Amplified were invited to join Tuttle in Barcelona on the 18 September 09 and Podcamp on the 19 September. Steve Lawson and Lucy Windmill went on a little SoMeWe adventure…

I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday and spent the day walking around the city, down la Ramblas, to the port, across to the beach… It was a little too breezy for the beach but a number of determined Brits were there, spread-eagled across their towels (“I will get a tan”). Next I walked to ‘Gotica’ (the old Gothic area) which is gorgeous, all winding cobbled streets and little art shops and boutiques, coffee shops and bars set up in hidden court yards. In the evening I had a beer and a little BCN tweetathon as @solobasssteve Lawson had missed his flight and was due to be speaking at Barcelona Tuttle on Friday morning (I’m not much of a public speaker myself!). He managed to get an early flight out on Friday with easyjet (via Twitter - impressed) and I met up with 2 other Barcelona SoMeWe weekenders from out of town – @StefaanLesage from Belgium and @moof for tapas e vino and lots of talking…

Friday it was off to @citilab in the West of the city (Cornella) for Barcelona Tuttle organised by @cataspanglish (Chris Pinchen, who invited us to Barcelona when he came to the Amp09 Midlands event). We met a bunch of amazing people from all different sectors with the common interest of pioneering social media – in education, government, the health service – quite a few PhDs in there! We also met the couple behind @catavino - their mission is to get the vineyard world online (and they organise Twitter wine tasting – very cool). We have a few videos and pics to post up soon.

Tuttle was held at the Citilab – what a fantastic place! I was in venue heaven imaging what we could do with the space. It’s huge!! It’s modern, it’s spacious, it’s flexible and it’s got wi-fi… we need this in London! It’s also doing some great projects of course; Citilab-Cornellà is a workspace dedicated to training and research on new technologies and social innovation, an entrepreneurial hub. And we like it.

Later in the afternoon we did some sightseeing with @moof and @stefaanlesage. We saw the Sagrada Família, a massive, privately-funded Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882 and will not be finished until at least 2026 – but you can walk around inside with the construction going on. (We had a little giggle about the Doozers). It really is spectacular… a Gaudi piece – so intricate and inspired, almost too much to take in from the ground.

We then headed off to the centre to meet @cataspanglish and @anafmora for an evening of more food, wine and laughter (language based! Not sure I will reveal that here – Steve can!).

Up early for Podcamp BCN on Saturday 19th; meeting place confusion and bus driver mistaking 9am with 9pm aside, we arrived in el Masnou. The simultaneous translation was excellent (and necessary!).

Steve did a 45 min slot on Amplified – our boy did good! (more invitations please!). It seemed to go down really well – and he certainly kept the translator on her toes (in fact did they have to change over at half time?!).

I wrote a few blogs on what I saw at Podcamp - some written after the port tasting before lunch and the wine tasting courtesy of @catavino – what a treat. Coming to an Amplified event near you soon - we hope!