Nick Booth obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jun/10/nick-booth-obituary

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My brother Nick Booth, who has died aged 59 after a fall at his home, was an early advocate of using social media to foster better community relations and to encourage civic conversations.

After an initial career as a journalist at the BBC, in the early 2000s he became a freelance entrepreneur in the digital realm, setting up the web-based Grassroots channel in 2005 as an early space for podcasts.

Three years later he created Social Media Surgeries, an informal series of events that helped people with web expertise to share their skills with those trying to get a community group set up online.

On the back of its success he also established the Social Media Surgery Plus website to allow people all over the country to coordinate their own events. At its peak surgeries were held in 60 locations around the UK and beyond, with nearly 400 volunteer “surgeons” giving their time to help about 1,700 local groups and citizens take advantage of the internet to support their cause.

His other notable venture was the Impact Assessment App, on which users of community services are able to record and rate their experience. It has been used by, among others, Gateway Family Services in Birmingham to gauge the views of more than 8,800 of its clients across five projects.

Nick was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, the third child of Peter, a television cameraman, and his wife, Peggy (nee Sandford). When the family settled in Birmingham, he attended King Edward VI Camp Hill school before taking an international relations degree at the University of Sussex.

After graduating in 1987 he spent three years trying to get into the BBC while working in various odd jobs (including as a technician at Derby Playhouse and on an Elton John tour) until he was finally accepted by the corporation as a trainee local radio journalist in 1990.

Within three years he had settled in at the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham, where he worked his way up through the ranks as a radio and TV news reporter to become a deputy editor in the current affairs department, producing documentaries and current affairs programmes covering the West Midlands region.

He was particularly in his element working for Radio 4’s Analysis programme, investigating and sharing stories with the public – and it was his interest in that field that led led him to leave the BBC in 2003 to set up his various ventures.

Nick’s great curiosity and intelligence, combined with his generosity of spirit and conviviality, made him a popular person to work with in many spheres, and over the years he volunteered for many causes, including as co-chair of Moseley Community Development Trust and as a trustee or director of Birmingham Conservation Trust, Birmingham Food Council and the maverick Stan’s Cafe theatre company.

He is survived by his partner, Katherine Hewitt, three children, Emma, Tom and Katie, from a previous relationship with Viki Sullivan, a grandson, Josh, his parents, his brother, Andy, and me.