First Web Standards Group Meetup on Friday 14th July | Comments (23)
Posted in Events on 8th June 2006, 12:55 am by Stuart
Once I started work in London I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some kind of bi-monthly Web Standards Group meetup happening in London. Most of the inspiration for this came out of jealousy of all of the events happening over in Australia, it was about time we had our own meetup in good ol’ Blighty.
I am pleased to announce the first WSG Meetup is now happening on the 14th July at the Oakden Lecture theatre, City University nr Angel Tube station. The speakers are Christian Heilmann, JavaScript maestro and author of the upcoming book, Beginning Javascript with DOM Scripting and Ajax and user experience designer Andy Budd who is the author of the excellent CSS Mastery. There will be book giveaways thanks to Friends of ED and the whole thing will be podcast courtesy of Presenta.
In doing this I wanted it to not be a ‘preaching to the choir’ kind of event, and I hope that any web developers based in or around London will feel welcome, regardless of their ability or awareness of web-standards. So if you work within a team please do bring your colleagues along with you, I guarantee it will be an enjoyable night out. Please note there’s no need to be a member of the Web Standards Group to attend but if you’d like to join for free, you can do so on the Web Standards Group website.
For more info and to book a ticket at Ł4.50, please head over to the WSG Meetup mini-site. Don’t hang about as there’s only 200 places.
If you don’t live in or around London and the Web Standards Group don’t currently run an event near you please think about starting one. It sounds like a lot of work and it does take a bit of effort but it’s great fun and it’s great to be able to give something back to the web standards community. Contact Russ or Peter via info[at]webboy.net.
As one of those lucky Australian’s who hopefully has a regular WSG meeting in their city (Perth, the third WSG meeting is next week), I can’t stress the importance of these meetings for the social aspect.
I’ve added this to my shared “London Geek Events” Google Calendar
http://blog.dixo.net/2006/05/02/london-geek-events-google-calendar/
I haven’t hung ’bout, got my ‘ticket’, after my brief confusion of the wrong month!
That was a bit silly really, wasn’t it Trovster?
I’ve got mine too – bought it whilst I still thought it was happening slap bang before @media – and I think I was the first person to do so. At least, after I bought mine the remaining tickets flag said 199. So, where’s my “keen boy” prize?
@Neil: Well done for being the first. If that doesn’t earn you some kind of free book prize I don’t know what does.
Hooray!
After not getting round to going to the Geek Dinner back in January, I’ve decided to throw myself in feet first to anything like this that comes up (and say Yes more too). So when I saw this was on I bought up a ticket straight away, even though at the time I thought it clashed with the @media opening do.
Oh, and I’ve just convinced my non-coding girlfriend that it would be a good and enjoyable thing for her to go to too.
Hmm, should I fly back to London again the next month?
Damn, as a fellow WSGer I’d love to be there, however I have no idea who will cover me the flights to London every second month 
Maybe I should start to think about WSG Prague or something…
Hi,
I’ve taken quite a keen interest in web design over the last few months and I can see trying to roll into a career with it. As of right this second im nearly 17, and im not sure if this would be a problem?
Thanks
@Jan: I reckon you should!
@Geoff: Sure you’d be more than welcome!
Ill probably make an appearance then! Thanks y’all…
@Geoff: Please do. This event is certainly not an elitist ’standardistas only’ event. Everyone who is interested in learning more about web standards is welcome to come.
I’m pretty sure whether you are a seasoned web developer or just starting out you’ll get a lot out of it. Not to mention the chance to network after the event over a beer or two.
*makesnote*
Add something entertaining for non-coding girlfriends
Stuart! Brush up on law: Geoff = 17, Beer = 18 so Geoff + Beer = No.. but I can always have a coke;)
@Geoff: Shame on me! Ah well you can always have a shandy instead.
Well, I’ve been playing with this idea for a year or so, maybe if some of you folks come by…
Prague’s a nice city 
@Jan: Fantastic idea. I’ve always wanted to see Prague.
I’ve seen Prague several times. It tends to get blurry after an hour or so! Darn Pilsner.
I wonder will there ever be meetings in Croatia;
@Chris – haha darm Pilsner
“You’re getting sleeepy… You will now board a plane to Prague…”
Ah, OK, seriously… that’d be awesome, I’ll try to persuade you somehow the next week.
Chris) Yeah, it’s a typical issue, I know it’s really demanding here
Cheers from my hometown – Pilsen… 
OK, here’s the deal, you all sort out venues and pay Stuart and me the travel (flight to Germany is enough, I can take my parent’s car from there) and accommodation and we do the WSG Euro tour
I liked croatia. Very Sunny and mediterranean but not as touristy.
@Marko, Jan and Chris: I’m sitting here drinking a glass of ice-cold Budvar, thinking how great the idea of a WSG European tour would be
. Count me in!
Got me some tickets, this is going to be great. Do I have to bring a PowerBook covered in cool stickers and take notes?
Oh and a Prague meetup sounds like fun, it could get quite messy.
Rob, I have some old F4CG and Fairlight stickers somewhere, that’ll even give you street cred amongst the “scene” kids