This months meetup will be on the 5th August and as ever be in the back room of the Admiral Benbow Pub in the heart of Shrewsbury Town Centre (Directions can be found here)

The back room has it’s own access to the bar and a good choice of Real Ale. (List of Ales can be found here)

The meetup will start at around 7.30pm but anyone who wishes to come can drop in at anytime between then and closing time.

All are welcome who believe they have a geeky side to them and enjoy a good mix of beer and geekery with friendly bunch of fellow geeks.

For the latest news follow us on twitter @shropgeek

Hope to see you there.

So whats it all about?

Taking place at The Prince Rupert Hotel in Shrewsbury on September 2nd 2011, The Theory of (R)Evolution? event is an evening showcasing the most forward thinking ideas on the web today; delivered by some of the industries most innovative individuals.

The Speakers

Duncan Bloor currently works for the BBC as part of their audience acquisition team and specialises in search engine optimization.  It’s a term that many Shropshire companies will no doubt be familiar with but would openly admit is an area of confusion.  Duncan will be shedding light on how to use search engine data to gain insights into your audience and create content they will want to read.

Chris Thorpe has worked on projects as diverse as the video archives of Nobel Prize winners, putting contemporary art on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and open data projects with the UK government. He will be talking about these fascinating projects.

Alex Hardie, 30, started his career in communications as a journalist. He spent 5 years as head of marketing at Virgin, before moving to San Francisco self publishing company, Blurb, where he helped launch the brand across Europe.  As the director of How Do You Do, a digital marketing company he has a special interest in social media and how it can be used effectively.

Who should come along?

There is no exact criteria for people who should attend, however, if you answer yes to any of the following you should definitely come!

• You have an interest in how the internet has evolved and shaped our daily lives.
• You work in the web, design and IT related industries.
• You would like the opportunity to meet other ‘like-minded’ people and enjoy a relaxed evening of innovative talks.

This year we have a bigger venue so no one has to miss out. Held in The Darwin Suite, doors will open at 6pm with the first speaker taking the stage at 6.30pm.

The ticket price will pay for the venue and marketing costs, with any further profit going to the British Heart Foundation in memory of Leu Thorn one of the founders of Shropgeek.

To book tickets or to find out more information visit: www.shropgeek-revolution.co.uk
Alternatively you can download the flyer here

So come along, have a pint and relax for a social evening with like-minded people and enjoy some of the fittest ideas – in true Darwinian spirit – in the birthplace of evolutionary thought: Shrewsbury

The Shropgeek / Shropshire Jelly ‘Social’.

Held at The Boathouse in Shrewsbury, the evening was fantastic! Approximately 35 people came along, many of whom are regular Shropgeek and Shropshire Jelly attendees, and quite a few new faces as well. Check out the photos at the bottom of the page.

If you are based in Shropshire and on Twitter you couldn’t fail to miss the chat over the weekend about the event. It was brilliant to see that so many people enjoyed themselves and had the opportunity to meet other Shropshire folk they wouldn’t normally. If you did miss it then you will also have missed the ‘roll call’ Jan Minihane did.

In case you did, here is a recap of all the twitter names (in no particular order) of the people that attended.

• @janminihane
• @kirstyburgoine
• @zbeauvais
• @tim_ogrady
• @EnterpriseHQ
• @AdrianBool
• @jamiebiddle
• @SFRdesign
• @sussexmouette
• @britevents
• @eventsbabe
• @michaelabeyond
• @jimallthetime
• @PandPtours
• @CharlieOakham
• @FannyFancy
• @MoystenGorjus
• @shroptherapies
• @intheshed
• @TootSweetsShrew
• @JuliaPitkin
• @saltsolutionsuk
• @stewartnoble
• @mytrans
• @moyam
• @danjwilkinson
• @vickycleaton
• @morgannunns
• @ukhogette
• @LoveTurtleDoves
• @cpritch

Big thanks to Jan for taking the time on a saturday to compile this list.

If you are on Twitter and you don’t follow all of these people, you should!
And of course, to keep up to date with Shropgeek or Shropshire Jelly you should follow:

• @Shropgeek
• @ShropshireJelly

So, fancy coming along again?
The next regular Shropgeek meet up will be 4th March 2011 back at The Admiral Benbow in Shrewsbury.

There are also discussions currently going on about Shropshire Jelly evenings becoming a regular event so watch out for more news about those as well.

Gallery
A few photos from the evening:

Come along to February’s Shropgeek meetup, held on January 28th 2011, at The Boathouse in Shrewsbury to find out.

Why are we meeting a week early? Well, we have something rather special lined up.

Introducing Shropshire Jelly …

Many of you who attend Shropgeek will already know about Shropshire Jelly. For those who don’t, Jelly is an informal co-working event where freelancers, home workers and small/micro business owners bring their laptop or other work and work, chat and collaborate with other small business owners (If you would like to find out more about what Jelly is all about visit the UK Jelly website).

It is safe to say that Jelly has been a phenomenal success in Shropshire. With this in mind, they have decided to organise their first ‘social’ event in collaboration with Shropgeek.

If you have been to a Shropgeek before, you will already be familiar with the format. Starting at 7.30pm, it is a relaxed evening of beer and chat and a great opportunity for people working in all industries to socialize with no pressure of networking.

Everybody is welcome, it doesn’t matter whether you have been to a Shropgeek meetup or Shropshire Jelly before. We always guarantee a fun evening with friendly banter. Oh, and of course local Shropshire Ales (important to all geeks! ~ grin!).

If you are interested in coming along then please do let us know so we have an idea of numbers. You can let us know by any of the usual methods. Either comment below, tweet the @Shropgeek twitter account or let either myself (Kirsty Burgoine) or Jan Minihane know.

So, if you want to find out what happens when you cross a geek with some jelly then you will want to come to the Shropgeek / Shropshire Jelly ‘Social’ at The Boathouse, Shrewsbury, from 7.30pm on 28th Jan 2011!

See you all there! ~ grin!

On 29th December 2010 the Shropgeek Christmas Party will be held at The Three Tuns Inn in Bishops Castle.

So now that this is definite, there are a variety of options available.

1. Transport
Because Bishop’s Castle isn’t necessarily the easiest place to get to (unless you drive), if there are enough people from Shrewsbury (or people willing to travel to Shrewsbury) we will arrange a mini bus to take everyone to Bishop’s Castle and back again.

2. Food
Similarly if there are enough people that would like food the restaurant have said they will do a 2 course Christmas meal at £15 per person if we book in advance.

3. Tour of the Brewery
Three Tuns Brewery have very kindly said they will do a tour of the brewery FOC depending on the numbers. If there are around 15 people or less interested it will be free. If a lot more people are interested then there will be small charge as they will split into 2 or more tours which takes up a lot of their time.

Of course you don’t have to go with any of these options, you are more than welcome to just show up and enjoy a beer with us.

So now all I need from you guys is an idea on numbers. If you would like to come along please either email me at info@kirstyburgoine.co.uk, tweet / DM the @shropgeek twitter account or comment below and let us know!

The Three Tuns is a fantastic venue so lets party Shropgeek style (i.e. drink some real Shropshire ale at a brewery! ~ grin!). Look forward to seeing you all there!

And if you can’t make it? We’ll see you at the first regular meetup of 2011 back at The Admiral Benbow, Shrewsbury on 7th January

But, before that, we have one more regular meetup on 10th September 2010.

Although shropgeek meetups are usually the first friday of every month, because of scheduling conflicts for several of our regular attendees, we have decided to move September’s meetup to Friday 10th September at The Admiral Benbow in Shrewsbury (Details of the venue can be found here).

This does however mean that, although later than normal, it does make it a rather special meetup. Both Jamie Biddle (@jamiebiddle) and myself (@kirstyburgoine) will be celebrating our birthdays the following week (hence the random picture of geeky cake! ~ grin!). So what better excuse than to celebrate at Shropgeek!

The evening starts at 7.30pm and as always, you can expect beer and geekery and anyone is welcome to come along. Hope to see you there!

This resulted in a fantastic (almost full page feature) in The Shropshire Star on Saturday 17th July.

If you missed it and would like to read the full feature we now have a PDF copy that you can download.

Download the Shropshire Star feature

Big thankyou to The Shropshire Star for doing the feature and also to Ben Bentley for coming along and sending the PDF

On 24^th September 2010 Shropshire finally gets its first web event … The Theory of (R)Evolution. Courtesy of Shropgeek!

Held at The Boathouse, and hosted by Shropgeek, the event showcases some of the most forward thinking ideas on the web today.

The evening will consist of three talks by experts within their specialist fields. Dan Catt, a web developer for The Guardian, Creative Boom’s very own Katy Cowan and Zach Beauvais, a platform evangelist for Talis.

So why a web event?

The web industry is one of the few areas that continues to grow despite the recession. However, web events and seminars are becoming less affordable each year. As the amount of people working online continues to increase, one area of the country seems to remain largely forgotten.

Shropshire has a thriving web industry, so Shropgeek decided to give something back!

About the Revolution!

The history of the internet is one of evolution in technology and revolution in daily life. All three of the speakers have helped change the way we think about the internet and its role in our lives.

Dan Catt - will discuss how the Guardian is evolving with it’s Open Platform, APIs, digital journalism and good old pragmatic programming.

Katy Cowan - will talk about how Creative Boom was born and how its success has helped struggling artists and freelancers and in turn helped her own business thrive.

Zach Beauvais – will discuss Linked Data and the Semantic Web and how it’s gone from a notional possibility to a useful technology being employed in the wild.

So, have a pint and join us for some of the fittest ideas in true Darwinian spirit in the birthplace of evolutionary thought, Shrewsbury.

Doors open at 6pm.

Early bird tickets are on sale now for £10 and can be purchased through Eventbrite here: http://shropgeek.eventbrite.com/

If you would like to find out more about the event you can visit the official website www.shropgeek-revolution.co.uk. To find out more about what goes on at regular shropgeek meet ups follow us on twitter @shropgeek

The August shropgeek meetup will be Friday 3rd August 2010. As usual it will be at The Admiral Benbow in Shrewsbury from 7.30pm onwards.

Ideas and suggestions for topics for discussion are always welcome, either comment below or join in on twitter!

If you are coming along for the first time, don’t worry we don’t have the Shropshire Star there every week! ~ grin!

I’ve spent this evening at the Admiral Benbow, with a great set of people and we’ve discussed some great topics, had a good laugh, and at one point cried… In a good way… Yes, tonight was the once-a-month meeting for the Shopgeek crew that consists of Jamie Biddle, Kirsty Burgoine, Zach Beauvais, Stewart Noble and finally Steph and Myself (Also Heather, @salt_events for a short time!).

The night has consisted of some great chit chat, ranging from the extensive functionality in Zach and Jamie’s iPads through to the actual uses for Linked In and its popularity in today’s world of information technology.
For Adam, Steph and I the night started at about 7.30, although when we arrived at the Benbow we found that Stewart, Heather, Kirsty and Zach were already sitting comfortable in the beer garden, watching Adam lead two knew sheep in to the Back Room.

Yet after a quick look in there and finding our peers in the quite chilly beer garden we relocated to the cosy Back Room and quickly got acquainted. From then on we got some great snippets of conversation on a range of different topics including Linux administration and how well the latest Ubuntu supports hardware, the iPad, it’s uses, and whether our guys found the novelty wore off and finally how well established Linked In had become in today’s world and whether businesses were actually using it to find prospective employees, which I’ll add is a resounding yes from several of the accomplished members of the group.

Finally, we didn’t finish off the night as late as the others, but Adam and myself finished of the night with a short chorus of build me up buttercup followed by night fever complete with short bee-gees style dance before leaving for home and fervently awaiting next months Shropgeek meeting, which I will surely be trying my hardest to attend and of course, encourage as many people to attend as possible (Even if they think they aren’t geek enough! )

Over and out!