A Snapshot of the NW Tech Scene
As I was pulling together a list of techie events in the NW for a friend I realised it might be of use to share it with the wider world. So, undoubtedly incomplete, but here’s something of a snapshot of the regular tech meetings and gatherings in the Liverpool-Manchester area. Feel free to add any I’ve missed in the comments section… (or email me if comments aren’t working for you - there’s a weird bug that I’ve not tracked down yet that means not all comments work. Sorry)
Liverpool
- Ignite Liverpool - roughly quarterly events with a series of short, fast-paced talks on all sorts of topics.
- Geekup Liverpool - a gathering for software geeks on the last Tuesday of the month, sometimes with talks
- DoES Liverpool (formerly known as Liverpool Hackspace) who run Maker Night - gatherings for anyone interested in hardware hacking, electronics, Arduino, laser-cutting, 3D-printing, etc. on the
thirdsecond (from May 2011) Wednesday of each month - Social Media Cafe Liverpool - monthly events for anyone interested in "social media" (i.e. Twitter, blogging, Facebook, etc.)
- Liverpool Linux Users Group - first Wednesday of the month, a gathering for people interested in Linux, often with a talk.
- Cathedral Valley - semi-regular lunchtime gatherings with a techie/entrepreneurial leaning, based loosely in the "valley" between the two cathedrals
And two I haven’t made it along to yet (mostly because there are too many listed above to fit in even more :-)
- Liverpool Scibar "It's science in a bar"
- Liverpool Cafe Scientifique
Chester
I haven’t made it over to Chester to any of these meetings, but know quite a few people who regularly attend:
- Chester Linux Users Group
- Chester Geekup
Daresbury
Daresbury Business Breakfast is an always-packed monthly event for tech business-people to get together for a chat over free coffee and bacon baps.
Manchester
With so much going on in Liverpool I don’t make it over to Manchester all that often, but do from time to time. Mostly to attend the language-specific groups that tend to gravitate to Manchester as it gives them a bigger catchment area (or at least doesn’t have a catchment area incorporating a chunk of the Irish Sea…)
- Geekup Manchester - monthly gathering of software geeks
- NW Ruby Users Group - monthly meeting for Ruby fans, usually with a talk although it's often not about Ruby :-)
- Techcelerate - regular events focused more on the business end of tech
- Social Media Cafe Manchester monthly gathering for those interested in "social media"
And ones I’ve not attended…
- HacMan - weekly meetings of hardware hackers
- PHPNW - group for PHP users, in the NW...
- Drupal NW User Group
- Python group
- Manchester Free Software
And finally, NW England Perl Mongers - a language-specific group which admirably roams around the NW rather than expecting its members to come to it.
Updates:
I’ve also updated the links for LivLUG and DoES Liverpool (formerly known as Liverpool Hackspace) who run Maker Night.