The Preston Social is a monthly event in Preston, Lancashire, designed to bring together those interested in social and digital media from the local area to learn, teach and meet each other.

Similar events have become well established in both Birmingham and Manchester, and we feel that there’s no reason why we can’t do the same for Preston.

The city has a small but dedicated group of people involved in marketing, journalism, web development and online consultancy which makes for a vibrant and diverse series of meetups, talks and workshops. The Preston Social is a hub of learning and socialising for anyone passionate about the many uses of social media in the North West, encompassing Preston, Lancaster, Blackburn and beyond!

Our founding members are graphic designer Tom Stables, multimedia designer John Walker and co-editor of Blog Preston, Joseph Stashko.

The first Preston Social was held on February 15th at the New Continental, and the discussion focused around the growth of social media. You can read the event report here.

The second event took in geo-location, and a consisted of a discusion led by Josh R and Robert Hempsall. A write up is available here.

The third edition was a discussion based around privacy, openness and how public we are online. Leading the discussion was Tom Stables along with journalist and advocate of transparency, Daniel Bentley. You can read all about the event here.

We want this to be a community-run event, and that’s where we need your help. Have you found an innovative use of social media within your business, or on a personal level? Has social media helped get you a job, publish some work, or meet new friends? We’d love to hear from people who want to share their knowledge with the community to speak at future events, so get in touch.

You can find the Preston Social on Facebook and on Twitter.