For most of our recent history, technology has been focused on the mechanics: does something solve the problem or not? Over the last few decades we have gradually become aware of the importance of design to technology solutions, whether it is ergonomics dictating the comfort of a stapler, the whitespace of a magazine improving readability, or the psychological choice of wording in an online checkout process.

Most recently, we have seen a reversal of roles; design is now the foremost factor, and technology is forced to adapt to fit the design. Apple re-thought hardware components to achieve the sub-millimetre precision needed for the iPod shuffle construction, some video game developers spend more money than Hollywood movies on animation, and even lower-end automobile companies like Nissan are now focusing new marketing campaigns on their design-led strategy.

At BathCamp #10 we’ll take a look at a wide variety of design, and how it’s influencing and improving every-day technology.

If you’d like to talk about design of any type – whether it’s web, print, hardware, video game, industrial, or anything else – let us know. We’re looking for talks of any duration, whether you want to talk for 3 minutes or 20 minutes.

Time: March 10, 2010 from 8pm to 10pm
Location: The Innovation Centre
Street: Carpenter House, Broad Quay
City/Town: Bath
Website or Map: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=BA1%201UD

See http://bathcamp.ning.com/events/bathcamp-evening-meetup-10 for further details (requires Ning sign-in)

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!

Either way, things are hotting up, bigtime. Since the last blog post, we’ve re-launched the BathCamp website with a lovely new look and feel courtesy of the fabulous Laura Kalbag. If you need great web work done by a lovely person, ask Laura..!

We’re also delighted to announce two new sponsors: the awesome Headscape (remember Paul Boag’s talk back at the first BathCamp evening event?) and BluBolt, a Bath-based e-commerce specialist. Thank loads to them. I can’t stress enough how important sponsors are to an event like this. It simply wouldn’t happen without them..

We’ve now nailed the marquee hire, and for any of you who might still be harbouring a residual fear of camping, take a look at the picture above to see the kind of thing you can expect. No messing about here – ours will be a 9m x 9m beauty capable of seating 75 people and will be kitted out with heating, lights, furniture and a carpet. I can hear the hard-core campers already: “Camping? That isn’t Camping! Kids these days….”

The marquee will be the main gathering point for food, movie and band as well as one of the locations for talks. A kind of BathCamp basecamp…

Tickets have been shifting at a rate of knots – numbers are looking pretty impressive already, but the more the merrier. If you haven’t got your ticket already, head over to http://bathcamp09.eventbrite.com/ and get yours now!

So. A quickie while I get my todo lists sorted. If you haven’t noticed already, BathCamp 2009 (the barcamp) is happening on the weekend of 26th/27th September, and tickets are now available. These are swinging out the door pretty rapidly so get yours while you can.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful sponsors for coming on board. These guys are absolute stars, and will be providing (among other things) the marquee roof over our heads, the coffees and teas, the band, the bbq. We’ll be doing some more in-depth profiles in a little while but for now, here’s who to thank/buy beers for:

• Gradwell, a leading provider of Internet Telephony & Internet Services to UK Small Business.
  Peter Gradwell was hugely generous in supporting BathCamp 2008 and is coming on board again this year. Gradwell are based in the centre of Bath and currently recruiting if you’re looking for work
• Eduserv are the company I work for, a not for profit IT company. We work with HE and researchers throughout the UK and employ just over 100 people, again based here in Bath
• Microsoft needs no further introduction – they helped out last year with those enormous beanbags :-) and this year will be putting a tab behind the bar at the Bell. Woohoo!
• Carsonified have been supporters of BathCamp since the start – both the 2008 barcamp and the regular evening events we’ve been running since then
• DCKTN promote knowledge transfer and collaboration between people who use digital communications, and have helped fund events like the excellent OpenMic

So – big hands for these people. If you’d like to get involved by sponsoring BathCamp 2009 it is never too late – just drop me an email — mike dot ellis [at] geemail dot com or comment on this post.

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.

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.

Ben Tomlinson, Creative Director of London agency Ico Design is our first guest speaker for the evening. He’ll be demonstrating some of the stuff you can do with the amazing Arduino platform.

Dale Lane will also be joining us and talking about the cool stuff he’s doing hacking around with the Current Cost home energy monitor.

This’ll be an interactive session where you’ll get a chance to see and fiddle with some electronics as well as pick Ben and Dale’s brains on how to get started.

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 ;-)

RSVP and more details over here

The evenings will be on the first Wednesday of each month - the first one is on Wednesday 4th February 2009. Speakers for this one will be announced shortly. 

The second meetup has also now been booked – the awesome Ben Tomlinson from London firm Ico Design will be giving an introduction to hardware hacking and the Arduino. Expect some circuit-bending fun :-)

As for venue – we’re going to try Revolution Bath (the lounge, upstairs) as a venue and see how it goes. They have a private space with sofas, wifi and a projector which sounds great, but it’s a suck it and see moment. If you have alternative suggestions for a venue in the Bath area, let me know in the comments. Cheap / free is a good start…

For now I’m not going to create a sign-up page on EventBrite for these events – if you’re interested, please just register on the BathCamp Ning site and flag yourself as “attending” on the relevant event page. Again, we’ll see how this works and fiddle with it if it doesn’t.

If you’re interested in talking I’d love to hear from you. There’s a thread on the BathCamp forum for this, or you can email me or chuck a comment on this post. Whatever works for you.

Look forward to seeing you soon!