I went to the Future of Web Apps Road Trip geek-up in Bristol last month and more recently to d.Construct in Brighton. Both events were a great departure from the workload and a chance to socialise with like-minds and discuss Web geekery.
Networking within our industry is difficult in areas of the South West of England, particularly the more sparsely populated areas, the backwaters of Devon being my particular neighbourhood! Hence, the Road Trip meet-up in Bristol was especially welcomed.
Attending these recent events reminded me how important it is, at least to me, to meet up with others in our industry. I’m encouraged and inspired by these events, and I find it difficult to get to them often enough. It was with this in mind that Zach Inglis and I launched South West New Media (SWNM), but with sporadic interest in the site and little time for promoting, it has fallen by the wayside. Time to do something about it.
There’s movement on the creative horizon up in Bristol (or “Brizzel” to the locals) with Bristol Skillswap, BarCampBristol, GeekTogether, etc. Indeed, judging by activity on the
South West Web Designers (SWWD) group, recently set up by Paul Boag, there’s quite a bit going on throughout the South West.
Call to action
I think it’s time to pull my thumb out and keep the South West New Media site updated with events – there certainly seems to be a growing interest for it around here. So, if you run or attend a geek event in your area, tell others about it by adding it to the South West New Media group on Upcoming.org. The event will then show up on the site too. If you have any ideas for making the site useful to you or are interested in helping out, give me a shout as I’ll be freshening up the site before the year is out.
There’s also a mailing list on South West New Media, so feel free to join that or the aforementioned South West Web Designers (SWWD) group.
2 Responses to “Geek networking in the South West of England”
I decided that it was about time to do something similar in South Wales – there is quite a community of guys over here who work in the same fields, yet never talk to one another (as far as I’m aware). This frustrated me slightly, as there are different aspects of web work which just can’t be conveyed through it. Anyway, currently the site (cardiffgeeks.net), has had quite a bit of interest and we’re planning our first meet up soon. I’ll still be heading over to Bristol to get the latest from that which you guys are dishing out mind.
Nice work, Ian. I just discovered GeekVenues.com – check it out and put Cardiff Geeks on the map!