Facing phobias

Facing phobias

As a writer of sorts by trade, you would expect that when faced with the chance of writing an entry for the new team blog, I would willingly jump at the opportunity, but for weeks, perhaps even months now, I have only got as far as promising to pen my first contribution. However, after way too much procrastination and some recent fun times at work I have finally succumbed to the task and am ready to share my ramblings…

Over the last couple of years there have been a number of changes across the University including some right here on our very own Communications’ doorstep. We have seen new management come; Vice-Chancellors go and changes to our own team leadership. All of these factors have influenced and changed the way in which our team works with one another and with colleagues across Leeds Met.

Having previously worked in broadcasting and for mobile phone operator Orange, I think it would be fair to say that Cris Neill, who joined us in March 2008 and who, earlier this year, became my direct line manager, comes from a reasonably technologically advanced working background. Since joining the C514/3 Massive (aka the Leeds Met News & Media team) Cris has thus helped drive the University website forward and steer us into some 21st century ways of working.

I on the other hand am a little more old school and can sometimes initially be a little fearful of change. Thanks to some gentle persuasion from Cris and my fellow colleagues though, and of course not wanting to get left behind, I have recently started to warm to the world of multimedia…and guess what…I’m actually really enjoying using it!

With the launch of the new website (now just over one year young), we have adapted to using Red Dot software in addition to Dreamweaver; have launched the Leeds Met YouTube Channel, which only last month became the most viewed European education channel on the site; started the Leeds Met Facebook fan page, currently boasting over 750 fans with that number steadily growing every day; joined the Twitter community, which we regularly use to ‘tweet’ updates from our Super Sport Wednesdays; but perhaps most exciting for me, we have introduced the new features section and podcasts to our website.

The features section, what I like to think of as being ‘my baby’, has been running fairly sporadically since earlier this year and focuses on slightly more quirky stories from around Leeds Met, offering a more in-depth look into the lives of people and events taking place across the University. Some of the subjects covered so far have included superhero abseils, synchronised diving twins, working in Hollywood and ghostly goings-on at our very own Headingley Campus! I already have a number of ideas laid out for the coming months, such as campus wildlife (and no I’m not referring to the recreational activities of our students and staff), in their shoes - a day in the life of the portering and mail room team, meet the deans, wellbeing at work and the green scene of Leeds Met, to name but a few, but I am always on the look out for more student and staff stories…cue my plug for stories at the end of this blog!
In the meantime though, back to my musings…

I have to admit I was a bit of a technophobe at first; the thought of approaching students and staff with a microphone and hand-held sound recording box-type-thing filled me with dread, but I soon got used to the idea and now am only too happy to dash down to the Library and hire the said equipment ready to get out and about meeting people and finding out about life around the University.

Although I still hate getting up in a morning, I actually get quite excited about coming into work now…not that I didn’t enjoy it before mind, but I do really genuinely enjoy it these days. I used to come in to the office, put the radio on and sit at my desk for much of the day. Nowadays I’m out and about meeting people regularly and when I am in the office, as well as catching Ken Bruce’s unmissable Popmaster on Radio2 every morning, I can often be seen with my headphones on happily editing and playing around with various sound files or quietly concentrating on writing my latest feature…which I suspect comes as a great relief to many of my colleagues knowing that it’ll keep the peace for that little bit longer in the day!

So here comes the plugging part…if you have a story, or know of someone who has who would be willing to be ‘featured’ on the web please don’t hesitate to drop me a line on 0113 812 6735 or email me at B.hallam@leedsmet.ac.uk.

Beth Hallam