Thanks for all the nice comments about my first blog last week. I hope you find this week’s and all the subsequent posts as entertaining and informative.

People keep asking me why I’m organising a Community Media Hub for both parts of the 2012 Games in London and what exactly it is.

It’s very simple and deliberately so. I will sit with a laptop and iphone at a table in the Phoenix while utilising their free wifi. Then, invite people to join in and see what happens. The Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre has been built and cost a great deal of money. It’s there to be used so why not develop a project that allows the building to showcase all its cutting edge services and act as a platform for local people to capture their personal experiences around the games?

The Community Media Hub planned for Sky Ride Leicester’s mass participation cycle ride on August 29th this summer will be staffed by over 40 ‘Citizen Reporter’ volunteers. Each one of them motivated by the need to record every aspect of the day and provide an online live community news feed by using mobile phones, digital cameras and flip cams.

We still have the opportunity of another Sky Ride in 2011, several Community Media Days and for the first time this November – Community Media Week. This gives a chance for all community groups across the city and county to come together and shout, very loudly, about everything that’s important to them.

Therefore, the opportunity to volunteer during both the Olympics and Paralympics is the icing on the cake. The big global showcase shines the light on London and gives us a chance to shout about what the diverse communities get up to in Leicester. It’s just too good an opportunity to miss. The news is full of ‘The Big Society’ at the moment and provides us with the means to show what we all do as being relevant to central government. A social franchise model possibly?

The people that really need to sit up and take notice are the city and county councils. Too much funding has been squandered on community groups that waste money on projects that are clearly not needed, or are delivered inappropriately. We all know who these groups are but they somehow get away with it. It is now time to listen. There is no money anymore so let’s all pull together.

There is still time to register for the Sky Ride Leicester event and the local media team are working hard to get more new cyclists involved from as many communities as possible. The anticipated turnout is about 15,000 and represents one of the largest mass participation events organised during the year. It will be a fun day with lots of activities to take part in as well as the cycling. The full route will be published soon. It takes in some of the city’s old and new iconic buildings and the ride over Belgrave flyover has to be one of the things I’m most looking forward to.

If cycling is not your thing, why not take the chance to see the city traffic free and support those taking a leisurely ride or raising sponsorship for their chosen charity? Abbey Park, the Space Centre and Abbey Pumping Station will be open for people that day, so please take a look. The Phoenix will play host to the Community Media Hub and will be an interesting place to park up and have a look. We are planning some free bike film showings throughout the day so you can use the bike park and take a break. You can have your photograph taken, do a filmed interview for YouTube, or give us a comment that we can send out around the world. Our message – Leicester was open for people!

This year we have combined two events and from Friday 27th to Monday 30th August, the 8th Ride Leicester Bike Film Festival will be taking place at the Phoenix. Please pick up their latest August programme for details of the films being screened and timings. The launch event takes place on Thursday 26th in the evening and live entertainment is being provided by the Slowdown Boys. It will be a great event so check out the website www.bikefilmfestival.org for more details.

If you fancy yourself as a Citizen Reporter, why not drop in at one of the Community News Café sessions we run every Tuesday in partnership with Kona Blue Coffees in the Highcross? They take place from 9.30am until 10.30am and again in the evening from 6pm to 7.30pm.

Finally, everyone thinks it’s funny to now ask me how long to the 2012 Games, just to see if I know. So, here goes…the Olympics is 736 days and the Paralympics 769 days away. Not long at all!

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