1. Edinburgh meet-up

    Edinburgh - Victoria Street by Zoute

    Hey ho, Edinbro’.

    We’re holding our next pubmeet at the Kenilworth pub and we’d love to see you there.

    If you’re curious about mySociety’s work, or just interested in the wider digital democracy scene, do drop by for a drink and a chat. You’ll meet (at least) a couple of mySociety’s Developers, our Senior Consultant Mike, and our Marketing and Communications Manager Myf.

    When: Wednesday 30th of October, 7:00 pm until 10:00 pm-ish
    Where: The Kenilworth, 152-154 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3JD Map
    How: Add yourself to our Lanyrd page so we know there’ll be enough people to make it worthwhile.
    Who: Anyone who fancies it.
    Hashtag: #mysocial

    NB: Look out for the mySociety hoodie (they look like this, only usually with a person inside). Watch our Twitter stream on @mySociety to check for last minute advice about where we are sitting or if we have moved venues for unforseen reasons.

    The next day, we’ll be at the Capita Channel Shift conference. If you’re going too, we’d love to see you for drinks the night before.

    Photo by Zoute (CC)

  2. Where to meet mySociety

    For an organisation whose members normally work from home, we’ve been pretty sociable recently, with meet-ups, conferences, and our annual retreat. We’re glad to discover that we haven’t actually lost the ability to communicate face to face…

    If you’d like to come and sample our sharply honed social skills for yourselves, there are a number of opportunities still to come.

    Every Wednesday: London meet-ups

    Jed and Firefox[Above : mySociety designer Jed, chilling in front of the Mozilla Firefox]

    If you’re in London, do feel free to drop by and say hello, any Wednesday from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm. We meet at the Mozilla London space – and there are often other interesting things going on too.

    Meet-ups are not just for coders – they’re for anyone who would like to talk more about mySociety projects or the wider eDemocracy field. On October 30th, we’re tying in with the Open Government Partnership event; you’re welcome to attend then or any other week.

    Fancy coming along? Add your name to our Lanyrd pages here.

    mySociety and Mozilla meet-up

    [Above: Our meet-ups are not always this busy! On this night, we happened to coincide with a Mozfest planning event.. speaking of which, see below]

    25th – 27th October: Mozfest

    Mozfest in Ravensbourne, London, is Mozilla’s annual innovative open web event for ‘technologists and creators’.

    The event kicks off on the night of Friday 25th with a Science Fair. We’ll be there, showing our wares – in this case, we’ll be hoping to meet many of the internatonal attendeees and let them know about our open source software. But if you’re not an international attendee, you should totally swing by and say hello too.

    30th October: Edinburgh

    The next non-London mySociety meet-up will be in Edinburgh – watch this blog, our Twitter stream and Facebook page for details of precisely where (it’ll be a nice, central pub that serves food… suggestions are welcome).

    That’s in advance of our attendance at the Channel Shift conference – but you don’t have to be a council employee to drop in. Come and share a pint and have a chat, whichever aspect of our work interests you.

    20th November: Online Information conference

    mySociety’s Director Tom will be giving the keynote presentation at the Online Information conference, the theme of which is “adapting to disruptive technologies and creating value with people, platforms and information”. Feel free to grab Tom afterwards for a chat!

    4th December: Manchester

    As with Edinburgh, we’re pitching up in Manchester for a Channel Shift conference, and will be taking the opportunity to mingle with lovely locals the night before. Again, pub suggestions are more than welcome.

    We hope to see you soon at one of these events. And, if you’re wondering what we look like, well, you’re in luck. At our recent retreat we took a photo of the entire team (plus a few guests). Here we are in all our glory – click to see a larger version, if you dare.

    mySociety team October 2013
  3. Cardiff meet-up

    Cardiff Castle by Candy Schwartz

    Hey, Cardiff!

    We’re having a meet-up on Thursday 17th of October, and we’d love to see you.

    We’ll be in the Goat Major pub from 7:00 pm. Do drop by if you’d like to. There’s no agenda – it’s a chance to talk about mySociety projects (charitable and commercial), or just to share a drink with friendly people.

    When: Thursday 17th of October, 7:00 pm until 10:00 pm-ish
    Where: Goat Major, High Street, Cardiff CF10 1PU Map
    How: Just turn up, but add yourself to our Lanyrd page if you’d like to let others know you’ll be there.
    Who: Anyone who fancies it.
    Hashtag: #mysocial

    NB: Look out for the mySociety hoodie (they look like this, only usually with a person inside). Watch our Twitter stream on @mySociety to check for last minute advice about where we are sitting or if we have moved venues.

    The next day, we’ll be at the Digital Public Services Wales conference. If you’re going too, we’d love to see you for drinks the night before.

    Photo by Candy Schwartz (CC)

  4. Save the Date: 30th October 2013

    The International team are taking over a Wednesday mySociety meet up!

    As you know, there is a large OGP event happening in London at the end of October. There are also a number of fringe events happening, some of which we’ll be attending, and one of which we’ll be running!

    Every Wednesday mySociety holds a meet up at the Mozilla Space in London. On the evening of October 30th we are hosting a slightly larger event and want to invite anyone who is in town for OGP as well as anyone who wants to attend from London or the UK.

    As always we’ll provide Pizza and Beer, as well as a range of other snacks and nibbles. We’d love it if anyone wanted to do a short lightening talk about something they’re working on. This would be really informal, no presentations, just a quick, snappy “Here’s my project, here’s why I think it’s important, here’s how you can get involved.” If that interests you, please email me at hello@mysociety.org so I know you’ll be there and be talking.

    Most of all we want to meet more people from all over the world working on different projects around open data, civic engagement, social inclusion, transparency and accountability and other such topics.

    The space is limited to 70 people, so please do either register your attendance on Lanyrd or email me so I can add you to the list.

    We’ll be there from 6pm to 9pm, though the Mozilla space is open to anyone working on an “open project” – anything open source, open data etc – from 2:30pm. If you’re not going to be available until later in the evening, never fear! We’ll head to The Chandos, a pub just down the road, from 9pm onwards.

    This is one of many events that is a part of Global Transparency Week, please do check out what else is going on!

    Hope to see you there!

    Image credit Cocktail by Chamagraphy | Waterdrop World by Doug88888
  5. Wednesday meet-ups: code, chat and crisps

    Mozilla London

    We’re meeting up every Wednesday night at the Mozilla London space. You’re welcome to join us!

    This coming Wednesday, we’ll be joined by Arnaud Sahuguet from Google. Normally resident in New York, he’s Product Manager for Google Maps infrastructure.

    Arnaud’s areas of expertise are digital mapping, cryptography, databases and data management.

    He describes his current areas of interest as “Civic Search Engine Optimisation; open data; and civic CMS. In general, I like to hear about a new problem and try to provide a first quick and dirty solution”.

    What happens at a mySociety meet-up?

    • Meet mySociety developers and other people interested in civic and democratic projects;
    • Talk about project ideas you may have; get advice or find people to help you;
    • Chat about our projects, data and tools;
    • Do some coding if you’d like to;
    • Drink beer, eat crisps and socialise.

    There’s no need to book – just turn up; BUT, do add yourself to our Lanyrd pages. Then other people with similar interests will know you’ll be there.

    When? Every Wednesday, 6-9pm

    Where? Mozilla London

    Links to Lanyrd pages:

    Photo by Jonathan McIntosh (CC)