Used with permission, Thanks lomokev!

In Brighton there is a lot of event activity at the end of each year, here’s a list:

• Develop – 14th-16th July 2009
• Beachdown Music Festival – 28th-31st August 2009
• dConstruct – 4th September 2009
• Barcamp Brighton – 5th-6th September 2009 TBC
• Flash on the Beach – 20th-23rd September 2009
• Mix UK – September 2009 TBC
• Amplified (new) – September 2009 TBA
• Head – October 2009 TBC
• Brighton Comedy Fringe – 15th-31st October 2009
• Paramount Comedy Festival – 15th-31st October 2009
• Full Frontal (new) – 20th November 2009
• CINECITY – Novemeber 2009
• DiMAS (web awards) – November 2009 TBC
• Twestival – September 2009? TBC
• Farm Hack Day – 2009? (might have been a one-off last time)

And other regular, smaller events, all year round, such as:

• £5app
• Cafe Scientifique
• Flash Brighton
• Robot Brighton
• Tuttle
• Pecha Kucha

So how about joining them together, informally at first, under one umbrella group of events, a festival of festivals if you will! A month (or 2?) of events and activities, strung together, collaborating on parts, and going beyond the normal boundaries. It’s when fringes blur into each other that things get really interesting.

Ok so the dates are a little far apart for some of those events, but others are so close together that maybe other events will appear in between. We’re way off having a single ticket for everything, but a single banner could be achievable.

I can imagine creating an atmosphere of creativity and learning, mixed with music and relaxation, not to mention the meeting people and spending real time exploring ideas in between events, not being rushed, or leaving town the next day..

So would this be a good idea? Would we risk dilution? or would it raise the profile of the events and the city?

What do you think?

(Oh, and any events I missed that would fit in well?)

UPDATE:
Here’s some more groups that meet regularly.. I’m sure they could organise something during the festival too :)

Brighton Bloggers, Freelancers Farm, Girl Geek Dinners, UX Brighton, Geek Wine Thing, Brighton Flickr, Open Coffee Sussex, Likemind, Skillswap, Sussex Geek Dinners, Brighton Illustrators, Brighton Vine, Freelance Journalists…

What else is going on in art, music, film or literature that the geeks don’t know about? I’ll add to the list. This is also relevant to Amplified09 too, which will be a one day meeting during this period, of all these groups and networks.

UPDATE 2:
Two other music festivals to add to Beachdown are Loop and The Great Escape, I don’t think they’ll move from the summer, but maybe they could all collaborate on a weekend in September? :)

Brian and I started showing the others in the room the QR Code project we had been working on, and so started a few hours of browsing the internet, discovering things and showing each other cool stuff we’d found, or saved earlier.

Yeah maybe we did also just watch a view videos, or geek over various map mashups, but we all came away with a feeling that the format worked really well, even though it hadn’t been planned.

The guys upstairs finishing their project came down and joined us, and so we wrapped up and went to the pub. We all learned something, shared something, and felt just a bit inspired.

So I’ve decided to organise a similar session.. 27th March from 5pm, at the Skiff, sign up here. There is no agenda, and no pressure to show anything, just come and hang out and see where the browsing and conversation takes us.. I’ll also add a wiki page for each of these meets, where we can list all the things we browsed and add some notes.

Sign up here.

We’ve very kindly got a small sponsorship for beer and projector hire, which has covered half the cost. If you want to chuck in a fiver (or more!) that’d be appreciated, there’s nothing like beer karma for geeks :) Click here to make a donation. Thx! And hope to see you there.

P.s. Tuttle coworking is meeting weekly, upstairs at the Sanctuary (map), at 10am on Fridays. All are welcome, go signup on Upcoming here.

P.p.s. Almost forgot to thank the guys at the Skiff for letting us use the room! Thanks :)

photo by Sizemore

The room, while small, was crowded with people. Some old friends, and many that hadn’t attended before. All caught up in the excitement of being around people with genuinely interesting backgrounds and experiences. The conversation was loud and enthusiastic, if you know me then you’ll know that I thrive in that :)

So now I’m ready to announce that the Brighton branch will be starting on Saturday the 16th of August, at 11am, upstairs at the Quadrant.

What is it?
The Social Media Cafe, or Tuttle Club, is a place for people interested in social media to gather, get acquainted, and to plot, scheme, and share.. emphasis on open and interesting conversating!

Who should come?
If you’re interested in the future of media, how we organise, share, produce and enjoy it, then come along. If you’re an artist, film maker, geek, musician, designer, writer, photographer, or anything close or related, then come along. If you want to meet like minds, come along.

With the help of sponsors (which we welcome more of!) the coffee is free, and there should be some breakfast snacks to get us going. There’s free wifi, so bring your laptops if you need to get some work done or want to show off what you’ve been to..

I’m really looking forward to seeing you there!

Update: We have our first sponsor, local social media agency Nixon McInnes. Cheers guys!