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We’re a week and a day away from BathCamp 2009… <eek />
This morning we sold our last ticket (the 50th) and so the booking page is now effectively turned off.
The reason for the limit of 50 is that we’ve had to place food, drink and other(!) orders, not that we can’t fit any more people on site. So if you’re gagging to come along and missed the ticket sales by a whisker, please don’t be put off – email me at mike dot ellis [at] bathamp dot org and I’ll try and accommodate you.
Looking forward to seeing you all at BathCamp 2009!
We’re delighted to announce the second BathCamp barcamp! Not to be confused with the similarly-named BathCamp evening events, this one is the all-weekend barcamp; a 24-hour+ long series of talks, cud-chewing, beer, pizza…and other things…
BathCamp 2009 will be held on the weekend of 26th/27th September 2009. Pencil the Friday night in, too, just in case we need to drink beer :-)
This year we’re doing it slightly differently. BathCamp 2009 will be:
- held at The Bell Inn, Buckland Dinham, a truly lovely country pub with media barn, wifi and camping space
- al fresco. That’s outdoors for you people that don’t talk the lingo. So we’re talking tents, marquees, that kind of thing.
- an extended weekend, with the main talks all day Saturday and other fun stuff (think band, cider, fires, bbq, etc) around the edges
As usual, the organisation is heading along just a smidgen behind the actual idea/date itself. So yes, there will be a booking page; yes there might be a (small) cost, yes it will be first-come, first-served (hence why I’ve turned off RSVP on here..); and yes (you know who you are), we’ll be looking for sponsorship, help, free stuff, etc…but for now just get it in your diary.
The problem with Twitter is that you tend to forget that blogs are quite important, too. That’s why I last updated this one nearly two months ago with a post about BathCamp evening event 2…
In the intervening period we had a stonkingly good night with Dan Zambonini, Chris Book and Giles Turnbull on April 1st – they did some great talks about various aspects of mobile webness. I would have had videos but [*cough*] the batteries ran out early doors, so I…well, don’t. Sorry bout that.
The next evening do is next week – geek quiz night – on Wednesday 6th May. There’s a change of venue to the Raven which might well be permanent – we’ll see how we get on with it and go from there. The quiz will be compered by the excellent Darren Beale (Siftware) who ran the BathCamp quiz last year (as well as sponsoring, providing beer AND lugging a bath around…). So big hands to him.
Anyhoo. RSVP on the Ning site and I’ll try and keep this mumma updated in future. ta.
We had a really excellent first BathCamp evening on Wednesday (4th Feb) hearing great talks by Ryan Carson and Paul Boag. The turnout was huge: I’d said 30 to the venue, but I reckon we were 50? Maybe more?
Either way, thank you everyone for coming and big hands to Ryan and Paul.
One thing that I was amazed at was the distance some people had come – one lady from Exeter, someone from Winchester, another from Fleet. Given the weather, I’m also glad (following bathcamp-mentioning tweets) that you all seemed to get home ok, too.
For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s the footage. Paul has also written a couple of posts on his talk, and embedded slides. Start here and you’ll pick up the story of the People With No Sense Of Humour ;-)
4th February….evening event….Boag and Carson….
RSVP and more details over here
Holy smokes. I just realised that in a smidgen over a week I’ll be sitting in a room listening to a bunch of people talking about interesting stuff.
The “what I’m gonna talk about” list has been growing. From herbs to “The Gurgitator” to archaeological computing to learning Chinese, this is shaping up to be a fantastically diverse and interesting weekend.
We’re close enough to BathCamp now that I can almost smell the excitement. Or is that the smell of 70-something people bedding down in a church hall..?
Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking to some immensely ace people who have agreed to sponsor the event. It is these guys who will be paying for the venue, the beer, the sandwiches, the pizza, the tshirts, the cake, the coffee and the pop.
Massive, huge thanks to each and every one of them. Big, comedy hands, high-fives and some whooping, please. Even better, buy them a drink at the event :-). Without them, none of this…
Here’s who they are:
- Eduserv “A not for profit, professional IT services group”
- Gradwell “Enabling the internet that you don’t see”
- Siftware “Helping deliver the technical aspects of web projects”
- Box UK “An award-winning UK web software company”
- Pluggable ”Web development and consultancy”
- Carsonified “Creativity with integrity”
- PixeLabs ”Web developer, user experience designer and lover of the internets..”
- Rattle “We do social innovation on the web”
- Insitute of Physics “Devoted to increasing the understanding and application of physics”
We’ve also had some stirling support from Microsoft, WordPress and Flickr.
Thanks all. It is hugely appreciated. :-)
You probably noticed already, what with mailings, tweetings, that thing normal people call “talking to others” and whatever other means you have of communicating that all tickets for BathCamp have now sold out. This is great news for us (an awesome 70ish people have signed up!) but not so great news if you didn’t manage to score one in time.
Although we’re absolutely not allowed to sell tickets on the door, there is a glimmer of hope: chuck your name in this form and we’ll get in touch if/when we have drop-outs. It’s on a first-come, first-serve basis but you never know.
What do you do in your day job?
I’m a freelance web developer, running my own wee company, NSTW Design (yes, terribly out of date!). I mangle PHP, JavaScript and some other front end nonsense into things that help power businesses and egos (mine included). In folk song stylee, I tell some of the perilous tales of my glamorous developer adventures over at Seventytwo, where I team up with a designer deviant named Alistair to help keep our respective minds sane. It might just be working so far.
What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?
As I don’t have a boss and I also have some very pro-active clients, I’m able to spend quite a lot of my time researching new tools and services that I can use. I consider this rather bloody good luck, as it allows me to pitch some mental ideas that are sometimes mad enough to get implemented. I’m finding that I’m spending more and more of my time coding and writing about web stuff when I’m not working, so it really kind of all blurs into one. I’m personally riding on a second wind of passion for the web and often feel compelled to exclaim, “Darn, this Internet rubbish ain’t ‘alf bad now!” (When Twitter works for example, oof…)
What are you passionate about?
I live for music and it’s rare that you’ll ever find me without some tunes at hand. Prog rock is my poison of choice, as well as some nice lo-fi art rock-esque happenings. In the past couple of years I’ve reignited my early teens passion for cycling, so I try and get out for a nice ride at least once a week to make sure my muscles don’t atrophy from so much time in front of the computer.
I’m currently planning an epic 3 month bunk-off at the start of next year to go snowboarding in Whistler, Canada. Apart from imbibing heroic quantities of the local culture, I plan to work on some super secret web apps whilst I’m there. They’re so super secret that even the government doesn’t know about them, but that’s probably a good thing.
Also, jQuery and Zend Framework are so freakin’ good it hurts.
Why are you attending BathCamp?
I predict that the collective brainpower at BathCamp will be mind blowing, so I definitely want to witness that. I haven’t been to many geek events lately and all the ones I’ve attended in the past (dConstruct, Future of Web Apps) have been a great experience and I’ve met some really cool people. I like the idea of a more DIY, “people powered” event where everyone can get involved. I also prefer sleeping bags to duvet covers, so it’s really going to be a win-win event for me.
What would you fill a bath with, and why?
Ritz Crackers. They’re just so damn moreish, and with all that salt you might be able to pull off your very own Dead Sea. Tasty AND practical! For too long Ritz Crackers have been underrated by the cracker community and I think such a foolish stunt might convince people of what they’re missing out on. Perhaps.
About Simon
Simon blogs at Seventytwo.co.uk and occasionally shares some visual delights over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/allidid
Alistair MacDonald dropped us a line with a simple idea:
“As a complete experiment I have been adding a car pooling section to the wikis of the BarCamps I am attending where I can share part of the journey. It might just not work, but you don’t know until you try I guess.“
I think this is a great idea. If you’re travelling to BathCamp (from however far, even Bristol!) then chuck your details in to the relevant section of the BathCamp wiki page. Thanks Alistair!
What do you do in your day job?
I’ve been getting paid to build websites for around 10 years now, the last 6 of which I’ve been self employed running a small development firm. The first was in London which I exited when we’d had enough of the smoke and my new venture is just over 2 years old, based in the same village as our home on the Worcs/Glos borders.
I’m still trying to strike the right balance between being a manager and developer and I’m not convinced I’ve got it nailed just yet. One thing I am clear on though is that I am much happier keeping the business lean. In London we were a team of 8 full-time and with Siftware it’s just 3, but I’m probably more profitable and I’m certainly a lot more relaxed (though it doesn’t feel like it sometimes).
My skills are quite broad and in addition to the lots of different hats one needs to wear as a small business owner my strongest skills are PHP/MySQL (Symfony ideally), JavaScript and Linux administration. My XHTML/CSS is probably above average though I normally leave the joy of debugging IE6 problems to others.
What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?
Well I’ve 5yr old twins and a 6 month old baby so there’s not much time left over. I’ve definitely jumped on the veg growing bandwagon with this being my first full-on season and I’m really happy with the results so far. I am also about to start a course in carpentry as I feel the need to build something from physical materials for a change. I’m an improving windsurfer and I try to get at least one decent hike in per year.
Why are you attending BathCamp?
The west has one of the most vibrant digital scenes in the UK and every time I go along to a meet-up, whether it’s some informal Underscore geeky beerage, a Skillswap or other industry related event I come away feeling inspired and normally with some new ideas. That and a chance to meet more of the people I’ve encountered on Underscore or Twitter makes it a no-brainer for me and if that’s not enough, a fiver seemed a cheap way to get a new T-shirt.
What are you passionate about?
First and foremost I am determined to see my kids grow up. I am also looking at options that will allow me to be personally involved in producing a percentage of my family’s food every year and we’re (slowly) becoming more in-tune with what food is naturally and locally available in a given season. I also feel strongly that people should return to living within their means and save a percentage of their income for unforeseen circumstances rather than spending every penny on shite that they don’t really need (though I can sometimes be as guilty as the next person when it comes to shiny things with flashing lights)
My wife Cathie and I also have a business idea that we’re working on in our ’spare spare’ time that we’re both extremely excited about, though it’s too early to discuss openly yet.
What would you fill a bath with, and why?
Prosaic as it might be, I’d fill it with hot water. Then, with a large malt and a good novel, I’d lock the door and retire to it for an hour warning the small people in my house that they’d better not interrupt me, or else.
