on Twitter for the event is #highlandsocial so get tweeting now and join in with all the banter…

Attendees caught up and chatted about the launch of Google+ business pages, using social media to promote events, the increased use of mobile devices to access social media platforms and websites, the success of a number of our attendees at the recent Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards and lots more.

The evening also saw the launch of the brand new Highland Social website and branding which was created by the team at Dynam in Inverness. The new website shares all the latest news and events and allows easy booking and the ability for attendees to become a sponsor of the next event…

The next #highlandsocial event is scheduled to take place on Thursday 22nd March 2012 at Contrast in Inverness. The evening will begin at 7pm and will see the return of the famous ‘social’ media cupcakes along with lots of discussions about the latest happenings on social media and presentations from a small number of businesses on how they are using social media. More information on the event can be found here

Sponsorship of this event is only £50 per business and can be taken any time between now and the event…although to get the most benefit out of it we would recommend getting involved soon! Visit our sponsorship page to find out more.

Hope to see you at the next event!

Fishcakes with mixed salad & sweet chilli sauce
OR
Pancetta wrapped chicken filled with apricot, thyme stuffing & served with a roasted shallot sauce
OR
Pumpkin, ricotta tortellini in a sundried tomato sauce with parmesan
OR
Roasted turkey breast with homemade stuffing & all the trimmings

We will also be getting a champagne cocktail on arrival with marinated olives and a glass of wine with dinner…all this for only £20 each!!!

If you haven’t registered yet then do it now...

Tickets are only £10 per person (at the Early Bird rate) and include a Highland cocktail, canapes created with seasonal local produce and the famous ‘social’ cupcakes by Cupcake Creations Inverness. Book your tickets now.

This is a great event for both Highland businesses already using social media as well as businesses interested in finding out more and getting some advice on where to start.

There will be a few small presentations throughout the evening from businesses using social media in different ways as well as open discussions and some hints and tips from the experts.

As the timing of this event is in the main run up to Christmas we have decided to make this a Christmas themed event and will almost act as our ‘office party’ for the Highland Social!

For more details of this event and to register just click here.

For those of you that don’t have tickets yet and would like to come along then don’t panic, there’s still a few left, just click on the link below and get yourself booked in…

The evening will kick off at 7pm in the Contrast Function Suite at the Glenmoriston Town House Hotel in Inverness, where you will have a chance to take a look around the sponsor’s (see right hand panel) stands whilst enjoying a wee Highland cocktail (included in the ticket price).

We are pleased to announce that The Archie Foundation is our choosen charity for this event and a couple of members from the team will be there to let you know all about the charity and will also have a fantastic raffle on offer, with all proceeds going to Archie.

Throughout the evening we will have a few short talks from businesses who are currently using social media, including Kathryn from Lazy Daisy Glass who will explain how they are using it and their feedback with Q&A’s opportunities as well as a short presentation from us on what’s the latest news on social media.

For those of you who attended the first Highland Social event will be pleased to here that both the delicious Highland canapés by Contrast and the yummy social media cupcakes by Cupcake Creations Inverness will be making a comeback!

And finally, the most important part of the evening is the chance to meet fellow tweeps and network!

We look forward to seeing you all then and remember, don’t forget your smart phones…

Hashtag for the event is #highlandsocial so get tweeting!

Michelle & Rene

Venue for this Highland Social II is again Contrast in Inverness. Don’t miss this great opportunity to meet fellow tweeters live in a relaxing and social environment to share ideas and experiences and have fun!

Tickets are £10 per head and includes a welcome drink and again a scrumptious buffet. Also back are the delicious cup cakes made by Cupcake Creations!

Make sure you don’t miss the special Early Bird rate of only £10 p.p.

New this year is the opportunity for Highland Businesses to sponsor this event. We have put together the following sponsorship package to allow local businesses to get more involved with the Highland Social.

Sponsorship of the Highland Social includes:

• A table/stand at Contrast, Inverness on the evening of 22nd September 2011 to display and sell your products from and space for a pop up banner
• 1 ticket for admission to the Highland Social
• Your logo (with web link) featured in the ‘Sponsors’ area of http://highlandsocial.wordpress.com
• Mentions via Highland Social Twitter and Facebook accounts leading up to and on the 22nd September 2011 of your business

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for only £50 then please email to confirm sponsorship and arrange payment.

You will be welcomed by Robbie the Piper and once in you will receive your free cocktail! You will have the choice of a Whisky Sour, Drambuie Sour & Glayva Sour but there will also be non-alcoholic versions available for designated drivers.

Contrast will be serving up a delicious selection of Highland canapés created with local produce and if that isn’t enough, there will be a ‘social’ cupcake display created by Debbie at Cupcake Creations!

Jock of Macbeths the butchers will be there to share his experiences on using social media for his business and how it helped him gaining new customers.

Make sure you book your tickets here as we don’t have facilities to except payment on the evening and take your confirmation and smart phone with you!

The Glenmoriston Hotel have given us a fantastic room deal of £75 per double B&B for the night of the Highland Social…call them on 01463 223777 and quote ‘highland social’ to receive the special rate!

Hashtag for the event is #highlandsocial

Speak soon!
Michelle and Rene

This event has been set up by Rene Looper of TuMinds and Michelle Russell of Snow Marketing to allow businesses from across the Highlands to meet up ‘socially’ and share their experiences and stories of using social media for businesses.

The evening will be finished off with an introduction to the future of social media!

Contrast Function Suite in Inverness is the perfect setting for the evening with a Highland ‘twist’ running throughout!

For more news follow Twitter
See who else is coming on Facebook

Hope to see you there!