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What’s On- August edition
Brett Winterford
Looking for something super fun to do this August? The gang from eXpertLocal have you covered!
Inspiration and Creativity:
Looking for some design inspiration and a bunch of free and cheap talks? Look no further than Sydney Design 2013.
Check out the first ever Live Design Night held at Salt, Meats, Cheese in Alexandria on the 1st of August.
Spring into some inspiring ideas with Trampoline Sydney on August 3rd.
Maybe find a new place to co-work with the various open house times at Hub Sydney.
Catch up with collaborative consumption and hear from eXpertLocal’s own marketing manager Rebekah Lambert at Social Media Women on August 13th.
Get your collaborative consumption on at the Green Villages ‘Share Sydney’ event, August 24th.
Treats for the ears:
Story telling song goodness
Ex-peregrine frontman Brett Winterford is known for his story telling lyrics. Enjoy the magic of a very tall man singing very delightful songs at Lizottes Dee Why on August 3rd or a secret show courtesy of Sofar Sounds on August 4th.
Sam Buckingham sings like a bird
She’s melted hearts, captured their tears and woven the songs a girl armed with a guitar who wanders the world should. Now she’s bringing her “I’m a Bird” tour all around the country. You can catch Sam Buckingham at the very intimate surrounds of warehouse Hibernian House. Book, else miss out for this 3rd of August show.
Jamtastic jamming festival in Marrickville
The Jamgrass Music Festival “On the Road” is at the Red Rattler in Marrickville on August 3rd. You should pack your dancing shoes, a funny grin and be prepared to hear 8 spunky little bands do their thing. Our pick is the Green Mohair Suits, but whoever you’re going to see, you’re bound to have a great time.
Comedy, original music and jamming
Looking for a mix of music, a lot of joy, a few laughs and a bunch of different kinds of music? Hit the Town Hall hotel in Newtown for a night of music and mayhem as Through a Glass Darkly launches their album. It’ll be a night to remember!
Get your dance on
Put on your blue suede shoes August 16th as retro dance party Twist and Shout pays tribute to Elvis. This cheap and very cheerful event happens once a month, usually at the Brighton Up Bar in Darlinghurst.
Musically, the hardest part of August may very well be who to see August 3rd!
Food and Drink Picks:
Whisky Live
Love your whisky? Then you need to hit Paddington 2nd and 3rd of August for the Whisky Live festival. Various venues for various little tipples, oh yeah!
Beer Baron
The Dove and Olive is doing some very wonderful things with beer, including a 4 course degustation based on beer matching August 9th and a Craft Beer Fight Club the first Wednesday of every month. Brewtastic!
Sutherland is hosting a lovely little community coffee festival in Peace Park, August 25th called “Coffee @ Peace” and sample coffee, food and entertainment with the whole family.
Plus we’ve got a bunch of exciting eXpertLocal activities including:
Aug 2nd taking a coastal walking tour
Aug 5th trying same sex swing dancing
Aug 6th Your own personal chef for Interactive Dining
Aug 7th tasting the wonder of Blue Ducks with the Bronte Diners Club
Aug 7th eating your way through Chinatown
Aug 8th uncovering the Redfern Small Bar Scene
Aug 10th kicking off our search for Sydney’s best watering hole in Newtown
Aug 14th continuing the search for the best iced coffee in Clovelly
Aug 17th searching for the best beer watering hole in Surry Hills
Aug 17th having some puppy time with the Doggy Park Playdate in Waverley
Aug 24th discovering new arty places and exhibitions with The Art Crawl
Aug 24th exploring the seaside village of Bronte
Aug 31st shopping til you drop at the Newtown Shop-a-thon
Is that enough for you? What else would you like to see at eXpertLocal?
Student call out for eBook
Students- have your voice heard!
Sydney, you are first taxi off the rank- so UNSW, Sydney Uni, UTS, UWS and Macquarie Uni, grab your pencils and pay attention!
Are you a uni student? Do you know the cool ins and outs of campus life and beyond? Or do you wish someone had snuffled out that information for you? Either way, we want to hear from you!
eXpertLocal are putting together information on cool stuff to do with uni life, and we want your input. From the questions you still have to the fun you are having right now, we want you to share info with us.
We’d love to hear about…
- Your top picks for places to go on and off campus
- The groups, clubs and extracurricular activities that totally rock at your uni
- What you do to stretch your dollar further life and entertainment wise
- The blogs you read, like and admire
- What super cool things and places to see you’ve discovered in Sydney
- Local lingo that would help an International student get in the swing of things
- Where you get social, fit and party
- Study tips, great tutors or awesome places to get into the study time zen
- Anything you think a new student would love to know!
You are welcome to promote your sporting clubs, student union activities, upcoming events, gigs and more too!
What we want to create is an awesome student guide that has personality, fun and a little bit of attitude, coupled with a real insider look into life on campus!
To make a submission, send us:
- A 50 to 75 word description of your student life pick
- Any relevant links (such as web, social or email address) for further information
- A relevant photo (less than 1MB in size)
This is free promotion for what you believe in, what helped you adjust to campus life, and a chance to give back to the groups, businesses, people and clubs that make your uni time so much more fun.
So what are you waiting for? Send your submissions to support@expertlocal.com today!
Student leaflet droppers required
Are you attending UTS, UNSW, Macquarie or Sydney University? Do you know all the places students hang on and around campus? Are you sociable? Do you like to get out and about? Then we need you!
New startup eXpertLocal (www.expertlocal.com) is looking for uni students to do some leaflet drops in and around your university area. We’re also looking for interesting ideas on how to catch the eye of your fellow students.
What we do:
www.expertlocal.com is an online platform where people just like you list their very own tours and experiences for like minded people to join. You can organise nights out on the town, walking trails, bar crawls, get a group together for a restaurant experience, show tourists and fellow students your version of Sydney and more- all while making money and working the hours that suit you. You design the tours, other members of eXpertLocal sign up and away you go!
The role:
We’d like to reach out to students who would be willing to run tours. Considering how many international and regional students are new to Sydney and don’t know about the food, culture and arts scene- or the cool places to keep fit and make friends, we figure asking other students to run tours is a pretty good idea.
What we need are students who are familiar with the campus and local student hang outs around the campus to drop leaflets in the first instance. We may also ask you to participate in a focus group to find out where we can reach out to students as future tour guides and to go on tours. You are also more than welcome to set up a tour and try it out for yourself.
About you:
You need to be interested in extracurricular activities and/or have a passion for going out and about in Sydney. You are personable, love a good conversation and not afraid of a bit of walking. You will know the places it is appropriate to leave leaflets in and around your campus, and are reliable.
Pay:
We’re looking at 1 or 2 people available for 4 hours to drop leaflets at each campus. You’ll also need to allocate half an hour to an interview to see if you are the right fit. The pay is $80 for the 4 hours (so $20 for the hour). You don’t need experience, just the right attitude.
Sound like you? Pop us a short email to pioneer@expertlocal.com and tell us why you think running student tours would be a great idea, and a bit about what you like to do in your spare time! Yep, no boring CV or cover letter- it’s all about you!
Applications close March 25th 2013.
To find out more, head to www.expertlocal.com/join-us
Sydney Music Scene: What can be done?
Rocking out at the Annandale Hotel
Those of us that love the Sydney music scene are often on tender hooks when another closure or some bad news is announced. The news of the Annandale Hotel going into receivership is no exception. We’ve been hit hard by the closure of the Hoey, the Excelsior and now one of the last remaining stalwarts of rock’s fate hangs in the hands of a bank, a buyer and the council.
So what can we do?
It’s been said a million times before but- the best thing you can do for the Sydney music scene is get out there and see some live music. This is particularly important if you like the rock and heavier stuff because it is getting harder and harder to find the places where the local scene can belt out a few tunes without worrying about the neighbours.
Why should we expect businesses to run on the smell of an oily rag because we want them in theory but not actually front up and see some music, putting our money where our mouths are?
The bottom line is- if you want metal, prog, heavy rock, indie rock, blues rock and all that kind of stuff, you need to get out and see more gigs.
At eXpertLocal, we believe the music scene is important and we want to support it.
We know what the pain points are. Going to gigs and ending up seeing not so good bands, going alone being a pretty ordinary experience and even whether or not it is raining really affects if people go to gigs in this city.
But what if… you could hang out with someone who knew their gigs, have a laugh and share a beer with them and know you’d have a good time?
What if you could make friends with other people who dig the same kind of music rather than stand alone?
What if it didn’t matter if it rained because you knew the evening would be worth the soggy jeans or playing “pain the tail on the taxi”?
We’ve got a theory that if we got the people who were passionate about seeing live music running tours, selecting the right bands and organising people properly, we could demonstrate that Sydney’s live music scene is healthier than ever- and make it stronger.
That’s why we want to trial this theory with recruiting hosts to show other punters their version of the Sydney live music scene. As a host, you choose the gigs, make use of eXpertLocal to promote them, get the group together and can charge a small booking fee for the privilege.
If you know the good bands to see in any kind of music, we’re calling on you to share it with other people. You can go to the gigs you want, as often as you like, with other gig pigs learning what’s cool from you.
This is the perfect fit for anyone who is already running their own music review blog or writing for street press about the scene- or if you are going out to see music regularly anyway and wouldn’t mind meeting some new mates as you do it. You can take that to a new level by booking your own tours through us at the same time as getting known as someone who actually gives a crap and goes to see bands on a regular basis.
So what have you got to lose? If you want the Sydney Music Scene to survive, group up, get involved and go see some live music!
Create your tour and let’s get this happening.
Why collaborative consumption?
Collaborative consumption (or the sharing economy as it is also sometimes known) is a movement born out of growing concerns for the environment and the increasingly worrying financial situation brought on by the GFC.
The idea behind it is to share what we own with other people in the community, whether that is a drill, the housecleaning, a room of our house or in eXpertLocal‘s case, knowledge and experience.
Of course this is not a new concept. Borrowing things off friends, housemates sharing chores or kipping on someone else’s couch are nothing special. Nor is barter, getting someone else in to clean your gutters, bringing people together to prepare batch meals or having a mate show you around when you arrive in town.
But collaborative consumption is significantly different to these grass roots actions. Here’s why:
- It’s a shift in thinking away from simply just thinking about what we need at a particular time and either spending money on it or missing out. We know there are too many ‘things’ in the world we don’t use to the best advantage, and so growing number of people are finding special ways to reduce the impact of our wasteful ways through sharing.
- The Business Model is stronger. We grew up with second hand stores and hand me downs, pitching in at our various community groups and schools and so on, but with collaborative consumption, we’re taking those commercial elements and mixing it with charitable thinking and declaring it’s OK for the two to meet. We’ve come to understand that the best way to create something sustainable and have it for the long term is for it to be self funding as opposed to asking for donations. And it’s working.
- It’s seen as socially acceptable behaviour. Wearing the 2nd hand uniform at school was not a point of pride 20 years ago. Negative words and nicknames like “tightarse” were used to talk about anyone who didn’t want to splash their cash about. Now being a status orientated, conspicuous consumer is really, really uncool. We see evidence of the harm we’ve done to the planet with our greed. So making the most out of things, whether that’s through sharing, recycling, upcycling or reducing what we consume, is not only smarter, it’s cooler too.
- Community is more important than ever. We’ve realised looking after each other and having people in our lives (rather than things or money) is much more fulfilling. We know it helps our health and wellbeing overall. So collaborative consumption is another way of bringing people together.
eXpertLocal fits these criteria and more.
The main motivation behind eXpertLocal is to bring people together and remove the sense of alienation we feel by connecting us for all kinds of experiences.
We want to empower our members to create the kinds of activities they enjoy doing and make friends through sharing them with someone new. Of course we want to cover our labour costs and have money in the kitty to expand, but this isn’t the sole driver of what we do. We’re also still playing with where the revenue will come from because we’re keen to run free activities too.
eXpertLocal creates a vibe where any one of us can be an ‘expert’. If you speak several languages fluently, you can be a tour guide to show newcomers to Australia (whether they are tourist or International student) around the place. If you love food and fine dining, you can show other people your favourite places to grab a meal. If you’re a dojo that offers trials to new members or special events, you are more than welcome to promote your offerings on eXpertLocal. We’re all good or passionate about something, so why not share it?
While collaborative consumption might have been born out of problematic times where money was tight, the environment looked in trouble and jobs were on the line, the lessons it brings are true no matter what the circumstances. Making change, being sustainable, acting smarter and connecting are all wonderful things.
So why not join us?
To find out more about collaborative consumption in Australia, check out the A to Z of Australian Collaborative Consumption.
To find out more about eXpertLocal and what we offer, check out our latest experiences.
