Andrew Ford Lyons

I’ve joined a couple of web developer meetups in London, one through meetup.org and the other through Google. Both are full of brainy people and free nibbles.

The Minibar is a popular regular meetup in Shoreditch for internet professionals to network and swap ideas and offers monthly face time to people more prone to staring at screens. If you’ve got a marketable idea this is the place to find people with the skills to make it possible, with upwards of around 150 web developers, programmers, designers, etc., from around the city attending at a single go.

The other is the Google London Open Source Jam.These are theme-driven nights at Google’s London HQ at Belgrave House. Marvel at the working environment that keeps people in the office 12 hours or more a day, the open kitchen area and hear ideas that could well be the future of open source and possibly the web itself.

To me this one is pure brain candy. I dig the 7-minute open-to-all presentation period where people trot out what they’re working on in rapid-fire sessions and then face an onslought of suggestsions, questions and critiques in a sort of Dragons Den for smart people.

Cannot say that a good amount isn’t flying well over my php/mysql head at times, but the end result is a clear idea of what’s out there and what’s to come in the coming years.

Tags: Google London Open Source Jam, The MiniBar