Nick Booth, MD, Podnosh and Co-Founder, Helpmeinvestigate.com

Nick Booth is the managing director of Podnosh Ltd, a social media business which he started in 2005. Podnosh concentrates on using the web to change the way the public and the public sector talk to each other.

Much of the work is in neighbourhoods, but he also works at a strategic level with public and third sector organisations. Podnosh also works to encourage practical application of open data. He is the originator of the Social Media Surgeries - which connect digitally savvy citizens to community activists and local charities, helping them campaign, collaborate, tell their stories and hold power to account.

Nick is also one of the three co-founders of Help Me Investigate, a website which allows citizens to ask civic questions and collaborate with each other to find the answers.

Before founding Podnosh, Nick was the last Director of Birmingham City Pride and before that a journalist with the BBC.

He is a member of the National Council for Voluntary Organisation’s ICT Foresight team, sits on the NCVO advisory council, a Birmingham Common Purpose ‘graduate’, trustee of the Birmingham Conservation Trust and a governor at Ninestiles school. Nick guest lectures at the Birmingham University Institute of Local Government and Birmingham City University’s Online