Geek Outbreak!

GeekFests - they're like buses: nothing happens for ages and then they all come together.

GeekFest Beirut takes place next Saturday the 29th May 2010 at the uber-funky Art Lounge in Beirut - with the  Maniachi in charge it's going to be a blast - and all the details are here on the justasfunkyasthevenue GeekFest Beirut website. You can also, of course, follow @GeekFestBeirut on Twitter (or just do a search for the #GeekFest hashtag).

ArtStuf in Beirut is going to include showcases displays and things from, Abir Ghattas, Moshumi Nandy, Elyse Tabet and Dreamchaser while TechnoCases come from GeekFest early adopter Nokia and Telephone.com.

GeekFest Beirut's going to be televised thanks to Amer Tabsh from FTV Social, photographed by  Fady Nammour and live tweeted by LAU Social. Gotta say a thank you to moodeef.com for hosting the website!


CAIRO HERE WE COME!

On the very same night, over in Cairo's Zamalek, GeekFest Cairo 1.0 will be taking place! UNorganised by Mohammad Mansour (@TripleM) with a little help from GeekFest's designer-in-chief, Naeema Zarif (@Naeema), GeekFest Cairo will be taking place at El Sawy Culture Wheel thanks to the generous involvement and participation of Ziad W. Aly (@ZiadAly).

GeekTalks in Cairo will include:

Mohamad Mansour
Social Media for Social Change

Naeema Zarif
Creative Commons

Mohamed Gaber
Visual Political Aggregation: The modern Propaganda

Ziad Aly
Improvised Inspirational Speech

There's more planned as well. So now we've got GeekFest Dubai, Beirut, Amman and Cairo! Whoever thought that a cup of coffee with @saadia would lead to this?

GeekFest Beirut 2.0

As some may already know, GeekFest Beirut has been taken over by that most feared group of online types, Beirut's anarchistically inclined honchos, the Maniachis. There are GeekTalks aplenty and TechnoCases from Nokia and Telephone.com - more details on the website at www.geekfestbeirut.com! There's a whole load of other stuff going to be taking place, too - it's going to be a packed night, for sure.

For an update you can see this interview featuring the Maniachis on Future TV's MEGA with Chadi Abou Nohra,  explaining GeekFest Beirut,  which will be taking place from 8.00pm on the 29th May at Beirut's very funky Art Lounge.

A million thanks are due to Alex Tohme, who started the whole GeekFest Beirut ball rolling. It looks like it may well now be set as an ongoing treat in Lebanon's online/offline scene. Which is nice, isn't it?

GeekFest Dubai 4.0 - GeekTalks

The GeekTalks have become a hotly anticipated element of the happy gathering of technophiles that is GeekFest Dubai and this month's clutch of chattering in the little ideas-friendly hothouse that is the cinema at GeekFest's home, Dubai's funky hangout The Shelter, is going to be, believe me, the hottest of them all.

How we're going to follow this lot, I don't know. I guess we'll just have to do what we've always done and sit back waiting to see what happens!

Don't forget, BTW, that this GeekFest is themed 'When Geeks Go Green' - Spot On resident tree-hugger Alec Harden was keen to save the planet rather than have fun at GeekFest and cajoled us into asking everyone to bring their old technology along so that it can be recycled by the nice people at recycling non-profit company EnviroServe. Alec organised that, so don't go accusing us of getting organised or anything!

We'll be collecting any unwanted technology stuff, from Tom Gara's old iPhone through to old printers, cables, phones, PCs, any old PCBs, calculators, IBM 3090s, ICL OnePerDesks, Osborne portables, magnetic core memories, Ataris, batteries, TVs - anything and everything, in fact. And then EnviroServe is going to recycle them. We're aiming to beat out Dubai Internet City's slightly sad total of 1,000 items recycled across the whole zone and we're already over 1/4 of the way there, with over 250 old bits of tech stuff already on the way in!


THE TALKS

Will, as always be over-crowded and yet remain on a first-come, first-served seating basis. The first two talks will start at 8.00pm, the second two at 9.00pm. Each talk will last for fifteen minutes. The talkers are in charge of when they start and finish, how they present and what they present. All we do is agree the slot.

A Geek in Niqab
The Niqab [face-veil] has fast become the hot-topic in the Media. Often portrayed as being either mysterious or fanatical, this simple piece of cloth has stirred huge controversy. Hamna Ahmed, a GeekFest regular and Niqabi will give a personal perspective on the media and public perceptions she has encountered. Currently finishing a two-year diploma in Quranic studies, Hamna is enthusiastic about food, good causes and is a Twitter addict!

A Gamer’s Life
Mohammad Alhuraiz is the man behind lochalarchade.com, a gaming site that specialises in underrated and underappreciated games for the Middle East – as well as running a popular and successful podcast that serves the regional gamer community. The site’s about to start pushing user created content and Mohammad’s going to be talking about the evolution of the site as well as sharing ten top tips for successful podcasting in the Middle East.
(Mohammad was nominated as a GeekTalker by Muhamad Ali J.)

Two Fat Ladies – Making Milestones
Talking about creating milestones, trekking, helping kids and never growing up – no matter what the body says. Oh yes and using technology along the way! Young at heart Mita is a PR specialist who lives and breathes technology. She is an active proponent of social media as an intricate part of everyday life – both personal and professional - and never more so than when raising money for children in Nepal.

XeroError 
Ashraf Ghori is the man behind Xpanse CGI, the studio that created XeroError. For anyone that hasn’t heard of this ground-breaking project, XeroError is the first CGI Science Fiction film produced in the UAE, hell, in all likelihood the Middle East! Ashraf will will be joined by associate producers Mohammad Mondal & Waqqas Qadir Sheikh as well as Phat Mo, an actor in the film.

Ashraf and the team will be talking informally about how they did it on a shoestring budget, coffee-laced late nights and sheer dedication to an unlikely vision – and will be showing stunning clips from the finished film.

THE SMALL PRINT

GeekFest Dubai 4.0, When Geeks Go Green, will take place on the 29th April 2010 at The Shelter in Al Quoz (this is the link to the location map). You can do the Facebook thing or follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter. GeekFest Dubai is jointly UNorganised by myself and Shelter supremo Saadia Zahid (@Saadia on Twitter) and is a not for profit event held without harming any small furry animals.

BTW, the first Jordanian GeekFest took place in Amman  last night at the Mohtaref Remal Café!

GeekFest Beirut 2.0 hasn't happened yet as they're so UNorganised they missed their own date for it to take place. GeekFest Cairo is, as Gulf News would have it, 'on the anvil' but no date has been set. And we thought WE were UNorganised! :)

GeekFest Dubai 4.0 – When Geeks Go Green

We’ve got together with recycling company EnviroServe to arrange a gigantic old technology collection at GeekFest 4.0. Enviroserve is a Public Private Partnership with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Environment and has a dedicated e-waste recovery facility in Dubai. Before anyone accuses me of organising something, this is all thanks to Spot On resident tree-hugger, Alec Harden (@alecharden).

It’s an often under-appreciated fact that our favourite geeky toys can actually be recycled usefully when we’ve upgraded to that lovely, sparkly Next-Gen device– and can often be harmful to the environment if they’re not properly recycled. Just think of all those nasty heavy metals in all those Lithium batteries, circuit boards and old toner cartridges – let alone all that recyclable plastic!

What’s more, there’s gold in them there motherboards, as well as a range of other recyclable goodies – in fact, EnviroServe attempts to offset as much of the cost of recycling as it can from recovering those goodies from your old toys.

So here’s the deal. We’re bringing our old stuff to GeekFest and collecting in at The Shelter ready for EnviroServe to pick up in one great big bag of old geekery – and if your old GeekLife is interesting, you can even share it in the display of Ancient Geeks we’ll be mounting before we junk the whole damn lot.

What counts as recyclable? Old printers, PCs, phones, toner cartridges, hard disks, speakers, hifis, iPods – anything electronic, in fact.

DIC recently announced it had managed to recycle a whole 1,000 bits of technology. We’re gonna beat that at GeekFest 4.0. See if we don't!

We've got some stunning GeekTalks as well as other stuff up our sleevies - more later!

GeekFest Dubai 4.0 will take place on the 29th April 2010 at The Shelter in Al Quoz. You can do the Facebook thing, follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter or just pop back here nearer the date for more information.

Don't forget, BTW, GeekFest Amman 1.0 taking place on the 17th April - follow @GeekFestAmman on Twitter or you can find it here on Facebook!

And GeekFest Beirut (you guessed it, @GeekFestBeirut or Facebook) might just happen on the 30th April, but they're being too UNorganised to predict just now!

GeekTalks up!

The first GeekTalks are up online, thank's to official GeekVid girl, Areeba Hanif (@MyBigDayFilms on Twitter). Areeba's done a great job putting these together - particularly as she had to face filming the talks with no space, bad access, crappy light and no sensible solution for her to get lights etc set up. She didn't crack a frown all through!

If you'd like to pop along to Vimeo, you'll find that we've set up a lovely profile for GeekFest Dubai 3.14 and will be posting GeekTalks there in future. You'll find it here or you can see the vids from GeekFest Dubai 3.14 on the Facebook fan page here.

We've used Vimeo because, for a small sum, we can host big video files and manage them effectively - and you can embed them anywhere you want. So do feel free to share!

The Inevitable GeekFest Wrapup Post

We didn't know the stupid pies were going to be that size. They were enormous things, the size of a man's outstretched hand and almost impossible to eat decorously, but by golly they were tasty! Apologies to Mr. Goat whose doctor has been nagging him about cholesterol and who was sore tempted by the cornucopia of pieness that presented itself to him as he pitched up for his evening's geekery.

The talks were once again a marvel to behold. The idea of splitting them so that the theatre at The Shelter could empty and give everyone a chance to attend a talk was brilliant (Thanks, @ammouni!) and, IMHO, worked well so we'll be doing that again. Talked to a number of people about the solution to the theatre being too small and the consensus was that it was the very intimacy of the space that contributed (along with the excellence and diversity of the speakers) to the amazing atmosphere and 'vibe' at the GeekTalks. Rabea Ataya, CEO of the highly successful Middle East recruitment website bayt.com, kicked off the evening's talks, followed by 'the Islamic Pampers guy', Mohammed F. Al-Awadhi who had the audience enraptured and marvelling with his talk which, of course, covered everything but Islamic Pampers! Mohammed Ali J, @MaliZOMG and compadre Ritesh not only delivered a great talk, but look like they're going to deliver a smart online student radio station come March 15th too! That's definitely a story to follow.

Last, but no means least, came Susan 'Amazing' Macaulay who shared the background to Amazing Women Rock, talked about some of the more popular stories the site has hosted and neatly crowdsourced a load of help from the assembled geeks!

Along with a number of notable bloggers in attendance, including such luminaries as Jordanian Hussein (Who-Sane), who sadly no longer seems to be blogging, Hellwafashion, The Amazing Susan, Kinan Jarjous and Monsignor Rupert Bumfrey, we also paid host to.. *gasp*... gamers. This worked out rather smartly, thanks in no small part to the shiny little boxes that Buffalo Technology brought along as part of its TechnoCase - gamers don't like wireless because it can be slow and erratic when put under multi-user Quake3 frag that mofo loads. Buffalo wasn't buffaloed, it's fair to say. We'll do GameFest again for sure, as long as @hishamwyne or one of the other gaming types is willing to get it together!


The Microsoft chaps had a good evening, too, I think - and raffled off some stuff at the end. While I'm delighted that a company that huge came along and joined in, I also have some enormous reservations about things like raffles - there's something 'gatekeeper' about them that makes me uncomfortable in the context of an egalitarian free-for-all event like GeekFest. We have been resolute in keeping TechnoCase participation low-key, no-logo, no branding and so on. Is this the way to go? So far the companies that have played along have had solid, good value engagements out of the whole thing and have built some impressive endorsers for themselves. I'd welcome anyone's opinions on this whole area of things.

We didn't really make enough of the ArtStuf side of things this time around and definitely will do more next time - that's at least in part down to participation from digital artists, which we're open to if you happen to know any! However, Faisal Khatib shared a slideshow of his work which was really cool.


What next? GeekFest 4.0 will be on the 22nd April and we'll plan a couple of surprises - nothing too organised, of course! People keep being nice and saying thank you for organising it, but honestly we're not kidding with this 'UNorganised' stuff - we do very little really, just keep saying 'sure' when people come up with smart ideas or ways to participate - by the way, please do feel free to do more of that, folks!

All that apart, I just wanted to say that I'm constantly blown away that something this organic and random keeps generating interest and turns into such wonderful, thought-provoking and entertaining evenings. So thank YOU! :)

GeekFest Update

Well, GeekFest 3.14 (Geek to the power of Pi) is just around the corner and things are developing faster than boomtime Dubai.

Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
Not only the longest correct sentence in the English language to use a single word, but also a eight-times repetition of the company putting on of one of our two TechnoCases - Buffalo Technology. They'll be showing the external and NAS storage and wireless stuff wot they does. Alongside them, we have a last-minute surprise here come the cavalry entrance from company wot needs no introduction Microsoft, who'll be sharing some enterprise social media coolery that they wanted to get people's views on.

Oh noes! Gamers!
This GeekFest will see the first GameFest, a fancy phrase for a group of slavering lunatics punching game controllers and keyboards as they get set to frag, blitz and otherwise existentially challenge each other over a networked games setup around 'the big table' at The Shelter. I think this is going to end up being something of an ongoing feature but I think we can all put up with them if they promise not to make too much noise and drool too much. I can also see this developing into a standalone activity, but let's see what happens!

ArtStuf
We're delighted to have Faisal Khatib join us at GeekFest. Professional photographer Faisal will be showing his work on the screens at The Shelter and will be there to talk imagery and associated wonderment. Alongside this one-night showing, The Shelter is also hosting The Portfolio Project, curated by Bidoun, an exhibition of the photography of Yasmin Mohammed. On top of this, we're planning to muck about with some graffiti stuff like last time. It won't be announced, it'll just sort of be happening.

GeekTalks
Detailed here, these are attracting a great deal of attention, so remember it's up to you to make sure you've got a place in the theatre at The Shelter for the talk you really want to see!

Pies!
We'll be having our Pi and eating it in celebration of the 3.14 theme - so if you don't like pie, eat before you come! :)

The GeekFest Brand Identity Image Thing
The fancy GeekFest Twitter page, posters, logos and stuff were designed for us all (Dubai, Beirut and now Amman) by Lebanese designer and general sweetheard Naeema Zarif. It's just one of the many ways in which regionalising GeekFest has changed and expanded the event and made it, IMHO, better.

GeekFest Dubai 3.14 (Geek to the power of Pi) will take place on the 25th February 2010 at The Shelter in lovely Al Quoz (This is da map!). It'll start around the 7.30 mark or whenever everyone turns up. The talks start at 8-ish. You can do the Facebook thing, follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter or just pop back here nearer the date for more information. The second GeekFest Beirut takes place on the 30th April 2010 (follow @GeekFestBeirut for info - website is www.geekfestbeirut.com) - and watch this space for news on GeekFest Amman, which is likely to happen sometime in March!!

GeekFest Cometh

GeekFest Dubai is happening this Thursday, the 25th Feb at The Shelter in Al Qouz. Titled GeekFest 3.14 (Geek to the Power of Pi), it promises to be a fun evening of stuff, including pie (of course), a TechnoCase from Buffalo Technologies and some random arty stuff as well as a chance to hang around and chat to fellow minded online people. We've only got the one TechnoCase because the other two confirmed verbally and then decided not to do it at the last minute, meaning that nobody else got the chance. Thanks for that, chaps. If anyone does want to do a TechnoCase on Thursday, we've got space.

The stars of the show, as always, will be the GeekTalks - once again four talkers will share insight, viewpoint and erudition in equal measures. This time around we're staggering the talks a little so that we don't get so many of the usual "I couldn't get a seat in the cinema all evening" complaints, so there'll be two talks starting at 8pm and two starting at 9pm. We'd like your views on that arrangement and are totally up for changing it to something everyone thinks is more sensible!

The GeekTalks

Do you need a business plan? 
Rabea Ataya

Entrepreneurs are continually told to create a business plan as the first step in preparing for success.  When is a business plan a valuable exercise? When does it lead to the failure of a business?  What are the requisites to a useful plan?  How have the most successful businesses in the world risen to the top without business plans?

Rabea Ataya is the founder and CEO of Bayt.com and is passionate about promoting entrepreneurship and youth employment in the region. He got nominated by Dan Stuart.


Islamic Pampers Design
Mohammed F. Al-Awadhi

In his presentation Mohammed will be touching upon topics that are part of people's daily life. We will see how Islam plays a major role in peoples lives and how changing the design of pampers targets certain people. He will also answer some questions that come in people’s minds in regards to Emarati looks. 

Mohammed Farshid Al-Awadhi is an Emarati architect and entrepreneur. He has established 2 companies, Toolz technical services and KZA Architects. He is also president of the MBA Club in the American University of Dubai and is one of the board directors of the Architectural Association of UAE [AAUAE]. He got nominated by Omran Al Owais.

Student Radio
Muhammed Ali J (better known to many as @maliZOMG) & Ritesh J

Between the both of them, Muhammed and Ritesh have experienced the entire private education system in the UAE, from prep school to their undergraduate degrees. In this time they noticed how, more often than not, students were not taken seriously or given the opportunity to grow. Ritesh & Muhammed Ali will share their thoughts on an online radio station, broadcasting for students, student issues and student life in the UAE. We’ll also get to hear a little bit more about their pet project ZOMG! Inc. They got nominated by us.

From FAIL to Fame &Back Again: Random Adventures in AmazingLand
Susan Macaulay

Susan Macaulay (aka AmazingSusan) is a wannabe geek and creator of amazingwomenrock, a website for amazing women and those who appreciate them. A quirky rebel with a cause; passionate about #PINK, womens' issues, learning and life, Susan stumbles around blindly on Twitter and Facebook bumping into cool people, ideas, and stuff. Has so far managed to avoid a major crash. She'll be talking about the amazingwomenrock project - where it came from, where it's at and where it's going! Susan got nominated by us too!

GeekFest Dubai 3.14 (Geek to the power of Pi) will take place on the 25th February 2010 at The Shelter in Al Quoz. You can do the Facebook thing, follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter or just pop back here nearer the date for more information. The second GeekFest Beirut takes place on the 30th April 2010 (follow @GeekFestBeirut for info - website is www.geekfestbeirut.com) - and watch this space for news on GeekFest Amman, which is likely to happen sometime in March!!

Geekiness Beirut Outbreak

GeekFest Beirut was truly a wonder to behold. There are photos on the FaceBook page from those what got Twitpicked on the night, and this Photobucket from Fady Nammour gives a pretty good feel for the ‘vibe’ – at a guess something like 120 people streamed into Beirut’s uber-funky Art Lounge to find displays of digital photography as well as the art that literally festoons every space at ArtLounge.

There were loads more GeekTalks, starting with an odd rant from yours truly, going through to an overview of Creative Commons licensing from graphic artist Naeema Zarif (Naeema designed the cool new GeekFest logo, posters and stuff) and cartoonist/blogger Maya Zankoul and then a look at some of the projects being undertaken in Lebanon by the UNDP’s CEDRO, thanks to Elie Abou Jaoudeh.

Ayman Itani spoke on the human/technology aspects of communications, while Elie Haddad’s talk on the potential of mobile applications continued the telecom theme. George El KHabbaz threw a few F’UX into proceedings with his GeekTalk on user experience (that’s what an UX is, folks) and how it needs to be designed in from the beginning of processes (Ha! Tell HSBC that).

Isaac Belot topped the geek charts easily with his in-depth and totally geeked-out presentation of the technologies that lie behind filming in 3D. That one even had the true geeks bug-eyed.

The evening finished with a short, boisterous and totally fun presentation from artiste extraordinaire (and designer of the GeekFest Twitter Icon and, I hope, T-shirts) Joumana Medlej (@CedarSeed). Joumana’s work is stunning, her cartoon strips are brilliant and the auction of a book of her early drawings and development sketches pulled in a fast and furious bidding war to top out at $300 – even the barman got into the act. Yes, there was a bar too and it did a brisk trade at that.

So what was the ‘vibe’ like? Different to GeekFest Dubai, for sure – and I can’t quite put my finger on how it was different. The Beirut guys did a lot more collaboration on many aspects of the event and so there was a wider sense of ownership. There’s no doubt that they’ve had an impact on GeekFest Dubai, particularly with the contribution of the graphic art elements, the ID design from Naeema and Joumana’s iconography.

It looks increasingly likely that there will be other GeekFest events springing up around the region now. And I think that’s possibly going to be very interesting in a number of ways that we haven’t really thought through yet!

Beirut, Beirut!

We are, as my niece would say, 'one sleep away' from GeekFest Beirut and I have to confess to being a tad excited. The building blocks of tomorrow night’s event would appear to be, in as much as they’ll ever be, in place and it promises to be a fun-packed evening of diversity, deep thought, art and expression that is going to be utterly fascinating!

The GeekTalks are starting at 8pm in Room One and include:

The Quality of Disintermediation
A millennium of disintermediation, how technology is challenging the world to change
Alexander McNabb

Creative Commons
Naeema Zarif, Maya Zankoul

CEDRO Sustainability projects in Lebanon
Elie Abou Jaoudeh, CEDRO, UNDP

Our Relationship with Information, past and present, personal and business
How information has evolved and its effect on personal self-expression and business communication.
Ayman Itani, Telephone.com, LAU

What the F'UX?
User experience presentation. Using an everyday object to reflect the online UX and a simple guide to build a good ux. Room 1 The Talks
George El Khabbaz

At the same time in Room Two, there’ll be a rolling digital photography exhibition by photographers Fady Nammour, Toni Yammine, Lara Zankoul and Mherigo Krikorian. Alongside this, there's a TechnoCase going on from GeekFest early adopter Nokia.

At around 10pm there’ll quite possibly be a 3D film presentation by Isaac Belot at BassBrass.org followed by an exhibition of Ten Devil Woman and other work from leading Lebanese artist Joumana Medlej. The evening’s last, but by no means least, ‘happening’ will be an auction of a prototype sketchbook from Joumana's Malaak comic series in aid of @lebfunraising..

Huge props to UNorganiser Alexandra Tohme and to the many people in Beirut who came together around this event in a remarkable collaborative effort. I just know this is going to be very cool.

Oh! And thanks to the lovely website hosting folks Moodeef.Com!

GeekFest Beirut takes place at Art Lounge in Beirut on the 6th February 2010 - you can follow @GeekFestBeirut on Twitter, Facebook or mess around in the Google Group.

The GeekyFesto

I put this together with Saadia as we prepared to 'export' the idea of GeekFest to Beirut and then popped the file over to Alexandra Tohme in Beirut - Alex is UNorganising GeekFest Beirut. She promptly, to my mild horror, posted it up on the excellent Google Group that they started over there in order to put together ideas and collaboration over the event (it's perhaps notable that the Lebanese approach to GeekFest has been a lot more collaborative than the Dubai one. Don't ask me why, it just is).

And then I thought about it a little and realised that, well, what's to be so coy about? This is, after all, The Event With Nothing To Hide. So here, at least in part to be a perennial answer to the many people who ask "What's GeekFest?", is the Idea.

GeekFest
GeekFest is intended to be an offline social event for online people and should be interesting to anyone who's involved in the online world and in using technology to create, educate, entertain, inform or just play around.

It’s purposefully kept organic, free and easy. We truly hope that expanding GeekFest regionally will bring new ideas, offshoots and events to the whole thing. However, one thing must be clear from the start. GeekFest must never actually matter to anyone. If you’re holding a GeekFest and five people turn up, you should be able to shrug your shoulders and have a chat with the five people rather than die a million deaths that your attendance was low. If people don’t come, they don’t want it and we’ll simply stop doing it. If that all makes sense!

We are very proud of the fact that GeekFest is, as far as is practical, UNorganised. There are no officials, gatekeepers or people telling attendees what to do. There are no rules beyond the ‘no corporate behaviour, selling and stuff’ one. The only reason there is a start and finish time is that people insisted.

However, there are some guiding principles that we’ve established, mostly by trial and error.

GEEKFEST ELEMENTS

Guiding principles
No corporate stuff, no bossing people around, no gatekeepers, no hassle, no drama.

GeekFest consists of three elements – GeekTalks, TechnoCases and ArtStuff. Other than that, it’s just a big room full of smart people who have stuff that is interesting, engaging and even possibly visionary to discuss. Oh, and good fingerfood. The fingerfood is more important than the idea stuff.

GeekTalks
These have evolved as a series of four 15-minute presentations on areas/issues of interest to the audience and are not limited in any way by topic - they could be 'Why I love my iPhone' or 'A lion tamer's guide to Zeppelins'. They take place in an area separate to the main area (in The Shelter we use the private screening room, a 30-odd seat cinema) and can be wide-ranging but should be interesting and intellectually engaging.

The speakers are responsible for sorting out their own technology requirements between them (we provide an LCD projector and screen) and for their own time-keeping. Nobody tells them when to start and stop talking or stands around tapping watches. They are also responsible for bringing their own audience – there’s nobody to tell people they have to attend a talk.

GeekTalkers are expected to suggest a successor to speak at the next GeekFest.. This way we, the UNorganisers, aren’t always the gatekeepers to a speaking slot. We will find a speaker if GeekTalkers don’t want to for any reason.

Holding a TechnoCase at GeekFest absolutely DOES NOT include, ever, a talking slot. Talks are user views and never sales pitches.

GeekTalks typically take place from 8pm-9pm at GeekFest Dubai.


TechnoCases
The Technology Showcases give companies a chance to interact with the attendees at GeekFest. They’re not an invitation to scream slogans or brand the event, they’re a chance to show funky stuff and engage with an audience of highly influential online thought-leaders in a dialogue.

Companies can bring a bunch of laptops, a gadget or 15, a display case or free-standing display. Whatever is sensible, really – and doesn’t dominate the event, get in the way or otherwise act as an irritant or eyesore. People that can talk with authority about the product/idea are probably more important than any branding.

Within those sensible constraints, companies mounting TechnoCases can use areas within GeekFest as they see fit – but they are actually asked to sign a contract agreeing not to hassle the Geeks.

Mounting a Technology Showcase at GeekFest does NOT confer the rights of sponsorship. We’ll include companies generally in promotional stuff and try to take care of them when we remember to, but there are no branding elements, logos or other promises made. They’re coming to the party to talk to people interested in engaging with them and that’s the deal.

GeekFest Dubai started charging companies $1,000 for a TechnoCase and subsequently has increased this to $1,500. The venue partner raises invoices and manages settlements.


Art Stuff
The art stuff at GeekFest has happened spontaneously but we’re now careful to include an element of art ‘happening’ at each event – wherever possible of a digital variety. This would be a graffiti artist, a digital artist, a photographic display, an installation or some such – the more the merrier – and accessible to everyone, too!

GeekFest Dubai has a back-beat, a funky soundtrack selected by Shelter DJ Simone Sebastien.


Food and Drink
We use the TechnoCase revenue to subsidise/fund the food and drink (pass-around food like quiche, kebabs, pastries, sandwiches, cakes and fresh juices) at the event. One of the UNorganisers keeps an account of incoming/outgoing revenue.

We don’t have alcohol at GeekFest Dubai in deference to Muslim attendees. Each GeekFest will have its own cultural environment, however.


Promo
We promote GeekFest Dubai using FaceBook, Twitter (an important platform, actually) and blogs – Alexander’s in particular, but also the UAE Community Blog (Thanks, Sam!). GeekFest isn’t about any one group (gamers, Twitterers – it’s NOT a Tweetup!, bloggers and the like) but about integrating everyone regardless of platform.

There has been quite a bit of media interest in GeekFest Dubai but we haven’t ‘pushed it’ or made formal announcements or anything – word of mouth has been very strong. We have done a number of interviews ‘on demand’ with media.

We’ve found that making announcements closer to the event is best – although we set the date early. GeekFest Dubai is now running on a steady two-month cycle, typically the last Thursday of the month or so – 2010 will be Feb, Apr, Jun etc – Ramadan and Christmas etc obviously require some judgement calls.

Last minute excitement runs quite high, particularly on Twitter. We tend to stoke this a bit by holding back speaker announcements and other stuff. Being tarts, basically.


UNorganising
GeekFest Dubai is UNorganised by a two-wo/man team – Saadia and Alexander. Alexander looks after promo and the geeks, Saadia owns and looks after the venue (including F&B etc). We will always have GeekFest at Dubai’s The Shelter – it’s the place that Saadia runs and it’ll never move from there – even though we already have logistical issues (the cinema’s too small for the talks, but the atmosphere’s electric in there). NOTE: That's changed now, The Shelter shut down and so GeekFest was untethered from its emotional 'home') If attendance spikes too high we’ll just move to registration or even first come first served. That’s cool because it limits the event to a hard core audience and doesn’t let us get all big headed or anything.

We put labels and pens at the door if people want to make badges for themselves. A quaint trend of wearing especially geeky t-shirts has started, BTW.

The best way to UNorganise a GeekFest, we think, is that two person team – someone to take care of the geekiness and someone to take care of the realities. UNorganising the venue isn’t hard – book the date, book F&B for the broad estimate of attendees. Arrange a speaker area and projector. Err. That’s it. We think the geek/blogger and venue owner combination is tops, but a geek/blogger and event organiser would do the same job, no? The F&B is a bit hit and miss, but we think it's better than having to put everyone through registration and stuff.

As we expand (IF we expand and it works!), we’d hope to bring our pool of stuff together and share platforms, ideas, presentations, communities and so on. We’re not sure where that’s going yet but there’s an interesting cloud over there that could turn into something really quite smart and regional. Or not.

Either way, GeekFest is there purely for enjoyment. Oh! And it's a resolutely not for profit event.



Alexander and Saadia

Nota Bene

The first GeekFest Beirut takes place at Art Lounge in Beirut on the 6th February 2010 - you can follow @GeekFestBeirut on Twitter, Facebook or mess around in the Google Group.

The next GeekFest Dubai has been dubbed GeekFest Dubai 3.14 and will take place on the 25th February 2010 at The Shelter in Al Quoz. You can do the Facebook thing, follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter or just pop back here nearer the date for more information.

GeekFest Beirut is a Go Go!

Image via Wikipedia

At the last GeekFest Dubai, we forgot to announce that we'd decided to expand the project and go ahead with GeekFest Beirut. The wonderful Alexandra Tohme agreed to UNorganise the event, little knowing what she'd let herself in for (Bwaa haa haa) and now it's all pretty much all sorted.

The first GeekFest Beirut will take place on Friday the 5th February 2010 and will be held at uber-funky Beiruti hangout, Art Lounge, which is close to the Forum de Beyrouth. A location map can be found here, while other details about Art Lounge can be found here (including sexy pics of its uber-funkiness).

Saadia and I are planning to be there and a number of other Dubai Geeky types have expressed an interesting in pitching up if possible. It's going to be an absolute blast, without a doubt.

You can follow @GeekFestBeirut on Twitter or you can schlep along to the obligatory FaceBook fan page if you like, where we've started to post some silly stuff and will surely post some more.

Alternatively, if you have questions or want to throw money at us, you can email Alexandra, Saadia or myself - we're all listed on the GeekFestBeirut Twitter page (because it's a graphic and the spambots can't see graphics!).

Just a reminder - GeekFest is a not for profit thingy, we don't do sponsorships or corporate stuff and we remain resolutely, as much as is practically possible, UNorganised!

GeekFest and Beirut

Image via Wikipedia

So the dust has settled on GeekFest 3.0. How was it? Well, at least today you get better than the last post-GeekFest report, which can be summarised as 'W00t'.

Attendance was down last night, which rather wrong-footed Saadia and I as we had catered for 150 people following last GeekFest's awful F&B shortages (We estimated 100 geeks and at least 200 pitched). Last night we allowed for 150 and we think something like 80 people actually pitched, the same as at GeekFest 1.0. So everyone got particularly well fed, and that included the stunning spicy prawns, which were stunning, spicy and prawny. In short, they did what it said on the box.

Woah! Attendance down? Is GeekFest dead?

Don't think so, really. Last night was a 'dry night', so many people stayed home or went to home party events. It was also a holiday night for many, the first public screening of Avatar, the last night of DIFF and the thirteenth Monday after the summer solstice. Add to that a number of people had already flown home or were over-busy with homegoing preparations and you get a growing number of Tweets yesterday that said 'Won't be doing #GeekFest tonight'.

What we did have was a smaller, more 'hardcore' audience that stayed around longer and chatted harder.

The GeekTalks were smashing - the Shabib boys were engaging, entertaining and intelligent, Omran Al Owais' ideas for mosque design in the C21st were amazing and deserve to be put into action - that someone is willing to bring change to religious practice that is yet true to the spirit and intention of observance was quite stunning. That Omran met with 'Not Like This' as a response from authority is no surprise, depressing though that be.

Jack Frizzell's talk about ZU's newsletter/web/social campaigns was great - it was an engaging look at how you create a grassroots community tool of real value, bring people together, drive participation and change the way stuff is done. Brilliantly, Jack also shared measurement of the success of the programme he's been running, which in itself drew a round of applause.

Dan Stuart's view of online education and translating formal learning activities into a way of structuring your personal online interests, interactions and engagements was another way of looking at stuff that I, for one, do 'organically' - but he tied together these things in a way I hadn't thought about. For that, alone, I found his talk worthwhile.

However, you can actually have too much GeekTalk. The problem is that The Shelter's theatre seats, max, 50 people and everyone wants into the talks because the atmosphere in there is electric - a casual, bum on the floor audience with great speakers who have something interesting to say and Q&A that is a real 'bounce-around' of ideas and attitudes.

Trouble was this time around that the audience knew that moving meant losing your place, so there was no movement of people between talks. Which meant that many people simply couldn't attend talks they'd really like to have seen.

What's the solution? Not sure. GeekFest Dubai will ALWAYS be held at The Shelter. Transferring the talks to the main room means breaking all those groups and conversations up - so I think, at least for now, we'll keep the talks in the cinema. What do you think? How do we let people sit in on the talk that they really, really want to attend when seats are like gold dust? Without bringing in regulation and thought police stuff?

Quietly, two brilliant graffiti artists were decorating the outside 'garden' area of The Shelter throughout last night's event. I loved that this GeekFest's art event was unheralded and, in the main, unnoticed. We think an art event should be part of every GeekFest now, even if you have to look really, really hard to find it. Again, would value your opinions.

Thanks are due to the TechnoCase peeps. The LG screens were sweet and the svelte LG surround-sound speakers played the evening's DiscoBallBreaker-provided soundtrack nicely. The AMD graphics stuff was stunning and had Geeks smashing cars or zooming into 3-screen panoramic views of the earth all through the evening, so that was nice. The TechnoCases are meant to engage conversation and AMD's gaming stuff certainly had the gamer boyz and gurlz drooling, slack-mouthed and generally paddle-fingered. Which is, as conversations go, slightly sad. But then you can never really talk with gamers...

The big news of the night is something that we didn't quite get around to sharing. Because we're shit at running community events, basically.

Yesterday we committed to running GeekFest in Beirut, Lebanon. The plan is to hold the first event at the end of January 2010 - Saadia and I will be working with the amazing (to steal a catchphrase) Alexandra Tohme, whom many will know from her work at Zawya Dow Jones, to pull the event together. We're very much in the back seat on this, Alex is driving it and owning it and is to blame for it in every way. In fact, Saadia and I are really just there to take the credit and will obviously disown Alex in a nanosecond if it isn't all just awesome. Alex is better known on Twitter as @alexzawya.

GeekFest Beirut will be the same as Dubai. UNorganised. And it will be bloody fantastic.

*(Ten demerits if you Googled '13th monday after summer solstice' because I made that up just for the hell of it)

GeekTalks

Last GeekFest saw the introduction of GeekTalks, 15 minute chats held in The Shelter's cool li'l private cinema from people with something sensible, interesting and certainly not commercial to say. We're hoping to carry on that tradition with four more GeekTalks taking place this GeekFest at The Shelter, Al Quoz on Thursday 17th December. People will start pitching at GeekFest from about 7pm onwards, the talks start at 8pm and space in the cinema is limited.

This time around, we're to be hearing about the future for mosques, University publishing and social networks, the new Brownbag.ae and personal learning environments.

The speakers aren't set by us - the idea is that each speaker nominates his or her successor. This means we're not 'gatekeepers' and also, we hope, introduces some interesting diversity.

Thanks to some user feedback from people who got cold bottoms last time, we're adding some beanbags for when the seating runs out.


Omran Al Owais
Prayer Mat: Prototype Zabeel Park Mosque

In this presentation, I will be highlighting on how we can evolve a mosque design and avoid the typical Jumeirah style dome and useless old dated ornamentation. I want to bring Dubai and UAE culture into creating a newer style that we can spread to the world and stop importing Marrakesh architecture. Also, in this design, it will be fused with a built in museum, which displays the history of the prayer mat.

Emirati architect and designer Omran Al Owais is the Creative Director/founder of CENTIMETERCUBE architects/publishing and is a passionate Mac advocate. He’s our nomination as a GeekTalker on Catalin Marin’s behalf.


Jack Frizzell
Creating an Online Newspaper and Social Network

Inside ZU is currently an online communication platform - WordPress Multiuser - which we are using to move from email notification to two-way communication. It encourages open communication and community. The next stages will move us into online collaboration, citizen journalism and content creation and publication through the use of BuddyPress and other free technologies. Inside ZU is currently only for all students, all faculty and all staff at Zayed University.

Zayed University, until recently, was a University exclusively for Emirati women. During the past 5 years, the University has opened its doors to male military personnel, and now male and female international students while expanding its post-graduate programs. The issues of a multi-site educational institution, religion, gender, age, technology adoption and educational background and the required social and technological support and strategy required to succeed are the focus of the talk.

Jack Frizzell hails from Zayed University where he edits Inside ZU and lurks in the Provost’s office. He is James Piecowye’s nomination as a GeekTalker.


Ahmed Shabib
Making a better brown bag

Brownbag.ae was launched as an online retail platform that let people browse and buy a wide range of commodities such as groceries, movies, food and drink, magazines and books. Next year, Brownbag will be relaunching with new partners and products and delivery of any product ordered from the site to anywhere in Dubai City within an hour – at any hour. Ahmed Shabib will be exploring challenges of online retailing in the Middle East as well as looking for feedback on the new platform.

Ahmed Shabib is CEO of Brownbag and one of the chaps behind The Shelter. He’s speaking because Tom Gara didn’t nominate a speaker so The Shelter did! :)


Dan Stuart
Creating a Personal Learning Environment

If you're a geek, then you're online, and if you're online then you’re most definitely doing some or all of networking, sharing, commenting, reading feeds, self-casting, clipping, commenting, absorbing...and suffering under the noise. Social Media and Web 2.0 are great social venues, but also amazing tools for personal learning. If you’re already active online, with a bit of thinking, arranging and customizing you can shape your online pipes into a Personal Learning Environment (PLE). PLE’s are not single apps, but a self-defined, self-moderated set of online tools – the ones you already know and love – with the control to select, combine and use the tools as you see fit to shape your own learning experiences. The goal is use this PLE to gather and process info, and act on your learning.

Blogger and serial online adventurer Dan Stuart works at Bayt.com. He’s Narain Jashanmal’s nomination as a GeekTalker.

If you want to know more about GeekFest, you'll find the info here or you can follow @geekfestdubai on Twittter.

I'm Dreaming of a White GeekFest!

Well, it's that time again. GeekFest 3.0 is around the corner and we're looking forward to another evening of sublime Geekery at The Shelter in Al Quoz. GeekFest 3.0 is to take place from around 7pm on the evening of the 17th December 2009 and you are more than welcome to join us there!

GeekFest is intended to be an offline social for online people and should be interesting for anyone who's involved in the online world and in using technology to create, educate, entertain, inform or just play around.

The event remains resolutely UNorganised and so nobody gets told what to do, where to go or anything like that. The speakers at the GeekTalks are responsible for starting and ending on time, the TechnoCase people have signed clauses that they won't hassle the geeks so there's no overtly commercial stuff going on, although there is always the invitation to have a chat. Various things have fallen together and we're hoping to have a couple of minor surprises on the night, but it's not like we've done anything clever.

Why bother coming at all? It's a good question, especially as it looks like GeekFest will fall in the middle of a holiday. I can only say that I have been amazed at how many interesting, engaging and smart people I have encountered at the last two GeekFests and can only expect this one to be the same. Oh, and the garden's open at The Shelter so it's a much nicer place to hang out for those of you with vile, disgusting personal habits. Smokers are welcome to use it, too.

GeekTalks
The speakers from the last GeekFest were asked to nominate their successors so that Saadia and I aren't 'gatekeepers'. Two of 'em didn't so we found our own. We have four GeekTalks scheduled to run from 8pm-9pm or so and these will take place, as they did last time, in the funky cinema roomy thing at the back of The Shelter. More details will be shared soon as we're being teases.

The GeekTalks were incredibly popular last time and it pretty quickly got to standing room outside the door poking your head between other people's shoulders only, so if I were you, I'd get a towel laid out on a seat in there early.

TechnoCases
This time around, the Technology Showcases will feature super chip chappies AMD (who will, I think, be playing with some funky video card stuff. If it's the one I saw at GITEX, it'll fill gamers' hearts with stuff) and also consumer electronics supremos LG.

Food and stuff
As usual, food and drink supplied by The Shelter's very own mOre Café will be available and in true Chris Anderson spirit, will be free because we've gouged the TechnoCase people.

Location
The Shelter is in Dubai's Al Qouz industrial area. Here's a map!

Registration
Are you kidding? Just turn up...

If you want to get updates and stuff, you can follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter and there's a GeekFest FaceBook group too, for no particularly good reason. You can also email either myself or Saadia Zahid at the addresses given on the GeekFest Twitter page if you've got any questions, want to hold a TechnoCase at the next GeekFest (looking like Feb 2010) or just want to blame us for something.

GeekFest 2.0 - The Morning After

W00t!

Thanks, everyone!

GeekTalks

One of the 'new features' we've introduced to GeekFest, the offline social for online people, is 'GeekTalks'. It seemed like a good way to use uber-funky hangout The Shelter's smart private screening room, giving people the chance to share user feedback, information, innovation or other stuff of note.

Here's what we've got in mind for GeekFest 2.0, which takes place at The Shelter on the 22nd October 2009.

Catalin Marin
HDR photography, what it is and how to do it.
An often controversial technique, HDR, or High Dynamic Range, photography makes use of a number of images of a subject that are taken at varying exposures and combined to create often stunning images of startling depth and richness. Catalin, who's the man behind popular photoblog Momentary Awe, will be sharing how you can do it for yourself without having to spend gazillions on specialist software.

James Piecowye and Giorgio Ungania
TEDx Dubai Update. Now the dust has settled, a review of TEDx.
Dubai's TEDx confounded sceptics and delighted its audience by delivering a day of inspirational and challenging talks from people who had something special to share. James and co-organiser Giorgio invested an amazing amount of time and effort into the event and will be organising TEDx Dubai 2010 as well - they're going to share how they felt the day went, what they got right, what they got wrong and even an idea of where they're going to go with next year's event.

Narain Jashanmal
The Internet, social media and the future of publishing
Narain Jashanmal heads the Jashanmals magazine, book and periodical distribution business and he's been working on where the future leads for the industry - we're seeing thousands of journalists laid off around the US and Europe, magazines closing down and advertising revenue moving, along with readers' eyes, online. So what's Narain's view of what the future holds for publishing - and how is he preparing for doomsday?

Tom Gara
The National’s ‘Project X’
The last GeekTalker of the night will be the enigmatic Tom Gara, formerly technology editor at Abu Dhabi-based UAE newspaper The National and founder of its technology blog, BeepBeep. He's working in a laboratory fifteen hundred metres below sea level in a lead-lined complex containing myriad racks of impressive machinery - together with a team of white-coated scientists whom he will kill before emerging with 'Project x' under his arm and bringing it to GeekFest to share.

The GeekTalks will start at around 8.00pm and are planned to last no more than 15 minutes each. The speakers are responsible for starting on time and finishing on time and bringing their own audience - we're not herding anyone anywhere or putting anyone under pressure to attend. The speakers can co-ordinate things between themselves if they like because we're not getting involved in all that heartache.

This will either be a glorious triumph or a shambolic mess. Either way, it'll be worth coming along to GeekFest and seeing what's going down!

By the way, we had a silly Twitter thing going on the other day to find the name for GeekFest 3.0 (and we haven't even worked out when we're going to do that yet!) and we'll be voting for the winner at GeekFest. You can take a peek at the #GeekFestSequelTitles hashtag on Twitter if you're curious (and many of the participants were definitely curious).

If you want to get updates and stuff, you can follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter and there's a GeekFest FaceBook group too, for no particularly good reason. You can also email either myself or Saadia Zahid at the addresses given on the GeekFest Twitter page.

GeekFest Update

GeekFest 2.0 is to be held at The Shelter on the 22nd October, which is next Thursday. Putting 2.0 after the name makes it so very cool, but the next time it'll be even cooler because we haven't even got to Web 3.0 yet.

Isn't this all so terribly exciting?

As you may remember, we put GeekFest 2.0 back to give Twestival Dubai some space (a deep apology to Mr and Mrs Goat, who didn't get the Twitter heads-up that we'd changed the date).

Now it's full steam ahead for the 22nd and we've got some treats for you.

GeekFest is intended to be an offline social for online people and would be interesting for anyone who's involved in the online world and in using technology to create, educate, entertain, inform or just play around.

The event remains resolutely un-organised. We're suggesting a 7pm start, but you can please yourselves when you turn up. We have added a couple of aspects to the event, mainly to cater to the feedback that while everyone loved GeekFest 1.0, they thought some things to give it more, well, purpose might be in order. Your wish is our command...

TechnoCases
We have, as previously reported, brought in two technology companies to mount technology showcases at the event. Both Nokia and Lenovo will be there showing off their snazzy new gadgets. Both have promised not to hassle the geeks - the idea is that they're there for you to talk to if you want to - no aggressive marketing, shouting or anything. If this works, we'll do more of these next time.

GeekTalks
After 8 o'clock, we'll have a number of speaking slots for people to share interesting technologies, projects, thoughts, ideas, practical things or disgusting personal habits. Each slot will be 15 minutes long maximum and it will be up to the speaker to invite his/her audience, start on time and end on time. This will either work perfectly because of the collective will for it to do so, or will descend into absolute chaos. Either way, we're not taking responsibility.

We'll be posting a schedule at the start of next week, but there are a couple of slots still free if anyone fancies having a go. I shouldn't have to say this, but the law obviously states absolutely no sales pitches - this is intended to be user generated.

Windows 7 Launch Party
As you may or may not know, Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system launches around the world on October 22nd and Microsoft has earnestly been soliciting participants for a number of launch parties around the world. You can find out more from this gloriously inept video.

Sadly, our plans to host a Windows 7 Launch Party have had to be cancelled following a viciously outraged reaction to the idea from the Macintosh community. You haven't heard the last of this, Mac Freaks.

Eats
The Shelter, as you probably are aware, has many enviable features - including its very own More Café. Food and drink at GeekFest will be, thanks to a sneaky commercial arrangement with the TechnoCase chaps, freely available at no cost to attendees. And excellent, too!

Location
The Shelter is in Dubai's Al Qouz industrial area. Here's a map!

Registration
Are you kidding? Just turn up...


If you want to get updates and stuff, you can follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter and there's a GeekFest FaceBook group too, for no particularly good reason. You can also email either myself or Saadia Zahid at the addresses given on the GeekFest Twitter page.

GeekFest 2.0

The Fear Rides Out Again

Well, GeekFest seems to have been judged pretty much a success by everyone, although by what benchmark it's hard to say as we didn't set out to achieve anything at all with the event!

That was quite refreshing - having NOT organised an event and therefore not having anything whatsoever to worry about was quite cool, given that I am often involved in organising events with objectives, benchmarks, big budgets and high expectations.

There seems to be a genuine desire for us to do it again. So why not?

Although we set out to have a totally un-organised event, something of a Montessori-style do what you want when you want to gig, there has been a general feeling of 'that was nice, but let's make it more worthwhile next time' from people. So we're adding a little bit more to GeekFest 2.0 - including a fashionably funky 2.0 tag which will excite everyone in the corporate world and make us seem 'edgy' and 'relevant'.

So what are we going to do? Well here are the main changes so far in Version 2.0. The upgrade from V 1.0 is free for registered users, BTW.

First and foremost, what will not change (now or ever if we do more) is that GeekFest is a space for people to meet and chat in a relaxed, no-hassle and resolutely un-organised and un-corporate environment. No PR, no pushing, no advertising or promotion. We have introduced technology showcases (see below) but if they result in anyone being hassled, that's it - they go. Let's see how things go this time around.

Secondly, GeekFest is a not for profit gig. If it raises revenue, then that revenue will be put back into the event or spent in some other silly way that benefits participants. We're not pocketing any cash or planning to. If the stakes get high, of course, you can expect to see this noble princple slowly slipping into 'we never said that' obscurity.

From 8-12pm
Due to popular demand, we're running later - and because it's Ramadan, GeekFest will run through from 8 till late so people can drop by, swing through or stay all night depending on what they want to get up to.

GeekTalks
The Shelter has got a really funky private cinema, ideal for talks to small groups, sharing video and other coolness. So we've split the evening up into 15 minute slots for talks, vids, slideshows or whatever people want to grandstand, showcase, share or discuss. DM @GeekFestDubai or email me or Saadia at The Shelter - both our emails are on the GeekFestDubai Twitter page. Please note that at no stage will anyone be asked to, required to or badgered in any way to attend any of these sessions - you have to bring your own crowd if you want to fill the room.

We're rather hoping that people will want to share new technologies, services, sites, approaches, case studies and that sort of thing. And no, it's not meant to be a TEDalike, it's much smaller scale than that and probably better suited to stuff like 'how to do HDR photography' or 'How we're moving our business online'. Make sense?

TechnoCases
We've opened up GeekFest to two technology leaders to showcase product and new stuff. We're talking to two respected players who have agreed to play it our way and not go promo bonkers but have a more passive, user-focused presence that lets GeekFest visitors have access to expertise and knowledge rather than being harried by corporate stuff. We're obviously wary about this element but can see the good of it if we can approach it well. We'd appreciate your feedback on this more than anything!

F&B
Thanks to the above, we're able to open up F&B at no cost to visitors, so snacks, drinks and so on throughout the evening will be free of charge. Neat, huh?

Any other ideas, approaches or feedback would be gratefully received. Given that this whole thing has spiralled out of control (I mean, media coverage? WTF?), we might as well see where it takes us - and all get something useful out of it in the process.

Cheers!

GeekFest

Those nice people at Uber-funky Dubai hangout The Shelter are hosting GeekFest on Wednesday the 29th July. It should be interesting - billed as an offline social for online socialisers, the get together is resolutely un-organised, has absolutely no objectives whatsoever and features no sponsors, PowerPoint presentations, speeches or other form of corporatised torture.

The gathering will start at 5pm, although if anyone's early it will start earlier. If everyone's late, it'll start later. If nobody turns up, it won't start at all. But then it won't end, either.

The Shelter has a nice More cafe for refreshments and funky music.

The event was born out of a meeting that took place some time ago between The Shelter's Saadia Zahid, Simone 'DiscoBallBreaker' Sebastian and yours truly. We've taken ages to get around to not organising it.

If you don't know how to get to The Shelter, this Google Map Link should help.

You can follow @geekfestdubai on Twitter if you like. If this one is fun, we'll do more of them.