At the end of last year, we launched a series of events called Design / Build / Market. The concept is pretty simple: bring together designers, coders and marketers. We want to promote discussion between the different disciplines of the creative process. Because we honestly believe that collaboration is the best route to success.

What can you expect?

From the start, and having attended all sorts of events before, we had a clear idea of the experience we wanted to create for the audience. We came up with a few simple rules:

• a quarterly event, to ensure that we have the time to find quality speakers
• a limited number of places, so the audience can engage with the speakers
• plenty of breaks to encourage discussion and networking
• fun! we want to have fun organising it, and we want the audience to come for a fun (but informative!) evening

Each event has a ‘theme’ and follows the same format. 3 speakers: 1 for Design, 1 for Build and 1 for Market, a short Q&A session after each talk, and breaks for food, drinks and networking.

Our first event, back in October, was all about crowdfunding. We were very happy with the turnout and the audience were engaging with the speakers. We couldn’t have asked for more for a first experience!

 

Why another meetup?

There are plenty of meetups in Bristol. You could be out every single night of the week if you really wanted to. However, a lot of the existing meetups are specific to one discipline. Our developers often attend developer-centric meetups. The girls tend to go to marketing and PM events. We also know of plenty of design meetups. What we’re trying to do, is to bring all these people together, encourage collaboration and discussion, build and launch better projects through combined knowledge.

We actually came up with the idea a couple of years ago. We talked about it a lot, for a while, but never got round to actually organising anything. It was always there, at the back of our mind though. Until last summer, when we started sharing the idea with a few different people. The vast majority were interested and some even offered to give a talk. So we got the ball rolling.

What’s next?

Well, our next event is coming up soon. This one is all about Virtual Reality.

Photo by red_shuheart 

Unless you live in a cave, you’ve probably realised that Virtual Reality is a very hot topic at the moment. In April, the VR World Congress, organised by Opposable VR, is taking place in Bristol. Every day there is a new article about some application of VR in the news. VR is everywhere and for everyone: gamers, moviegoers, elderly people, students, homebuyers…

So we thought it was the right time to bring you a Design / Build / Market on Virtual Reality.

We already have 2 confirmed speakers:

• Jack Norris, Creative Director, and Chris Price, Senior Designer at Zubr VR, who will share their experience of directing immersive content and talk to us about the challenges of being a graphic designer for an unestablished medium.
• Dan Page, Marketing Manager at Opposable VR, who will talk about brands using VR as a marketing tool and what the future trends are.

The ‘build’ speaker is still a surprise, but don’t worry, it’ll be a good one!

Anything else?

Yes! Chillblast, the UK’s Most Awarded PC Manufacturer, are bringing 2 HTC Vive kits for awesome VR demos.

Chillblast are focusing their expertise on high performance applications ranging from high frequency trading platforms, design workstations, deep learning machines through to powering simulators. They are now harnessing this incredible power to release some of the most cutting edge Virtual Reality content alongside their content creation partner ZubrVR, for business across the UK.

We will allow plenty of time for everyone to have a go. So come and join us on Thursday 23rd February at the Engine Shed in Bristol. Arrive from 6.30pm, the first talk will start at 7pm. We ask for a £5 fee, to go towards the venue hire.
Food and drinks are on us! 🍕🍺

Buy your ticket now on Meetup!