It can be a little difficult for some of us to give up a day of the weekend every month in order to travel over to Birmingham. Saturday afternoons are a premium, especially for those of us with families and other weekend commitments.
As discussed in the forums, Mark James, Anthony Williams and a few of the other regulars have decided to meet up on a more regular basis in the week, and Tuesday evening saw Leamington’s first weeknight social, organised by a few of us from the Warwickshire area.
Weeknight Socials
It’s often a lot easier to meet up for a quick beer or two straight after work so, with that in mind, we’re going to meet up, regularly, on a weeknight to complement the larger Birmingham-based meet-ups. With a burgeoning web design/development community in Warwick, Leamington and the surrounding areas, Si and Tim helped spread the word about our little meet-up on Tuesday.
The White Horse in Leamington Spa served as a great venue for what turned out to be a relatively successful first meet: a number of new faces from the area joined us for a few beers to discuss local community groups and efforts, such as PHP West Midlands and WXWM; the weather was fantastic and The White Horse’s courtyard worked really well, with a few of us staying a little later to sample the food.
Getting Involved
Many people, especially those who are attending on their own, can find it difficult to make the jump into attending an event such as this. Meeting up with a bunch of like-minded individuals you’ve never met before can often be difficult for first-timers - a valid point that Richard brought up - which means it’s all the more important to talk to your friends, colleagues and local contacts who are interested in the web and encourage them to join in, wherever possible.
We’d like more Warwickshire-based geeks to meet up with us and, occasionally, join up with us at the larger Saturday Birmingham-based Multipack meetings. If you’re interested in coming along to our next one - likely to be the last Tuesday of the month, back at the White Horse in Leamington - then please keep your eyes peeled on the Multipack website, follow us on Twitter, and get involved by joining the discussions over at the forums.
The only thing we’ll need next time is something to draw newcomers’ attention to us!