CreativeCamp Belfast This Weekend

The first CreativeCamp (in Ireland) hit Kilkenny this past March (I had a helping hand in organising the event), an event which started to bring in a nice concentration on design and the arts online. I had many a good conversation with film makers, visual artists, a writer, a theatre director - all of whom were starting to explore the online world as a means to promote their work and connect with fellow artists.

While artists and creative practitioners made up a small portion of the blend of people there (there were initially 120+ subscribed to attend and likely 80-90 there over the day), the key thing is that it brought creative people together from all walks of life both online and off.

So it was great to see Andy McMillan (who I got to meet at this year’s Irish Blog Awards, briefly) annouce earlier this year that CreativeCamp Belfast would be taking place. And wouldn’t you know, it’s taking place this weekend.

CreativeCamp is a self-organised “unconference” - made up of open, participatory workshop-events where the participants are responsible for setting the agenda, deciding on topics and generating the content. CreativeCamp Belfast brings together technology and creative enthusiasts who want to make things happen with web, mobile, open source, new media, music and design.

Of all the events and unconferences to provide some kind of online coverage or online archive of the day, this is one of those events I hope archives everything.

When I passed my driving test earlier in the summer (before the need to have a second driver regardless of your license kicked in) I thought, “this is great - have van, will travel. Dublin, Belfast, anywhere with a bit of motorway”.

Then in typical Irish form you get an invitation to a wedding and two fall on the same weekend, pinning me to Kilkenny on Friday and Mayo on Saturday. So there’s a slight part of me (the musician and music promotor / sponsor / butcher / baker / candlestick maker) gutted that I’m going to be missing out on talks like

• Nick Fitzsimons - Music Licensing - What is it, how to approach it, and why it’s important
• Rich Dale - A Manifesto for a sustainable NI Music Scene
• Anto O’Kane - Building a new model of the music industry from the ground up - open discussion on the best way to keep a band afloat, and even make a few quid.

not to mention the rest of the talks that are taking place on the day, a number of which have yet to have their details published.

Plus it would have given me the chance to spread the wings and head to Belfast, take in a load of new faces on the day - the key thing for me behind these unconference events.

So, long spiel aside, here’s the facts -

• CreativeCamp Belfast takes place this weekend, Saturday September 6th
• It runs 10am to 5pm in Blick Shared Studios (map)
• You can still register here, here or here
• It won’t cost you a penny to attend

To those involved in CreativeCamp Belfast and those attending, have a good one!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to keep up to date with kenmc.com. Maybe some of my earlier posts will interest you too! Thanks for visiting kenmc.com!

iQ Boot Camp On The Way

The annual iQ Content Boot Camp is on the way, taking place in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin from April 22nd to April 24th. Early bird registration passes today but if you’re working in the web industry in Ireland (or anywhere else for that matter) and you’re available to attend, it would be well worth considering given the variety of courses on offer.

Here’s the lineup over the three days, with full details of each course available here.

Tuesday 22nd April

• Killer Web Applications
• Web Analytics 101
• Kick-start Your Web Strategy
• Email Marketing
• Writing For The Web 101
• Practical User Testing
• Search Engine Marketing 101

Wednesday 23rd April

• Writing For The Web 202
• Personas - Getting In The Head Of Your Customers
• Accessibility For Web Managers
• Web Analytics 202
• iQ FutureNow Seminar
• Apres Boot (mid conference drinks)

Thursday 24th April

• Information Architecture That Works
• Web Governance
• Online Advertising
• Content Strategy
• Website Healthcheck
• Web Project Management
• Search Engine Marketing 202

There are also free iQ Clinics running where you can make use of one-to-one sessions to answer any questions you may have regarding your own website.

How much? You’re looking at three-day packages starting at €1,100, with tickets also available on a one day or two day basis. For pricing and registration details see here or phone Liz on +353 1 8170768.

Irish Microsoft Technology Conference Tomorrow

The 2008 Irish Microsoft Technology Conference gets under way tomorrow April 2nd to Thursday April 4th. Kickoff is 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday) in the Cineworld Complex on Parnell Street.

The IMTC 2008, is an 8 track, 40 session extravaganza covering a breadth of Microsoft’s latest emerging technologies. Throughout the festival there will be numerous networking opportunities, coffee and session re-runs.

Now in its third year, the IMTC 2008 is the second of seven major technology conferences in IrishDev.coms IxTC Series 2008. Co-organised with the Irish Microsoft Technology User Group and First Port Jobs, it’s an event by the Irish technology community for the Irish technology community.

The event delivers 40 Developer and IT-Professionals including LINQ, VS 2008, SBS 2008, Virtualisation, Business Intelligence in SQL 2008, SQL Server 2008, Sharepoint, Silverlight, WCF, Scrum, Volta, CSharp, Next generation Web Apps, XNA, BizTalk, XML Web Services, OCS, IIS for ASP.NET, Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008.

Full information and details on how to book to attend