The Future
Reading Geek Night started as a blog post saying that if one person offered to do a talk and ten people promised to turn up, I would organise it. Since then we have had around 20 brilliant talks over 7 months; lots of people have met for the first time; we've had great conversations and found common interests; and now we're about to embark on our eighth event.
So thankyou to everyone who has shared their expertise and interests with us by volunteering for a talk and thankyou to everyone who has come along and joined in.
I said at the last geek night that I'd like us, as a group, to talk about what the future holds and what kind of community we want to build. So i'm laying out some of my thoughts here to kick start the discussion. Lets begin the debate in the comments section and then continue face to face on the 15th...
Venue: We have confirmed dates booked with Copa for the rest of the year. In the meantime, Greg from Workhouse Coffee has suggested that he could get some good beers in and host us at his new place in town. Copa is a good venue, with a good private space, reasonably priced drinks, and food if you want it (although I cringe when they noisily collect glasses in the middle of a talk, and its now under new management). On the other hand Workhouse Coffee is independent, we know that Greg will not let us drink rubbish beer, and we'd be supporting a locally owned business (although I don't think WHC has wifi yet)
Numbers: we probably average 35 to 40 people at each event (there's a core - you know who you are! - but its not the same 35/40 people each time). Whilst its good that the numbers have grown organically without much publicity, I know that there are loads of people in Reading who would love to come, but just don't know it happens. Given that we source the talks from within our own group I wonder if we need to grow the attendance so that we end up with a sustainable pool of talks?
Sponsorship: There were a few approaches on the sponsorship front early on (which I kind of ignored as it would have been another thing to sort out). Should we actively seek out some sponsorship? It would be cool to be able to pay for some drinks for everyone, but sponsors also need a bit of care & attention and stroking. (they do - ask anyone who's been involved in organising twestival or similar)
Events: The monthly event seems to work well. But are there other things we want to do? e.g. Alan B has said he'd be happy to run a Ruby masterclass (& other people no doubt have skills they could share and help others with). I think it would be great to do a coach trip to Bletchley Park to remind ourselves where it all started. Should we organise a hack day and build something together? What else could we do?
Organisation: It takes a bit of work to make Reading Geek Night happen. I love doing it because I get a warm glow from every event. However I'm about at the limit of what I can do time-wise. If we grow, or if we want to start doing more things then I'll need some help.
There you go... over to you!
12 Comments
Luke Smith
I quite like Copa, its big enough and not expensive and the chance to grab some food is good. Though it does make it an "over 18s" evening which could stop people from coming.
I'd like to see hack days (would suit having sponsorship) as well as more indepth talks (maybe every other month have a longer talk + 2 shorter ones).
Also put me down for the geeknight xmas dinner :)
Daniel
I would like to throw in the idea of having it on a different night each month, or to alternate between to days. Tuesdays are very bad for me and as such i've only ever been able to make one.
Ronan
Copa is pleasant and central, but I don't feel particularly attached. Fewer pillars might help with presentations, but it's perfectly adequate.
I'm very much in favour of hack days. Competitive and collaborative projects would be equally alluring. And ale; I like ale.
Josh
I believe a venue change would be good, somewhere with a better surface for projectors would be nice. Beyond that, I have little preference, and sadly no suggestions either.
I agree with Dan that varying the night it is held on might be useful for people.
Hack days would be excellent, and I'd love to see them happen. I would be prepared to help organise such events in light of Jim's closing statements.
Alan
First off, I just want to say a huge thank you to Jim for getting this off the ground and continuting to herd the geeks of Reading!
Re. venue, I think Copa is alright - no complaints. Although I also think WHC would also work very well - being in a smaller space might help mingling a bit more - as Ronan noted, Copa does feel like there's little pockets of disconnected groups. And I'm very much in favour of supporting the local indie (plus, I'm sure Greg would look after us very well.)
I do think that WHC would be absolutely perfect for smaller workshop/hackevening/hackday type things. As Jim mentioned in his post, I'd be more than happy to do a few Ruby workshops - if anyone is interested let me know! Since I'm spending a fair bit of time getting into node.js at the moment, I'd be very happy to spend some time hacking/learning from/with anyone who is interested in that too. If you're interested at all in doing some weeknight evening hacking on either subject somewhere in town, come find me on Tuesday.
I think the number/length of talks works very well - much better I feel than at Oxford geek night, where they have a lot more talks (and are therefore more strict with time). More of the same please!
A field trip to Bletchley Park would be pretty awesome :)
Chris
Hi all! I'm all for getting involved too and also helping Alan out with a ruby night perhaps? Looking forward to hearing everyones ideas.
Ben
First, thanks again Jim!
Second, I agree with @Alan(B) that the feel of the event is better than the Oxford one; perhaps that's because there's a bit of a hothouse feel there (mentally and physically). We seem to be more laid back.
Thirdly, I don't like the layout/ambient noise of Copa (I agree with @Ronan about the pillars) but the convenience of food and drink wins me around.
Lastly, publicitywise: I think folk in large companies who've enjoyed a geek night should be encouraging their colleagues (the ones who don't need to commute home at 1730 punctually every day, that is). I'm a more solitary worker but I do mention upcoming events online when appropriate ;-)
Peter Curd
Thanks for all your hard work Jim!
I like Copa so perhaps I'm bias - but a new venue would IMHO need to meet the following criteria: Room for 45+ people to view the presentation and to socialise comfortably afterwards, serve drinks, serve food (or allow food to be brought in) and be close to landmarks and parking. WHC doesn't seem likely to be big enough nor have a wide enough range of food - however I will bow to those who have been their more than I if they disagree.
I still have hopes of doing a talk at some point so lack of speakers is not something we will hit soon (although the more prolific speakers will need to encourage others to get up and talk) but I agree that publicity is a big problem. I may be bringing a colleague along tonight but most of my team are not local to Reading or keen on socialising (nothing against RDGGeek, that's just them) but hitting big companies makes sense - and would open up the sponsorship bag. If Jim (or someone else) is willing to continue to organise RDGGeek for free then sponsorship is not needed and would change the tone a little. Although I do enjoy the "things to give away" aspect of sponsorship.
Greg Costello
Firstly let me apologise for late comment I have only just read this.
I would love it of events that are local and real where happening or organised in Workhouse. 45 plus people. Could be interesting, and it sounds to me like alot of people are happy at Copa.
Being a venue for events might be helpful for our business but I really dont think it works until we have the secret beer collection available and for sale. The reason being alot of people have worked all day and the need to unwind, fast. Is to me justified.
The event needs to be monthly, or weekly. Thats it nothing else works. Fornightly is disasterous. You could however get away with sneaking it one day this way or that thanks to the power of modern technology and yes lots of people work tuesday night and so do people on Mondays etc.....so slipping back and forth a day would be an interesting idea.
I will talk to Jim about all above comments. Most importantly its good to hear what people think.
Greg
Rob Lang
I haven't attended yet! For two reasons: it started just as I became a father and I have a regular activity I do only on Tuesdays. #RDGGEEK9 looks like a doer and if I enjoy it, I'll volunteer for a talk - Chris Tingley says I should. I'll also bring some friends with me.
MikeTheBee
rush...rush... phew, not too late? So many places to be at the same time!.... Lots of gr8 comments that cover most of what I will say, but I'll say it anyway, you know me :)
I thank Jim for all his hard work, and he makes it seems so easy, but that is his skill.
I like to use the train ( well not like exactly) so a walkable venue is important, I support independent producers (including ale ones) so real ale is nice. opensource is good and hackspace events support them. Free WiFi important for demos.
Copa worked well on the nights I been able to attend. Sponsorship is often a win-win so I would support that. I would love to be able to attend in virtual form if streaming could be arranged.
I would be a boon if a softsocialspace could be bring like thinking people together from the other like-minded get-togethers in the area.
I am thinking of y'all even when I don't see in is the 1st world.
Cheers, Mike.
Tim
I've been to 3 of the geek nights at Copa and I think it is a very good venue which offers free wifi and not too overpriced food and drinks.
Workhouse coffee in town would could also potentially be a good venue too but I do think the lack of wifi lets it down a bit. I would very much like to go there an hour or two before the geek night and do some work on my laptop and also have a couple of coffees.
Sponsorship does sound good. I'm partially deaf in one of my ears and I feel that the chance to use sponsorship money for a microphone help myself hear and others hear further back in the room. Also on hack days or anything like that then sponsorship would be great for pizza.
Thanks to Jim for all your hard work so far organising this event.
Tim