GeekFest Beirut 5.0

I have a confession to make.

GeekFest Beirut started because I had to find a reason to go to Beirut in order to research Beirut - An Explosive Thriller, my second novel. Although I've been travelling to that most sexy of cities since 1997, I hadn't been back in a few years and needed to get to grips with the city again before filling it with my characters and their antics.

So I called the delightful Alexandra Tohme and said 'GeekFest Beirut - what about it?' - the rest, as they say, is the rest. Since then, Alex, Naeema, Lilliane, George (and the Maniachi) and many, many others have been responsible for putting together GeekFest events that have been arty, gamesy (boozy!) and generally suffused with that Yahooooo! sound that is Beirut having fun.

GeekFest Beirut has never been less than fabulous. And its fifth iteration, UNorganised by The Online Collaborative, looks set to be the most amazing GeekFest of all time. It's all built around the twin themes of Fashion and Music and was the brainchild of Darine Sabbagh and Mohammad Hijazi.

The Online Collaborative is an organisation centred around AUB, containing a number of very lovely folk (including HM Ambassador and my favourite funky lecturer, @LeilaKhauli)  and dedicated to the promotion of digital citizenship. To be fair, they have actually organised GFB5.0 rather than UNorganised it - it's set to be one heck of an event, with music and comedy performances, fashion shows and all sorts of things going on, as well as the traditional talks. It's even got sponsors and logos and things!

Oh, the shock of it!

GEEKTALKS

Maya Metni
Le Geek, C’est Chic! How to dress like a Geek? A practical guide
Maya is a visual communication consultant. She gathers her musings & inspirations in her blog www.mayametni.com  @mayametni

Toni Yammine 
Crowdsourcing Music Videos – Meen the Band
Toni is a Lebanese musician/director. He likes chocolate  and knows how to count very well in both Lebanese and English. He also has an RC plane and tweets on @toniyammine.

Hind Hobeika
Smart/tech clothing and where that’s all heading?
Hind is an engineer, swimmer and a self-tracking geek at its most!

Beshr Kayyali
Making Arabic Indie Music Popular Sawt.com
Beshr is a true Geek through and through. He has worked on many successful web projects for geeks apart from his day job as a developer.

Bassam Jalgha
Live Demo How to Build an Audio Synthesizer in 10 minutes Using Open Source Information
Bassam is a maker by heart. Always high on solder fumes, he works with electronics, build robots. He is into the DIY cult and tries to annoyingly spread it among his entourage. Check him out on www.depotbassam.com.

Elie Habib
Tools that allow developers to build Social features on top of Music
Elie is the co-founder of Anghami.

Loryne Atoui
Fashion for a cause
Loryne is a graphic designer impassioned by a crusade against breast cancer as well as travel and photography.

FASHION SHOW

Using real people and geeks as models!

Fashion for fundraising – Bras for a Cause by One Wig Stand 
Up & Coming Lebanese and Middle Eastern Geeky/Urban fashion Designers staged by Fishy Nation
An Online Collaborative line designed by our own Joseph Maalouf
Geeky Tshirts by Maya Zankoul
Looks from top Lebanese Fashion Bloggers
Geeky Tshirts by NOBRAND
DJing the show is DJ Beats

GIG

Alternative Rock Performance by Near Surface
Special Vocal Performance by Hiba Kadri
Acoustic Cover Performance by John Nurpetlian
A Stand Up Comedy Performance by Malek Teffaha
House Music by DJ G. Real Party Time featuring a DJ set by Underrated
And more...

STUFF

There's an ongoing art show. There are swag bags. There are other things happening. There's a posh dinner menu or a 961-fuelled bar snacks package. There's REGISTRATION!!!

Go here to sign up and reserve a place and a 'formula' at The Angry Monkey or Couqley or just reserve a place at GeekFest. If you've got any questions, hit up @geekfestbeirut or get 'em on Facebook!

I'll see you there!