Atlas of Birmingham’s First Book Launch - and Why We Love Virtual Events!

Launching Our Book

The 50 Places in Birmingham book has now officially been launched! 

Our launch event was held virtually on Monday, August 9th and we welcomed nearly thirty guests, including our speakers and members of the team. The event was a huge success for us and we want to thank everyone who came along. We especially want to thank Irene De Boo of Birmingham Civic Society for speaking on the topic of Birmingham’s heritage and education. 

As a team, we have hoped to hold an event like this for some time. Our mission is all about engaging with local people and presenting Birmingham’s history in a way that is right for our audience. It was very important to us that we get this event right as this was our first of what we hope to be many public-facing events for the Atlas. 

We were able to cover a lot of ideas in the event, including the writing process and concept behind 50 Places. Our CEO, Wei, spoke to our guests about how 50 Places became what it is today and why it is so necessary. Our lead designer kindly spoke about the influence of Birmingham as a city on their work for this project, and our content writers spoke on crafting the Atlas, and 50 Places more specifically. 

What delighted us most about the success of the event was how engaged our guests were. Asking questions at an online event can feel like putting yourself out there too much, but our guests didn’t hold back and their questions sparked some interesting thoughts for us about the potential for further community projects. 

Once again, we’d like to thank everyone who attended our event, either as a guest or speaker, and we hope to see you all again soon. 

Why We Love Virtual Events

The major issue we ran into when planning this event was that it needed to be virtual. It’s sometimes hard to get across all of that passion and interest through a screen! But we decided to turn this into a positive thing, as it meant that we could welcome as many people as possible and that guests could come from further afield. Aside from some minor technical issues, the virtual nature of the event also allowed us to transition more easily between speakers and share graphics with our audience. 

In a small team and for a small business, virtual events hold a lot of potential. Not only are they less of a safety hazard - for the moment - they are less costly and, barring city-wide internet outages, less liable for cancellations. They are also more accessible to guests and speakers who struggle with travelling. 

Online events have provided the arts sector with much-needed income and engagement over the past eighteen months, and we are unlikely to forget them quickly when in-person events once again become the norm. 

What’s Next?

What’s next for the Atlas of Birmingham? 

We’ll be hosting a tour of the University of Birmingham campus and of the Chinese Quarter in the city centre

We’re working towards finalising the copy and design for the next couple of books in the Atlas series, which we hope to share with you soon. In the meantime, 50 Places in Birmingham can be bought for Apple devices here. 

Finally, keep an eye out for our new podcast which will be released later this year on most major listening platforms.