The low down on what’s on in Bristol and Bath for tech events and meet-ups for September.
UPDATE We’re having our very first CookiesHQ Open Desk Day on Wednesday 28th September. Have a read down below for more details and sign up on our Meetup page!
With summer almost gone, digital and tech groups in the South West are coming back into full swing. September promises to not disappoint – with so many events planned, it’ll be hard to choose which ones to attend.
Also, keep an eye out for our first Design / Build / Market event that’s coming up soon. If you join our Meetup group, you’ll be the first to hear any news.
Coffee and Networking at the Hub
Thursday 1st September 2016 – 10:30am to 12pm – The Guild co-working space, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW
The drop-in coffee mornings are a very informal networking forum, where you can come along and meet others who work in Tech in the region. Whether you’ve just moved your business to the area and would like to build your network, or if you’re well established in the region – do feel free to pop down, have a coffee courtesy of those lovely people at the Guild Coworking Hub, and also a friendly chat.
The forum is there to connect people, spark ideas, and create introductions. At the very least, the BathSPARK team will be there to have a chat and help connect you to the right people!
It’s also an opportunity for you to share ideas with the team for events and articles you’d like to see come to fruition over the coming few months.
The Internet of Us: What does privacy mean in the Digital Age?
Thursday 1st September 2016 – 1pm to 4:30pm – The Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Bristol, BS1 5TX
For their second GL Business Network event, the Gregg Latchams’ Digital Media & Technology team invite you to join them for an afternoon exploring and debating one of the pivotal social issues of our generation: the meaning of privacy in the Digital Age.
Following an opportunity to network over lunch, award-winning television news journalist, Geoff White, will show how the global technology industry harvests data leaking from personal devices through a live, interactive phone hacking stage performance. He will also take us into the dark web, the hidden network of websites where a parallel black market in personal data is thriving. Finally, there will be ample opportunity to debate the issues led by a panel of experts including Geoff White, GL’s resident legal techie Ed Boal, Dr Glenn Parry, Associate Professor at UWE and Emily Taylor, a world-renowned expert in Internet Law, Governance & Technology. Attendance at the event is free, however the number of attendees is limited to 100.
Agenda
- 1.00 – 2.00pm: Registration & Networking Lunch
- 2.00 – 3.00pm: Geoff White: The Secret Life of your Mobile Phone
- 3.00 – 3.15pm: Break
- 3.15 – 4.30pm: Panel Debate
Members of the audience can ask questions during the event or submit in advance, simply email Edward Boal @ Gregg Latchams
Bristech Tuesday: Rich Knight – Event Sourcing & CQRS / Toby Jackson – Sensu & System Monitoring
Thursday 1st September 2016 – 7:00pm – Bristol Engine Shed @ Temple Meads, BS1 6QH, Bristol
Rich Knight – Introduction to Event Sourcing and CQRS
Event sourcing is an idea that is hundreds of years old. In this talk, Rich will explain how we can use it, along with the CQRS architecture, to build software in 2016.
Storing data as a series of events may feel alien at first, but has many interesting consequences. Rich will show how to take advantage of these to produce more flexible, scalable and reliable apps.
// About Rich
Rich is a developer based in Chippenham, UK. He currently spends his days producing software for the pharmaceutical industry as lead developer at Cognisant. Outside the world of tech, he is enthusiastic about photography, film, comics, and coffee.
Toby Jackson – Sensu and System Monitoring
Most people treat monitoring like flossing – we know it’s good for you, but it’s a hassle, and only mentioned when someone asks difficult questions. In this talk, Toby will try to highlight what to focus monitoring on, where you can quickly deliver business value and provide a deep dive into one particular tool, Sensu, which has empowered the development team at Future PLC to truly take ownership and responsibility for their work.
// About Toby
Toby started as a PHP/Java software developer working at a PCI level 1 payment provider, moving through quality assurance, build and release management, advocating scrum/agile. Now, he is delivering innovation and first line support in a Senior Operations role at Future PLC.
He has experience in all phases of complex macro and microservice software platforms, which has given plenty of opportunities to fail, learn from those failures and he now wants to share these experiences with others.
Outside the office, Toby can be found with soldering irons, cameras, gamepads, geocaches, beers or simply relaxing with jazz and cats.
The Business Brainstorm
Thursday 1st September 2016 – 7pm to 9pm – Halo, 141 Gloucester Road, Bristol, BS7 8BA
Announcing the next Bristol Business Brainstorm – aimed at providing a social, interesting and productive evening. They’re a group for Entrepreneurs to meet up and talk through business ideas, challenges or anything else important.
What’s happening?
- 3 facilitated brainstorming sessions
- If you sign up for a slot to use your business for a brainstorm case study, you’ll have the chance to get the group working on your business ideas, opportunities or issues you want to discuss
- You’ll come away with specific solutions and actions for your business or the satisfaction of having helped others with their ideas
- Each session includes everybody at the event. If you attend, you will get to help others by contributing ideas, suggestions and questions while we brainstorm through their idea.
Signing up
If you would like to raise your idea or business issue as one of the 3 brainstorm slots, then message the group leader on Meetup. The event is limited to only three 20 minute slots. So, sign up before they fill up.
Bath Hacked: “Celebrate The City” Hack Day
Saturday 3rd September 2016 – 9:30am to 6:30pm – blubolt, 25 Queen Square, Bath
Bath: Hacked are holding a 1 day hack event in association with blubolt, a Bath-based eCommerce platform business. “blubolt have very kindly offered us the use of their office space, some food & drink and some prizes.”
The theme will be ‘Celebrate The City’, which they’ve chosen to be deliberately broad, as we’d like this event to be more informal and fun. “You’re also welcome to hack on anything, any way you choose – we’re not restricting ideas to use open data – we just want to see some great stuff. We’re sure you’ll come up with some great ideas as always.”
Who should come along?
The event is open to anyone, although numbers are limited so sign up fast. Our events are informal, social, lively occasions that bring together people from all walks of life and from all around the South West, to share their skills, creativity and ideas.
A rough schedule for the day is:
- 9.30: Registration
- 10.00: Introductions, networking & team formation
- 10.30: Begin hacking
- 1.00: Lunch
- 5.30: End of hacking, short pitches & judging
- 6.30: Prizes + finish
Digital Makers at The Guild
Saturday 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th September 2016 – 12:30pm to 2:30pm – The Guild co-working space, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW
“We are pleased to announce that we are running Digital Makers for children in KS2 and KS3, every Saturday at the Guild Coworking space in the Guild, Bath!”
To start with, students in Years 7 to 9 can work on creating their own emojis, interactive graphics or websites, while pupils in Years 5 & 6 can enjoy digital story making, showing characterisation and reinforcing the literacy framework.
During later Digital Makers sessions, students can have fun making interactive physical things with electronic components or LittleBits. Don’t forget to BYO laptop.
Google Analytics/Webmaster tools and Going Beyond the Customiser
Tuesday 6th September 2016 – 6:30pm – Famous Royal Navy Volunteer, 17-18 King Street, Bristol BS1 4EF
The Google Analytics group are putting on two more talks this month: an SEO themed talk on Google Analytics/Google Webmaster tools and a talk aimed at beginners on how to get more control over your website without coding.
The talks will be taking place in the upstairs room of The Famous Royal Navy Volunteer from about 6.30pm and there will be a chance to chat with members and ask questions both before and after the talks.
“Supercharging your Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools setup on WordPress” by Phil Pearce – Freelance PPC / SEO / Web Analyst
Phil will give us an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) themes talk first, walking us through the auto configuration files for Google Tag Manager – which outputs Google Analytics – and recommended Google Webmaster settings. He’ll also cover enabling structured data (JSONLD) which will improve your organic traffic.
Level: Intermediate +
—
“Beyond the Customiser – learn how to get more control over your website without coding” by Rob George – Web Developer and business owner
“Do you need to make a change to your WordPress theme, but there just isn’t an option in the menu to do it? Do you want to backup your site, but are flummoxed by the array of plugins and code out there available to do it? Then this talk is for you!”
Rob will cover how to perform useful actions without special software that will take your WordPress site to the next level. Learn how to:
- Set up and edit a child theme from the browser
- Backup and restore your website with complete confidence
If you’re already an expert then see how these tools can be used to allow you to help out non-experts when they don’t have a local copy of the website or a child theme.
Level: Beginner +
Bristol PHP Training: CI workshop – Setting up and using CI and code review tools
Wednesday 7th September 2016 – 6:30pm to 9:30pm – Location TBC
Every good software project needs code review and a CI server. This workshop will take you through setting up, configuring and using them.
“We’ll review why these are essential tools. Followed by a practical session for setting these up and then we’ll have a quick play.”
Keep an eye on the Meetup page for more details to follow.
Bristol Clojurians: Clojure ‘Office Hours’
Wednesday 7th September 2016 – 6:30pm to two – Oracle Bristol, Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane, Bristol, BS2 0JJ
This time, the Bristol Clojurians meetup will be following the office hours format. If you have a Clojure project you’re working on (or just some Clojure questions), bring it along to the Oracle offices to get some in-depth insight. They’ll be able to go through your code with you and offer advice.
Any project is welcome, whether it be an exercise from a beginners’ textbook or something crazy and ambitious, like a game. Maybe you just want an extra pair of eyes on that 4clojure problem you’re working on or want to upgrade your emacs setup. A bunch of devs will be on hand to help. Food and drinks will be provided. Just an FYI, the venue has changed to the Oracle office in central Bristol.
Enterprise Nation: Small business meet-up – Bristol
Wednesday 7th September 2016 – 10:00am to 11:30am – Second Floor Snug, Cafe Revival, 56 Corn Street, Bristol, BS1 1JG
Small business community, Enterprise Nation, is holding a coffee morning in Bristol every month to encourage conversation between small business owners and enthusiasts. In September, they’re heading to Bristol’s oldest coffee house, Cafe Revival – situated in the heart of the historic old city, Cafe Revival has been going for over 200 years. First drinks are on them!
“Enterprise Nation has helped thousands of people in the UK turn their good ideas into great businesses. Our monthly meet-ups are a fun and friendly way to chat with other people starting or growing a business in Bristol.”
The coffee mornings cost £5 to non-members, but if you join, then you can come along for free and receive 25% off EN’s business books and events, as well as telephone consultations with advisers. Go check out their website for more info.
We Design Forum Talk: “Why Words Matter”
Wednesday 7th September 2016 – 7pm to 9pm – Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA
“A word after a word after a word is power. But, as mutterings rise about a new ‘visual generation’ and emoticons become a shorthand for emotion, is this power being diminished? Words can still vivify, vex or perplex. They still need to be chosen carefully and used deliberately. The written language is still as crucial as the visual language in the creative industries, isn’t it?”
To discuss and debate this, WEDF have invited four seasoned wordsmiths with almost a century of experience between them to stand on their soapboxes and tell us once and for all why words matter. Join Lindsay Camp, Mike Reed, Clare Howdle and Kendra Fletcher for an evening dedicated to words, complete with some interactive wordplay.
To book your tickets, please visit Arnolfini’s website or call the box office on 0117 917 2300.
Like Minds, Bristol – “Innovation & Opportunity in Business”_
Thursday 8th September 2016 – 9am to Friday 9th September – 7pm – The Bristol Hotel, Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4QF
Like Minds, Bristol are putting on a 2-day conference featuring some very interesting people, discussing ways to improve your business, marketing strategy and growth. Tickets aren’t cheap (£295+VAT for the whole event, £149+VAT per day), but if you’re into that kind of thing, it looks to be a worthwhile event.
“Join over 200 leading Investors, Entrepreneurs and SME’s who’ll be coming together to discuss the most innovative thinking and doing in business today. We’ll cover a broad range of topics from how to scale up your business, the latest in AI, VR and internet security to the latest strategies and tools in marketing and social media to help position your business for future growth.”
- Mark Adams – Raised $40m in funding from Sean Parker
- Tiffany St James – One of the inaugural Tech City100
- Ross Williams – Grew a $50m a year global tech business without investment
- Nicole Yershon – Founded the Ogilvy Digital Innovation Lab
- Stephen Waddington – Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum
- Gemma Went – Digital Marketing and an Online Business Consultant
- Tom Salmon – Co-founded leading incubator, The Bakery
- Jennifer Arcuri – Co-founder of Hacker House™
- Chris Moss – Helped create Virgin Atlantic, Orange and 118118
- Emma-Jane Packe – Provides strategic development for growth companies
- Katz Kiely – Delivered a Transformation Initiative for the UN
- Rod Banner – Founded and sold The Banner Corporation to WPP
- Minter Dial – Non-Executive Board Director of Lastminute.com Group
- Steve Moore – Ex-policy advisor to No.10
- Leo Ryan – EMEA VP, Customer Solutions at social software company Spredfast
Visit the Like Minds website for more information.
Website Surgery – Introduction to E-Commerce
Thursday 8th September 2016 – 6:30pm – The Guild co-working space, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW
Laurence Tilley, Director of Bath-based agency, Design for Digital, will be giving a talk at this month’s Website Surgery on everything you need to know when starting or continuing to manage an e-commerce website.
During this session you’ll consider:
- Explaining the major e-commerce software providers
- What type of e-commerce store will your website contain?
- Choices surrounding themes, features and security
- What you can do to market your store and increase sales
TechRIDE: Cycling and talking tech
Friday 9th September 2016 – 8:30am to 11am – Mud Dock, 40 The Grove, Bristol, BS1 4RB
TechSPARK are putting on a slightly different event this time: a TechRIDE, discussing tech whilst cycling. This will be their inaugural event, running once a month from now onwards, and the route will change each month. They’re meeting at the Mud Dock cafe at 8:30am to begin the ride, which will take roughly 2 hours and they’ll stop for a coffee break at some point.
“As this is the week that the Tour of Britain is taking place, and Bristol about to become the European City of Sport, we thought it is about time for us techies, tech-curious, founders and entrepreneurs to get involved, get on the saddle and talk tech!”
The first ride will be led by Rich Keith of Yogscast fame, an avid techie, original TechSPARK member and super keen cyclist. While you don’t need to be an Olympian to join in and all are welcome, you will need to have a certain level of bike related fitness to enjoy it.
You will need to bring your own bike and helmet, and there is the possibility of using showers afterwards at the MudDock for those who don’t have that option at work – just let them know in advance so they know numbers. To join in the fun please also sign up to the TechRide Strava group.
Virgin Startup Meetup – “How to sell”
Monday 12th September 2016 – 5:30pm to 8:30pm – The Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Bristol, BS1 5TX
This event is delivered for Virgin Startup by Business West, who are the delivery partner for the South West of England.
“What do all the world’s greatest startups have in common? They’re great at sales. Whether you’re a small firm selling a product or a food expert selling your services, if you don’t sell enough, you won’t last a year.”
“How do you build a sales strategy to make sure you start generating income from the day you launch? And how do you build on this to keep those sales growing? These are questions that will be answered by the fantastic speakers at this meetup. We’ll also be proving to you that ‘sales’ isn’t a dirty word you should avoid; in fact, it’s one you need to embrace, as it’s all about communication and truly understanding your customer.”
Event running order:
- 17:30 – 18:00: Networking
- 18:00 – 18:15: Alison Edgar – The Entrepreneur’s Godmother
- 18:15 – 18:30: Emma Thorn – Grow My Business
- 18:30 – 19:00: Q&A
- 19:00 – 19:30: Networking
About the speakers:
Alison Edgar: The Entrepreneur’s Godmother, Alison has combined her knowledge of international hospitality management and blue chip sales to create a new fresh approach to sales training and coaching for start-ups, micro and small businesses, teaching them to sell more of their fantastic products and services. Alison has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 10 business advisors and attended the Queen’s Royal Garden Party for her dedication to Enterprise. She was also the winner of the Great Britain Entrepreneur of the Year special merit for service awards and chosen as a Small Business Saturday and Enterprise Nation champion. Regularly featured in national press and radio as a sales expert, her biggest thrill comes from seeing her client’s sales achievements.
Emma Thorn: After working in sales leadership, delivering sales strategies and growth for many years with brands as diverse as Smirnoff, Burt’s Bees and Pieminister, Emma decided to go it alone and launch her own start-up business. She now works with entrepreneurs and small business owners, enabling them to realise their sales plans. Emma will be sharing some of the concerns start-up owners experience on the journey from business planning to reaching sales targets, and will work through a simple exercise that will make you think about ‘how to sell’ from a different perspective.
Techie Brekkie: “How to Agile like a pro”
Tuesday 13th September 2016 – 8:15am to 10am – Bristol Engine Shed @ Temple Meads, BS1 6QH, Bristol
Want to find out more about agile working and how it can help your business be more efficient, collaborative and results-driven?
If you’ve worked in or managed any software development or IT team, you’ve probably heard of Agile project management at some point. Maybe your team uses it to deliver projects and you’d like a better understanding of how to make the most of agile working? Perhaps you’re completely new to the concept and are keen to find out how it could help you accelerate your business?
This brekkie will give an introduction to Agile working with plenty of time for questions from seasoned agile leader, Storm Fagan.
- 08:15 – 08:30: Arrival, coffee and brekkie scoffing
- 08:30 – 09:30: Talk from agile expert Storm Fagan followed by discussion & Q&A
- 09:30 – 10am: Networking and further caffeinating
Our speaker
Storm Fagan is an expert in agile working, building successful product strategies and creating brilliant tech products in both startup and large-scale enterprise environments. You can follow her @thestorminatrix. And, while you’re at it, why not check out her guest blogs at TechSPARK.co
JavaScript 101
Tuesday 13th, 20th September 2016 – 10am to 1pm – Beatroot Cafe, 20-21 Lower Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5BN
JavaScript101 is back after the summer break!
This meet up is about learning JavaScript together. We started out by working through the book Eloquent JavaScript, and then from September 2015 started building things – individual projects, as well as one project that we all work on together.
We might ‘re-design’ the format of these meetups a bit after the summer break, but we will very likely continue to work on our app.
Most members of this group have a basic knowledge of JavaScript, but if you are new to it, just work through the Codecademy JS track and/or the first chapters of Eloquent JavaScript – Udacity also has a good JS basics course – then come and join us.
Read about the current format of the meetup here.
Bristol CodeHub Hack Night
Tuesday 13th, 27th September 2016 – 6pm til 9pm – Momentum Financial Technology office, 10 Temple Back, Bristol, BS1 6FL
This is a chance for developers in Bristol to get together in an informal social setting to work on projects, learn, and share with other developers. With food and drinks provided, good wifi and table football/tennis, you’re bound to have a good time. BYO laptop. Sign up to the event on the Meetup page and let them know what you plan to work on. The event is sponsored by Momentum Financial Technology (MoneyHub) and takes place at their offices, which can be found here.
What is a “hack night”?
“A hack night is a casual social coding event where people can come together to work on projects and learn new technologies in any language, at any skill level. It is a good time to work on those projects on the “back burner” that you never have time for. Some people will have personal projects that they want to work on in a social atmosphere; others may be interested in pairing up to work on a project or learn something new together, or perhaps, work through some of the online coding challenges. Some people may be experts, others may be noobs, and others may just want to learn how to code – all are welcome!”
Previous hack night projects:
- People learned game development with three.js and phaser.js
- People worked on meteor.js and angular.js and node.js and Ruby on Rails
- People learned javascript on CodeAcademy Someone improved their functional programming by learning Haskell
- Someone wrote a test suite runner in C
- Someone played with node.js on an Arduino board
- People worked through the Euler project and game coding challenges
South West Data Social
Tuesday 13th September 2016 – 7pm to 10pm – The Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Bristol
The South West Data Social is an informal evening for those involved in using, learning about or discovering data technologies to meet and network. It takes place on the second Tuesday of every month at the Watershed.
Bath Scrum User Group: “10 Behaviours of Effective Employees” with Rob Lambert
Tuesday 13th September 2016 – 7pm – The Huntsman, 1 Terrace Walk, North Parade, Bath, BA1 1LY
“It’s never been more important to remain relevant to the company you work for, the wider community and the job market. The software industry is changing rapidly and traditional approaches to work are increasingly becoming irrelevant to many companies. In this changing market, being relevant means you’ll have more opportunities for work, discover more meaningful work and have the right mindset to help companies solve tricky problems.”
In this talk, Rob will be sharing 10 Behaviours that he’s seen effective employees demonstrate. The 10 behaviours that will help you to remain relevant are:
- 01 – Being Visibly Passionate
- 02 – Being Aggressively Open-Minded
- 03 – Stepping Outside Their Job Role
- 04 – Becoming Company Smart
- 05 – Customer Focused
- 06 – Improving The Process
- 07 – Do What They Say They Will
- 08 – Communicate Effectively
- 09 – Self Learners
- 10 – Bravery
This should be a fun and energetic talk and you’ll hopefully come away from it inspired to go forth and succeed.
About Rob Lambert
Rob Lambert is VP of Employee Engagement and Enablement at a fast paced technology company called NewVoiceMedia. Rob is also the owner of Cultivated Management, an online resource for those new to the challenging world of management. Rob started his career as a Software Testing, then an Engineering Manager and has now moved sideways into HR.
Rob’s mission is to inspire people to achieve great things in their careers and to take control of their own learning and self development.
South West Founders Meetup
Wednesday 14th September 2016 – 7pm – 10pm – The Watershed, Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX
Join the monthly meet-up for start-up founders, old, new and aspiring, to talk about your business ideas. Entrepreneurs and tech investors are welcome, but freelancers, consultants, lawyers and other service providers are discouraged, as the meet-up is more about founding or mentoring start-up businesses. It’s a very casual evening, so there’s a strict ‘no selling’ policy.
YENA – Young Networking Bath
Wednesday 14th, 21st September 2016 – 7pm to 10pm – Bath Brew House, 14 James Street, Bath, BA1 2BX
YENA is the popular & growing Young Entrepreneur Networking Association that brings networking events to those with a keen interest in business from between the ages of 15 & 30. Come along, get to know people, grow your network, find a business partner, gain some work, clients, or maybe even find a job!
This month: YENA Bristol returns to deliver another great event. Casual networking for all, with talks from our introductory and keynote speakers. Dress code: Come as yourself! There are no false personas at YENA – we want you to be as comfortable as you can. Smart casual is the norm, though.”
AWS Bath User Group: Meetup #2
Wednesday 14th September 2016 – 7pm to 10pm – The Makery, Beau Nash House, 19 Union Passage, Bath, BA1 1EU
At this meet up, there will be talks from Matthew Bates – “Kubernetes – managing containers on AWS”, Christopher Paton – “ServerLess app development on AWS” and Andy Powell – “Using AWS CloudFormation to build a Swarm container cluster”
For more details, keep an eye on the Meetup page.
Open Stack Day
Thursday 15th September 2016 – 8:30am to 5:30pm – HP Bristol, Long Down Avenue, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 8QZ
OpenStack Days bring together hundreds of IT executives, cloud operators and technology providers to discuss cloud computing and learn about OpenStack. The regional events are organised and hosted annually by local OpenStack user groups and companies in the ecosystem; these are often one or two-day events with keynotes, breakout sessions and even workshops. It’s a great opportunity to hear directly from prominent OpenStack leaders, learn from user stories, network and get plugged into your local community.
If you’d like to give a lightening talk, register to do so on the OpenStack Day UK website.
South West UK VMUG Meeting – September 2016
Thursday 15th September 2016 – 9:30am to 4:30pm – @Bristol, Anchor Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5DB
South West UK VMUG meeting is a mini free-to-attend user conference for social, networking, and educational opportunities for users interested in the VMware virtualization eco-system and supporting technologies and products.
TechSPARK Bristol: Morning Coffee and Networking
Thursday 15th September 2016 – 10:30am – Beatroot Cafe, 20-21 Lower Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5BN
TechSPARK Bristol are having their informal drop in coffee morning and networking forum. Come along and meet others who work in tech in the region.
Whether you’ve just moved your business to the area and would like to build your network, or if you’re well established in the region – do feel free to pop down, have a coffee, and a friendly chat.
The SPARK way
To ensure that these events are enjoyable and valuable, we do have some rules:
- (1) You can only attend an event if you are a member of the TechSPARK group
- (2) Absolutely no selling – TechSPARK is about forging relationships and sparking ideas, not about selling
- (3) If you have a ticket confirmed but can no longer make it, you must change your RSVP to let someone else on the waiting list attend – this ensures that as many people turn up on the night as possible.
BathCamp: Tech Education
Thursday 15th September 2016 – 7pm – The Guild co-working space, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW
September’s BathCamp features four fantastic and varied speakers covering all aspects of tech education, from teaching kids to teaching yourself.
“Get ‘em While They’re Young! Teaching Computer Science at Secondary School: the Demise of ICT Lessons and Inspiring Children to Code” – Laura James, Head of Computing & ICT at Beechen Cliff School
Laura James is the Head of Computing & ICT at Beechen Cliff School and will be talking about the latest approaches to getting kids to learn how to program and become computational thinkers, what new initiatives (and fads) there are that are helping schools to teach Computer Science and gazing into her crystal ball to guess what the future holds. There’ll be hands-on demos of the much lauded BBC micro:bit and perhaps examples of the sort of questions being asked at A Level Computer Science to test your brains!
“Running and Graduating from a Workplace Training Programme” – Mike Oram and Lucia Velasco, Mayden Academy
Mike talks about launching and running Mayden’s training programme for aspiring developers, the challenges faced and lessons learned along the way. Hear too from Academy graduate Lucia, about her experiences on the course and since graduating.
“Resources and approaches for self-directed learning, and how to stay current” – Dave Webb
“I have spent my career in IT and management but realised that I’d lost touch with technology and the joy that got me into tech in the first place a couple of decades ago. In a time when it’s absolutely rampant, I didn’t want to miss out on it anymore. But how can you jump on when it is moving so fast and in so many possible directions? As a mid-life learner, I want to share what I have learned about the very many free or low cost learning resources there are for coding and computer science, the paths I have explored and some personal keys for successful learning.”
“How to Stay Fresh, Motivated and Interested in Tech by Having Fun” – Adam Butler, Simpleweb
Coders have incredibly rewarding jobs, we get to build products that change the world and improve the quality of peoples’ lives. However it is also one of the most mentally challenging careers – as developers, we’re expected to build something from nothing, that works across an increasingly diverse range of platforms in a constantly evolving landscape, all too often with very limited resource.
“In this talk, I’ll cover these challenges as well as playful mechanics that you can use to tackle these issues, whilst developing yourself personally. We’ll look at some strategies to ensure that you continue to test your assumptions, experiment often and stay motivated, including some fun hardware hacks that have taught me some genuine skills that I actually use in my job.”
“Expect to see Eugene, the IoT taxidermy ship it squirrel, mini missile launchers, drones and plenty of other stuff that are almost certainly applicable to building real stuff, you know for banks and stuff.”
Bristol WebPerf: Web performance extravaganza
Thursday 15th September 2016 – 7:00pm – cxpartners, 2 College Square, Bristol
Keep an eye on the Meetup page for more details…
Develop Me: Designing and building a RESTful API with note.js
Friday 16th September 2016 – 9:30am to 5:30pm – Unit 1.8 – The Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3EH
node.js is a JavaScript runtime which allows JavaScript code to be executed on the server. Its’ non-blocking, event driven approach makes it ideal for building APIs which can scale to thousands of concurrent connections. REST is a set of rules for describing client-server interaction. A RESTful API is an API which is designed to be compatible with the REST standard. By building an API in a RESTful manner, you can be confident that clients can consume your data with ease.
During this workshop you’ll learn how to build a RESTful API for creating, retrieving, updating and deleting database entries. The workshop covers the following concepts:
- Designing a RESTful API for CRUD operations (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete)
- Approaching implementation of the API using a Test-Driven approach
- Implementing the CRUD actions using node.js and express.js
- Implementing sorting, pagination and filtering for the Retrieve operation
- Adding non-RESTful actions
- Adding authentication to your API
- Implementing rate limiting to mitigate denial of service attacks
- Discussing options for deploying your API
- Scaling the API using the cluster module
- Documenting your API
Prerequisites:
- node.js v6 + npm v3
- MongoDB server
- Git
- Text editor (e.g. Sublime Text)
Technical knowledge:
- Intermediate-level understanding of JavaScript
- Understanding of ES6 basics (let, const, template strings, classes)
- Basic knowledge of CLI usage
- Basic knowledge of git
No prior knowledge of node.js is necessary, but a basic understanding of it will be useful.
Bristol JS: Visualising Cities using ViziCities & Contextual Communications
Wednesday 21st September 2016 – 7:00pm – JUST EAT, 2nd Floor Broad Quay House, Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4DJ
“Understanding cities using ViziCities and 3D data visualisation” – Robin Hawkes
ViziCities is an open-source 3D city visualisation platform powered by OpenStreetMap, WebGL and many other cutting-edge Web technologies. ViziCities not only allows you to explore any city in the world in 3D in your browser, it also lets you overlay data like live transport, crime, pollution, live social data, and weather. Think SimCity meets the real world!
In this talk, Robin Hawkes, ViziCities’ creator will introduce you to the project and demonstrate its powerful methods for visualising the complex data locked within our cities.
“Contextual Communications: What, Why and How?” – Phil Leggetter
You’ve probably heard the term ‘Contextual Communications’ over the past year. But what does it mean? Why does it matter? And how would you use contextual communications within an application that you are building?
In this talk, Phil will share the What, Why and How of contextual communications. Think SMS, in-app messaging, voice and mix in things like location, time, history and all the data around this.
Simpleweb Challenge Hack Day – The Future of Chat
Saturday 24th September 2016 – 10am to 10pm – Simpleweb, Unit G, Albion Dockside Building, Hanover Place, Bristol, BS1 6XT
This month, Simpleweb are running an all-day creative hack day – both techies and non techies are welcome.
“Join us on Saturday September 24th for our mini hacking festival. We’ll be kitting the place out for festival vibes with music, home cooked food and drinks flowing all day.”
If you’re not a coder, it’s not a big deal. With prizes for ideas, wireframes and working prototypes, everyone’s eligible to win something.
They’ll be starting at 10:30am and stop at 5pm with a break for Geekfeeder’s famous sandwiches for lunch. During the day, there will be a couple of optional creative talks if you fancy a break.
Later, there will be a hot, homemade dinner (veggie and meat options available) at 5pm before gathering to show and tell, and pick winners until around 7pm.
“We’ll be staying on at the venue until 10pm and we’d love for you to all join us for drinks.”
The Challenge
Your challenge will be to create working prototypes or concepts for apps in the area of chat, automation, AI and community.
Great apps aren’t just about tech, so as well as developers, all creative, business-minded and ideas people are invited. No experience needed!
Whatever your area of expertise, everyone is welcome to help visualise the future of chat. There’s no limit to what you can create: be it pen and paper sketches of the next beautiful chat app or functioning apps, bots, hardware hacks etc. The only criteria is that your project takes chat to the next level.
The Rules
No coding or creating mockups before the day! – preparation is good, and you’re welcome to a bit of research beforehand, but to keep things fair you can’t have started on the code or mockups for your project until the day.
You can work alone or in teams of up to 3 people. It’s recommend that you gather your team beforehand.
The Prizes
Prizes will be awarded across a number of techie and non-techie categories, so everyone has a fair shot at winning.
Food and Drink
Homemade food, beer, cider and soft drinks will be on hand throughout the day courtesy of GeekFeeder and the fabulous sponsors.
CookiesHQ’s First Open Desk Day
Wednesday 28th September 2016 – 9:30am to 5:30pm – CookiesHQ, 5 Beauley Road, Southville, Bristol, BS3 1PX
Hello!
We’re pleased to announce that we’re having the first of our Open Desk Days where we invite local freelancers, remote and solo workers to work in our office for the day.
We’ll be opening up our meeting room for the chance to spend a bit of time working alongside like-minded people, getting to know us here at CookiesHQ, with free wi-fi and the chance to use our device lab.
There’ll also be tea, coffee and water provided throughout the day. We tend to break for lunch together, so feel free to do so, if you’d like. North Street is a five minute walk away and has lots of places to grab a sandwich or something tasty.
If you’d like to join in, please RSVP to this event. There is a limit of 6 places for each month, but if you miss out on this one, we’ll add you to our list for next time.
Please leave a comment below, drop us a message on Meetup or send us a tweet if you’d like to know more.
Bath Ruby Talk Night
Thursday 29th September 2016 – 6:30pm to 9:30pm – The Guild co-working space, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW
Bath Ruby are having a talk night featuring Andrew Nesbitt – “Hell is Other People’s Code”.
More speakers will be confirmed nearer to the time. Keep an eye on the Meetup page for more details.
Main image by Gordon Plant
