Art of Digital

The Fab Collective was born as a result of an idea being tossed around on one of the flickr groups about 9 months ago. We came together as a result of seeing the other members' work on flickr and we realised that between us we had something that was worth doing and putting out there.

To promote the brand and our projects, it seemed to us to be the natural (and easy) thing to do to use all of the social networking means that were at our disposal - flickr, facebook, twitter. Sure, we had cards and fliers printed, but the best method of creating awareness of what were up to was the digital media. But we were able to use that media in a way that persuaded people to engage with us and have conversations with us. We teased at first, without telling people who we were or what we were doing. Gradually people became intrigued and came to ask us who we were. Only later did we tell the full story.

Working this way generated massive interest in Liverpool. The local press helped publicise us and local arts organisations have approached us to ask about collaborating.

It was great when we were approached by Art of Digital and asked if we could provide a speaker for their conference. They had seen what we had done and how we'd done it. To us it seemed obvious, but apparently not so. Our story is an interesting one and one that it seems others want to learn from.

So, here's Jen on the right, as part of the panel of speakers. She was brilliant (even if I do have to declare an interest).

What was even more cool, though, was that as she was talking about how we established the brand and generated interest in it, there it was on the screen happening again and again - more people sending messages to Twitter about us.

The exhibition in the summer was great and some of the other projects we've done have been really good fun. But, somehow today seemed like proper recognition of who we are and what we do. And that's cool.