
This bun’s been in Made Media’s oven for a while now but, as they say, slow bakin’ makes good eatin’. As well as showcasing The REP’s fantastic programme with visual impact this website features the full compliment of Web 2.0 must-haves:
- RSS feeds: Check!
- iCal Subscriptions: Check!
- Tags: Check!
- Flash Video: Check!
- Light-box Image Galleries: Check!
- Microformats: Check!
- Commenting: Check!
- Those little social-networking bookmark widgets: Check!
Huge thanks go to the wonderful marketing team at The Rep for having the right kind of vision, and for giving us enough time and support to deliver a website we’re really proud of.
And as if that’s not enough a meticulously re-designed ticket system is on its way shortly, courtesy of the technical geniuses at KB Group.

The New Generation Arts (NGA) Festival, organised by Birmingham City University, is a 16 day programme of innovative regional art shows to be held on the 5th-20th June in Birmingham. Go and check out the website we built for it.

Fed up with left-field arts organisations spending your hard-earned tax-payer’s money shipping over outrageous, avant-garde, Norwegian performance artists to take off their clothes on the streets of Birmingham?
We’re not!
But if you are, why not stop whinging and do something about it by programming your own Fierce Festival this year.
Created in collaboration with our friends at Fluid.
Argentina’s hottest dance show, Tango Fire, comes to Symphony Hall on Saturday 13 October. It sounds like quite an occasion but of particular interest to us is that this is the first event on the THSH website to feature a video of the performers in action. Rather than just read about the event why not watch a short preview of the performance?
One doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds one, but I’m sure I’m not the only one having a chuckle at this. I’ve whinged at people in the past about ‘Assist Fatigue’. Often only to discover later that they were actually ‘Assisting’ me at the time.
Via Created In Birmingham.
Thank god the Gaggia coffee machine is finally back from servicing. It’s like a new age of civilisation and optimism has dawned in the Made Media office. Gone are the dark ages of the £15 Tesco-special filter machine. The treacly, black liquid kept the new-media super-powers going but at the cost of frayed synapses and thousand-yard stares come home-time. A bit of European finesse is what we require of our morning cuppa. Normality is returning.
How long before the grinder packs in again?

We’ve just given Maverick TV an online facelift. Maverick are the hugely successful TV production company behind 10 Years Younger, How to Look Good Naked, and Embarassing Illnesses.
The new site features much more video, and all the info on Maverick’s burgeoning Digital Media department.
They’re using our CMS Backstage to take care of all the enhanced and improved content.


After hearing high praise from numerous sources over recent months, I finally had the opportunity to see The Destroyers play live this weekend and discover if they live up to the hype.
To categorize or pigeon-hole this multi-musician ensemble isn't so easy. However I'll make a ham-fisted attempt by describing their rawkus, energetic and relentlessly fun performance as a moravian-ooomp-pah, folk-punk wall-of-sound infused with an acid laced soul of Ennio Morriconi. No offence to anyone involved or to you more articulate and enlightened musos - it's meant in a complimentary fashion.
Festooned with a vast array of instruments (many of which I recognized) and some fantastically bizarre pointy hats The Destroyers provide an audio-visual assault on the senses which you can't help but both smile at whilst simultaneously jumping about to.
Good to briefly catch up with band member Dan O'connoll, formerly of Brum mates 3form who recently relocated to the big Smoke and has found himself at McCann London.
“Do I hear any more bids? Going once, going twice . . and sold to the generous person with the extremely large wallet”
A quick update to a previous post. We attended the Art Auction in support of Cure Leukeamia this week. It was a highly enjoyable evening, not to mention a tremendous succes, having raised over £10,000 for the Leukaemia centre at University Hospital Birmingham.
Thanks to all concerned for putting on such a fabulous event. I will begin saving now for next years event with a view to acquiring a future-masterpiece!

The response to Diarised has been fantastic and the feedback hugely positive. Looking at the stats we realised that our users are spread across the world so we decided to internationalise our little meeting application. The first language out of the door is Spanish but there's more to follow.
The Spanish translation (and some impressive guidance) was provided by David of www.tomisimo.org. He's written a small piece about the experience.
We’re also on the lookout for more translators. Want Diarised in your own language? Then why not step up and help us out. Just get in touch. The application itself is fully internationalised now so adding languages is, in the main, a question of just 'plugging them in'.
In the meantime, we've added a few new features in recent weeks. It is now possible to have Diarised automatically confirm your meeting for you if everyone can make a certain date. Just tick the box when you set up a meeting.
We’ve also added the opportunity to attach a note if you have to cancel a meeting for any reason.
Finally, we’ve added the facility for meeting creators to add additional dates as required - at any stage in the process.
Enjoy.