This month Birmingham.pm have had a number of very interesting meetings.
Our May social was graced with the prescence of Mike Bissett, my co-founder of Birmingham.pm, who was over for a holiday break to see his family. It neatly coincided with our social, so we were able to drink beer and have a great evening. Mike and Greg disappeared off in search of more nightlife afterwards, and I have yet to hear from either. So if Mike returns to Sydney.pm much the worse for wear, it was ALL Greg's fault :)
The following week we had a planning meeting for our Birmingham Bid. I've been very relieved to realise that we are pretty much sorted. Chris is currently working through our proposal document to tidy up any wording that is out of place. A few suggestions for additional workings need to be added, but it was fairly minor stuff. The wiki designs need to be done, but they shouldn't take too long. The bigger part is figuring out what we need to do for the film. We have done a lot already, but there were some crucial scenes that needed doing, as well as some additional slides that I need to sort out. After the meeting, JJ had to head off, but the rest of us headed for a Balti house round the corner.
Seeing as we need to get the filming sorted, we arranged a hasty meet of the 4 key co-conspirators and DanDan. In a few hours we got quite a bit of filming done, with Steve's girlfriend (who is currently wheelchair bound) acting as our steadi-cam for some scenes. We had a great laugh, and the results will be entertaining if nothing else. DanDan looks to be the star of the show though. If we win the bid, you'll get to meet him at the conference. Autographs will be available on request. Event of the day was by the canal, when with Steve filming, Lynsey's wheelchair made a break for freedom and headed straight for the water. With millimetres to spare, Steve caught the arms of the chair just in time. Only moments before we were discussing the murkiness and decidedly unpleasant nature of the water at that point along the canal too. We did discuss a re-enactment for the movie, but Lynsey sadly was not up for it :)
Last night we had our technical meeting, with very special guests, Belfast.pm. Due to the unavailability of the QPC offices, we have had to relocate to a new venue. O'Neills. They have a large band room, which would have been more than ample for us, although they stuck us in a cordoned off area, which was just the right size. We pre-ordered food, which was a big bonus for most of us seeing as most come straight from work, and it was pretty standard grub. The only disappointment was that normally the room is shut off, or extremely quiet, however last night was the European League Championship with Liverpool vs AC Milan (or Me-lamb as DanDan was calling them), so they had the big screen on and a rather large number of fans watching. Thankfully it didn't detract too much, and we just had to pause occasionally when someone scored.
It was the first technical meeting with our new technical setup, so there were a few hitches, but all in all we coped pretty well. The talks themselves went very well, although Marty had to do his 2 talks without slides, as we couldn't get his laptop talking to the projector. To be honest Marty doesn't need slides, he's an interesting and entertaining speaker anyway. His GNU Guerilla talk was well recieved, as was his Haskell talk. The latter is the one he is preparing for YAPC::Europe, so it was a chance for him to see how it flowed. Marty is a font of knowledge when it comes to programming languages, and it was useful to hear how Haskell fits into the grand scheme of things. It was also intriguing to hear that the Haskell community are really pleased that Autrijus is using it to prototype Perl 6, as it is the first real world project that they have been able to use as an example of Haskell's capabilities. Brian introduced us to PerlIO layers, which was an eye opener in more ways than one. Then finally I presented my Phrasebook talk, which I've been preparing for YAPC::NA. It was good to air it live, as there are a few holes I now realise I need to fill. Being close to a project you often can make assumptions that the audience understand what you're talking about. With a few extra slides and a few tweaks, it should be looking lovely. And I did it in 20 minutes exactly, so that was a bonus.
It was great to see the Belfast crew again, although as always I wish it could have lasted longer. Next time we'll dispense with the technical meeting, and just have a special social :) Birmingham.pm are planning to return the favour, and visit them in the autumn. I'm really looking forward to that. With flights being so cheap these days, it can work out the same as getting the train to London.
So what's next? Well next month is going to prove even more intense. London.pm social, Birmingham.pm social, Birmingham Bid planning meeting, Birmingham.pm technical meeting and finally YAPC::NA! It's going to fly by.
