GROUPS TO SHOWCASE WORK AT CITY MARKET

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Groups to showcase work at city market

Wheelchair basketball players, sci-fi fans and charity workers will be among those taking over Leicester Market tomorrow.

Up to 100 charities, community groups, societies and clubs are set to showcase their work and activities at the second Our Leicester Day.

It is hoped the event, founded by businessman and charity worker Richard Brucciani, will be bigger and better than last year's debut event.

Mr Brucciani, chairman of hygiene products manufacturer Pal International, said: "We're all looking forward to the return of Our Leicester Day and, luckily, the weather should be a bit better for us this time around.

"There will be a range of activities happening, with all the different organisations showcasing what they've got to offer and, hopefully, it will be even better than last year.

"There will be a performance area this year where budding young pop stars, drama groups and street dancers will perform.

"The Leicester Cobras Wheelchair Basketball team are also going to make an appearance, which is very topical with the Paralympics taking place."

Having secured a £2,000 grant from the RSA charity to stage the event last year, Mr Brucciani has managed to persuade them to hand over £5,000 this time around.

Not all of the money will be spent tomorrow, though, as Mr Brucciani plans to use it for further events.

Rob Hunter, of Dads' United, a resource group for fathers, said: "It was a great day last year working alongside some good men and we all learnt a lot.

"We are aiming to raise the profile of our organisations and hopefully recruit some new members.

"After the terrible windy conditions that we experienced last year, it's nice to see that the weather forecast looks pretty good."

John Coster, managing editor of Citizen's Eye, a community news agency, and one of the event organisers, said: "We're in charge of the filming, photography and social networking and it will certainly be bigger and better than last year."

Other organisations taking part include Leicester Civic Society, Chill Enterprises, Leicester Charity Link and Starbase Leicester, a group for sci-fi and fantasy fans.

Our Leicester Day will take place from 11am to 3pm tomorrow.

For more information about the event, visit: www.leicesterday.org.uk

CREATIVECOFFEE CLUB, 22 JUNE 2011

At Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre this morning for the fortnightly meeting of CreativeCoffee Club. I've asked Rahmat Ahmed, our summer intern, to come along. I hope she'll get the chance to meet some of the people who might be involved in the celebration and promotion of our 25th anniversary.

A few of us talked briefly today about some of the other CreativeCoffee Clubs we'd heard of, which started starting up during the time we've been doing this (in Cardiff, Liverpool and London, among other places). As far as any of us know, they've all folded and we're the only one still on the go!

There's a nice mix of new faces and old hands. I'd like to give a bit of a puff to some of the people I spoke with here today:

• Bijal Parmar, Director, Chill Enterprises
• Rosemary Winsor, Graphic Designer and Illustrator, House of Winsor
• Chris Cox, Creative Director, Workspace 1

I'd given Jiten Anand a pile of our glossy social media flyers for distribution at An Indian Summer at the Phoenix, on the weekend just gone. These are now available alongside all the other brochures and leaflets that can be picked up by customers and visitors. We've never been able to get any of our promotional material put out on display in Phoenix Square before, so I was chuffed to see this.

In the photo above: Jayne Childs, co-ordinator of CreativeCoffee Club (and Amplified Leicester) silhoutted against a display of her own textile work on the digital screen in Phoenis Square cafe bar.