There are a couple of grass-roots geek events coming up that are worth mentioning for those based in the UK.
Following on fromt he success of the first London BarCamp, a second, larger event has been organised for February 17-18th, this time sponsored by BT. BarCampLondon2 (Upcoming) has already had an initial sign-up round of 100 people, but I hear is to be accepting more shortly. Worth keeping an eye on as the first event was great. BarCamps would seem to work best with a mixture of people from all sorts of backgrounds, so if you’re not a techy or if you didn’t make it along before, it’s worth trying to make it.
The second event I wanted to mention is taking place outside of London (hooray!). Oxford Geek Night (Upcoming) is a new event taking place in the centre on Oxford on Februrary 7th, aimed at both sharing knowledge and socialising. The format is two or three keynote talks of about 15 minutes, followed by open microslot sessions and, I’m sure, much geeking out and supping of ale. It’s really great to see more events spring up outside London, and if you’re based in the Oxfordshire area I really encourage you to support it if you can.
Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to attend either event as I’m in the throes of moving house and all that entails (wish me luck!). However, come April I’ll be out and about in Scotland at the first Highland Fling one-day conference, speaking on microformats. If you’re anywhere near Edinburgh (or even just fancy a jaunt) that one’s worth checking out too.
Comments
Bristol has it’s own grass-roots geek/new media/ web gatherings, going under the name of SkillSwap (after the now defunct Brighton events of the same name).
See here for more details:-
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/bristolskillswap/
Thanks Rick!
Hi Drew… I’m really glad you are taking the time out to come up to Scotland, it looks like you have a busy schedule!
Everyone up here is looking forward to it!
Nooo!! :( I lost the Highland Fling :( Can’t believe I was less than 10 miles from there, but couldn’t be :(
Drew… are you planning another speech soon?
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Lionel – http://www.silverlight.com.ar
In Argentina, there are a couple of grass-roots geek events. The big one is “Palermo Valley”. Today, the valley form, is spread over 50 cities in America (11 countries) the bases are: Collaboration, Openness, Free and Non-profit. All of Community comming there (Developers, VCs, Designers, Marketing guys, etc.) 700 people attend each event, and this year there are seven.
I invite you to learn more about Palermo Valley, and see if they are interested in replicating the “valley” there.
Regards
Martin