My chat with James covers how he got into hospitality, his experience in the hotel business in Canada and Australia and how he uses social media to keep across what’s going on in Melbourne.

James is our fourth guest on A Coffee With.

Click to listen on iTunes                        Click to listen on SoundCloud

James’ details

On Twitter (@ConciergeAUS)

James Ridenour - http://jamesridenour.com/ 

InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto website - http://www.melbourne.intercontinental.com/ 

James’s coffee: Caffe Latte.

My chat with Felice covers his days growing up in regional Victoria, treading the boards on stage in the UK and then how he got into writing. We then discuss his writing style, collaborating with Garry Lyon, and learn about some of his characters including Specky Magee, Farticus and Andy Roid. Felice reflects on his use of social media and how he engages with his audience.

Felice is our third guest on A Coffee With.

Click to listen on iTunes                            Click to listen on SoundCloud

                       
Felice’s details

On Twitter (@Fleech)

The Official Website of Felice Arena - www.felicearena.com

Specky Magee  website – www.speckymagee.com.au

Penguin Group Australia - www.penguin.com.au and Twitter (@penguinbooksaus)

National Year of Reading 2012 on Twitter (@love2read2012); website; and Facebook

Felich’s coffee: Cafe Mocha.

According to his bio on his official website:

Felice Arena is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. His books have topped bestseller lists and garnered several awards – including five Australian Children Choice Book Awards. Recent publications include Wish, the BoyzRule& GirlzRock adventures, the hilariousFarticus Maximus and Stick Dudesseries, Sally and Dave, a Slug Story, the enormously successful Specky Mageeseries, Whippersnapper, a touching fantasy, and his newest series, Andy Roid- a bionic action-packed adventure. See official trailer HERE.

Felice is also proud to be one of the ambassadors for the National Year of Reading 2012 initiative and the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge.

Photo courtesy Official Felice Arena Website

Emily Webb is a journalist with News Ltd’s Melbourne Leader Community Newspapers, blogger, and conversationalist. Sitting by the Yarra River in Warrandyte, Emily talks about her use of social media and the blurring of personal and professional, her thoughts on journalism, and what got her interested in true crime reading. Emily was a delight to chat with and she offers some great reflections on journalism, social media and teaching in the UK. Our conversation was punctuated with the sounds of people, dogs and kids on their bikes meandering past on a Saturday morning.

Emily Webb is our second guest on A Coffee With

Click here to listen on iTunes                      Click here to listen on SoundCloud

Emily’s details

On Twitter (@emilybwebb)

Emily’s personal blog - http://emilybwebb.net/

Emily’s True Crime Reader blog – www.truecrimereader.com

Emily’s coffee: Double shot latte

According to her biography, Emily is a:

• Mum of two girls (six and three)
• Journalist (currently work for a community newspaper group in Melbourne)
• Wife to a Welsh-former-police-detective-now-nurse whom I met in London
• Feminist
• True crime reader (I have a reviews blog truecrimereader.com)
• Qualified secondary school teacher (England & Wales)
• Basketballer (two game a week)
• Dual citizen – born in Australia, became a British citizen in 2006 after living there since 1999 (with a year break in 2001-2002).

Michael Short is a senior journalist with Melbourne’s Age newspaper. It was a delight to spend time with him and hear his views on journalism, open media, and the use of jargon, among other topics. This chat with Michael is a masterclass for anyone interested in the role of the media and social media in today’s ever-changing media landscape, and he offers some invaluable insights.

The coffee with Michael was recorded earlier in 2012 and some references to upcoming events are no longer current. Given the context of Michael’s comments these references are still included in the interview.

Michael Short is our first guest on A Coffee With.

Click to listen on iTunes                                    Click to listen on SoundClound

Michael’s details

On Twitter (@shortmsgs)

The Age – Opinion – The Zone

The Age website

Michael’s coffee: Triple shot macchiato.

According to his bio on The Age’s website:

Michael Short created The Zone in April 2010. Published in The Age and across Fairfax Media’s digital platforms, The Zone is an interview-based, multimedia package that examines ideas and the people behind them. He launched The Zone after spending four years on the newspaper’s editorial board and after a year as editor of new media, as well as overseeing production and pictorial. Michael rejoined The Age as executive editor – business, in March 2005, having worked at the newspaper in various roles in the 1980s and early 1990s. Since late 2002, when he returned from 10 years in Paris, he had been in charge of the Melbourne operations of The Australian Financial Review.

In 2002, Michael was invited to write and deliver a post-graduate course on journalism and media at the Political Sciences Institute in Paris, one of France’s most prestigious universities. From 1999 until 2001, he was founding European chief executive of NewsAlert, a company that created real-time information channels of news and applications for websites. From 1997, he was multimedia director for Bloomberg News in Paris, as well as doing live daily television analyses and studio interviews. Prior to that, he was founding editor-in-chief of Bloomberg Television, France. During his 25-year career, he has worked in print, radio and television in Australia, the USA and Europe, including a scholarship with the Paris-based Journalists in Europe Foundation. He graduated from the University of Melbourne with majors in economics, philosophy and commercial law.

Some time ago I had the idea of interviewing people I’d met via social media since I moved back to Melbourne in April 2010. Since that time I’ve met loads of people, many through social media gatherings and catching up with folks. I’ve found ‘social media’ to be really ‘sociable media’ and it’s allowed me to learn much and meet some great people, many of whom are now close friends.

I like meeting people and I find people fascinating. We all have our own stories and insights, experiences and reflections. One constant I’ve found with the people I’ve met is their respective interests in sharing ideas through social media and a willingness to share their learnings. A Coffee With is simply about chatting with people I’ve met and who I find interesting. They all have unique perspectives and were good enough to spend time chatting – so thank you to my guests!

In Series 1 meets people who’ve I’ve met or connected through social media. As it turns out, the strong theme which became apparent as I invited the people to be a guest was writing and content. These people all share a love of the written and spoken word and are exceptionally strong communicators in their own right.

If you’ve an idea of someone you think would be great for me to have a coffee with, drop me a line!

Warmly – Jeremy Irvine