Enjoy!

- Matt
Revenant Newsletter Editor

Multipack Presents WordPress with Show & Tell, Sat 12 May 2012

Our event this month is all about Wordpress, featuring:

Jonny Allbut - stretching WP beyond the blog
Rachel McCollin - Responsive images - let WordPress do the hard work
Tammie Lister - Three BuddyPress tales

All great stuff about how Wordpress can be more than just a blog.

It’s also a Show & Tell event too, so we’ll have some short talks on projects by multipack attendees!

Meet 2pm at the Sack of Potatoes, the talks from 4pm at Science Park Aston

Presents Event on Lanyrd

Sponsor a Mac

Our very own Si has been working closely with The International School in Birmingham, asking local design agencies to “Sponsor a Mac” to help students embrace creativity with industry standard software that is typically too expensive for schools.

By contributing just £120 towards the campaign, you will supply the school with an Adobe Creative Suite license along with the opportunity to build a relationship with young talented designers.

Visit the campaign site for more details

MG

The folks at One Black Bear have been busy again. This time bringing the classic midlands car manufacturer’s site up to date. A nice clean design that’s also fully responsive.

http://mg.co.uk/

Free Radio

The folks at 383 Project have produced this great new site for the newly merged BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern radio stations. A great mix of social and local.

http://www.383project.com/blog/a-new-website-for-free-radio/
 http://www.freeradio.co.uk/

Jobs

3 month contract PHP Developer

Si is currently seeking a talented PHP developer to help build on existing PHP applications at Premium Choice.

If your MVC fu is strong and you’re available for a 3 month contract, send an email to simon.jobling at premiumchoice dot co dot uk

Are you experienced?

Looking for a role in a Midlands-based startup? The guys at Science Park Aston have a new site for finding just that.

http://startupexperience.co.uk/

Tell us what you like about the newsletter

We’d like to know what you think of our newsletter - why you subscribe, what new content you’d like to see, any other thoughts.

Fill in our short survey - we’ll even select one lucky entry to receive a free gift!

Survey

Other Events:

Tech Wednesday, Wed 16th May 10am, Birmingham

Multipack Staffordshire, Mon 21st May 7.30pm, Penkridge

Multipack Leamington: Tue 29th May 7:30pm, Leamington Spa

Brum Girl Geeks 2: Thu 17th May, Birmingham

iOS Midlands, Thu 28th June, Birmingham

Multipack Birmingham

Saturday 14th Jan, The Old Joint Stock, Birmingham, 2pm-6pm

Come for a drink, and a bite to eat with one of the friendliest communities of web professionals, geeks and techies from across the West Midlands, to discuss code, standards, technology, and share our knowledge and experiences.

Follow @multipack for updates.

More info on Birmingham Meetup

Multipack Leamington - Special Event

Sunday Jan 22nd, 7pm to 11pm

Following her appearance at New Adventures in January, Denise Jacobs will be coming to a special Leamington Multipack event at our usual haunt, the White Horse. Organised by Leamington Multipack regular Nivi Morales, the night promises to be one full of our regular Leamington cheer.

This event will be running from 7pm to 11pm, so even if you’re not from Leamington or Warwick, why not pop over to have a chat with the author of The CSS Detective Guide and speaker at events such as SXSW, Future of Web Design, Voices That Matter: Web Design and Interlink.

The White Horse serve a fine Sunday Roast too, so if you’re in town for the day, stop in for something to eat and stay for a drink, a chat and a catch-up with the Leamington Multipack regulars.

Multipack Staffordshire

16th Jan, Littleton Arms, Penkridge, 7.30pm

A local midweek offshoot of the Multipack, join us for a midweek drink and an optional bite to eat, as we discuss all things web, geek and tech in Staffordshire and the surrounding areas.

More info on Staffordshire Meetup

Multipack Presents with Show and Tell

11th Feb, Science Park Aston, 2pm onwards

Presents and Show and Tell will be returning in 2012, kicking off in February with a “From Side-Project to Business” themed event, and we’re pleased to announce that we’ve lined up some terrific keynote speakers for our first event of the year:

- Elliot Jay Stocks will be talking about all things from 8 Faces to Viewport Industries

- Joel Gascoigne will be talking, via Skype from wherever he happens to be at the time, about the popular startup Buffer.

Attendance is free, as ever, but we’ll be using Eventbrite to gauge numbers for the event – head over to Eventbrite where you can get a free ticket for all of 2012’s Presents and Show and Tell events, or put £50 in the refreshments kitty by purchasing a Sponsor ticket.

New event: Birmingham Girl Geek Dinners

Launching this January, a new event for women in tech and geek related fields!

More in on the Girl Geek Dinner Lanyrd and their blog

New Event: Mobile Monday

A new event for anybody in the Midlands with an interest in mobile technology and the business opportunities it creates:

Mobile Monday Info

New Adventures

Plenty of Multipack folks are heading along to New Adventures in Web Design in Nottingham this month. Talk to @abitgone about the bowling team for the social…

Hydrahack

7th Feb, Urban Coffee Co, Birmingham

An after work opportunity to get together, drink coffee and code something cool.

More info on Hydra Hack

Wordpress Meetup

11th Jan, Old Joint Stock, Birmingham

For all people who use and develop for the popular blogging platform. A meetup with drinks, tips and chat.

More on the Wordpress Meetup

Hubmag

Multipack regular Trovster mentioned the launch of this Telford magazine. Somebody familiar is doing the film reviews

E4f Co-working Space

Our friends E4f at Science Park Aston have opened up their co-working space with a variety of membership levels. It’s a great hub for techy, game and web firms and would suit anybody starting out in those sectors.

More info at E4F

T-Shirts

Ant is organising some Multipack T-Shirts. Price will be between £20-£25 depending on how many are ordered. Sizes Small to XXXL, very large sizes may be slightly more expensive.

Price includes shirt, printing and postage for pickup at a Multipack Birmingham or Leamington event. Additional postage will apply if you want it posting to an address of your choosing.

The design is a simple, one colour screen print featuring the Multipack logo on the front chest pocket area of the t-shirt, and larger on the back. Black, Red, Maroon, Navy Blue, Olive, Brown, Royal Blue, Charcoal and Green are available. (see an example).

We’d like to get the t-shirts ordered, printed and delivered in time for the February event, so will need numbers by January 20th and money collected by January 27th.If anyone would like one, send an email to multipack at abitgone.co.uk

To get this newsletter by email, sign up on our homepage.

Multipack Presents : Responsive Web Design + Show & Tell - 12th November

Meet 2pm, Sack of Potatoes, Gosta Green
Event from 4pm at Birmingham Science Park Aston

Join us for talks about responsive web design, with a keynote for Andy Hume of Clearleft.

We’ll also have a show & tell section where you can talk about your own responsive designs, or any other web-related topic!

There are still places to talk, so pop over to Google Moderator to suggest a talk or vote for your favourite. Submissions close Monday.

More information about the event on Lanyrd.

Multipack Leamington

The White Horse, 29th November, 7:30pm

Join the Leamington contingent of the Multipack for a beverage and a chat about all things web.

Leamington Info

Multipack Staffordshire

The Littleton Arms, Penkridge, 21st November, 7:30pm
Join our Staffordshire group for a weeknight meetup and chat about webby stuff.

Staffspack Info

Hydrahack 08

Urban Coffee Co, 15th November, 6pm

For those about to hack, we salute you! Bring code, ideas and a willingness to drink coffee.

Hydrahack Info

Stop Press! Charity help needed!

Want to help get kids enthused about the web/tech and contribute to Children in Need? Oxygen Accelerator at Birmingham Science
Park Aston are running an event and need help from volunteers. Friday 11th November from 4pm to Sunday 13th November 5pm.

Happie Feedback: quick & emotional feedback

Studio Bonito have just released Happie Feedback

Ask any question to your consumers with Happie Feedback and gain instant feedback analytics! They will be releasing beta invites over the next couple of weeks, sign up now.

Done Something Worth Shouting About?

The Multipack Newsletter goes to just over three hundred designers and developers around the Midlands. We always need more newsletter content! If you have anything you’d like included next time, whether it’s a new project or event to announce or a blog you think we should all be reading, drop us a line at multipackadmin at gmail dot com

Multipack Birmingham

The Old Joint Stock, 2pm, Saturday 9th July

Our monthly social meetup in Birmingham, grab a pint and talk about the web and related-technology. Topics of conversation this month likely to include Google+, the conference season and MacOSX Lion…

Multipack Leamington

Tuesday 26th July, 7.30pm The White Horse

Join the Leamington contingent of the Multipack for a beverage and a chat about all things web.

Multipack Stafford - New!

Monday 18th July, Littleton Arms

Join our new Staffordshire group for a weeknight meetup and
chat about webby stuff.

Follow @staffspack for updates

Multipack Presents : Geek in the Park 2011

Saturday 13th August 2011, 12 noon onwards

Join us on for an all-day family event including a relaxing picnic and an evening of illuminating talks by web industry leaders Andrew Disley, Relly Annett-Baker, James Willock, Paul Lloyd. They’ll be talking about topics from web native design to content strategy and beyond!

More Geek in the Park Info or @geekinthepark

Note: The picnic is open to all, but due to venue size and cost please book a ticket for the evening event (£10).

Hydrahack

Urban Coffee Co, Tuesday 26th July, 6pm

Meet up after work and code all kinds of insanity with folks from Brum!

Tech Wednesday

Wednesday 20th July, 10am

Tech-startup focused meetup hosted by the folks at Birmingham Science Park Aston.

Shrop Geek (R)Evolution

2nd September 2011, Prince Rupert Hotel, Shrewsbury

The Theory of (R)Evolution is an event, run by @Shropgeek, showcasing forward thinking ideas from the web of today.

The Conference Organisers Handbook

PPK, who you may remember from the excellent resource quirksmode.org , has written a primer on organising conferences for web folk. Worth a read if you ever fancy running an event.

Born in a Barn?

In case you missed it last month, Tim & co at The Site Doctor are looking for a new team member and have a fun way of finding them…

Multipack Presents, Mobile

Saturday 14th May, Birmingham Science Park Aston

This month we have with another in our successful Presents series. This time the talks will focus on various strands of mobile development.

It’s at a new venue too, at Birmingham Science Park Aston, so don’t sleepwalk down to Digbeth!

We have:

• Dave Addey on iOS
• Paul Rhodes on PhoneGap
• Nick Harewood on Windows Phone 7

So we have an idea of numbers, please sign up on Lanyrd

The event starts at 4pm, but we’ll all meet up before hand at the Sack of Potatoes or Gosta Green to grab a pint and some lunch. Follow @multipack for last minute updates!

We’re still looking for people to talk Android or Mobile Web App development, drop us a line if you feel you have something to say!

Multipack Leamington

31st May, 7.30pm The White Horse

Join the Warwickshire contingent of the Multipack for a beverage and a chat about all things web.

Leamington Meet on Lanyrd

Node Workshop

Remy Sharp is running a Node.js workshop in Nottingham in May for web developers. The workshop is available at 50% off the “normal” price for a workshop at £200+VAT for the full day - the aim is to make it more accessible to smaller companies and freelancers.

The workshop runs on the 13-May. Full details about what you’ll learn from the workshop, booking and details are available.

Hydrahack

Tuesday 24th May, 7pm, Urban Coffee Co, Church St.

Can’t make the Saturday meetups? Feel like coding up a storm with Brum’s finest? Hydrahack is a great event to meetup and get some code done.

Hydrahack

Birmingham Science Park Aston

The talented guys at Studio Bonito have been hard at work on the new site for our Presents’ hosts

November Meetups

Multipack Presents : The Design Process

Saturday 20th Nov, 2pm, The Offices of One Black Bear

Join us for the last Presents event of the year, featuring three Multipack regulars; Gareth Brown, Andy Higgs and Paul Lloyd, as they talk about wireframing, AB testing, style guides and Photoshop techniques.

We meet beforehand (from about 1pm on) at the Old Crown in Digbeth for lunch and a pint, before heading to the offices of One Black Bear for the presentations.

If you’re new, keep an eye on http://twitter.com/multipack for last minute updates.

More event info,

Add yourself on Upcoming or Lanyrd so we can estimate numbers for refreshments.

Leamington Gathering

Tuesday 30th November, 7:30pm, The White Horse

Join our little geeky meet-up, for a few beers and some food. Discuss all things web design, development, social media, iphone, iPad and anything else that remotely resembles a geeky thing! Leamington Event Details

Gaming & Digital Technology day

An >event about starting a business around gaming technology, with talks from existing companies and support organisations.

We Are Birmingham

Opening this very weekend in Dale End, We Are Birmingham is a shop selling art and crafts created by people in Birmingham and
the West Midlands. Brought to you by the same minds as the Created in Brimingham pop up shop that rocked the Bullring earlier in the year.

We’re also looking for folks to speak at a November Multipack Presents event! Drop us a comment below if you are interested in talking to an audience of peers about web-related subjects.

Birmingham Gathering

Saturday 16th Oct, 2pm, Old Joint Stock

Share a celebratory pint or two with local web designers and developers! Discuss what’s happening in the industry, swap tips and tricks and generally enthuse about all things web!

This month topics will likely include the recent Expression Engine and Fronteers conferences, IE 9 Beta, HTML5 and the battle of the buzzwords.

If you’re new, keep an eye on @multipack for last minute updates. More event info at:

Brum Events page

Leamington Gathering

Tues 26th Oct, 7.30pm, The White Horse

Our Leamington branch gather to discuss webby stuff, startups and other topics.

Leamington Events Page

Hacks and Hackers October

Wed 20th Oct, 7pm, The Square Peg

A meeting of journalists and webby people for mutual benefit! Data journalism, visualisation, scraping, open data and other such wonders to be discussed.

Hacks and Hackers

Jobs - Online Community Manager

Talis are building a new product for data publishers and consumers to discover, share, remix and use data. Community will be a big part of it and we are now looking for a somebody to help us grow and nurture that community. In short, we are looking for an open data geek who enjoys helping other open data geeks make cool stuff for an exciting linked data project!

More at http://www.talis.com/careers

Birmingham Gathering

Saturday 11th Sept 2pm, Old Joint Stock Birmingham

Share a pint or two with local web designers and developers! Discuss what’s happening in the industry, swap tips and tricks and generally enthuse about all things web!

This month topics will likely include dConstruct!

If you’re new, keep an eye on @multipack for last minute updates.

More Brum Meetng Info

Leamington Gathering

Tues 28th Sept, 7.30pm, The White Horse Leamington

Join the Warwickshire branch of the p’pack for web geekery!

More Leamington Meeting Info

Journalistic Hacking

Hack and Hackers 20th Sept, 1pm Coffee Lounge

A meeting of journalists and webby people for mutual benefit!

Hacks & Hackers Meeting Details

dConstruct Podcasts

Didn’t make it to Brighton for the geek-fest that is dConstruct? Interested in design and creativity, or the historiography of the web? You can listen to the wonderful talks and feel almost like you were there.

dConstruct Podcasts

Lanyrd

Want to track which web conferences your twitter mates are going to? Now you can with the rather nifty Lanyrd, another vowels somewhat optional service. Useful for finding new events on subjects that interest you.

Lanyrd

Designer-ness

Trev got in contact to mention local designer Aaron’s new website. Everybody should have a portfolio.

Birmingham Gathering

Saturday 10th July, 2pm, Old Joint Stock

Share a pint or two with local web designers and developers! Discuss what’s happening in the industry, swap tips and tricks and generally enthuse about all things web!

If you’re new, keep an eye on @multipack for last minute updates. More event info at: Brum Meetup on Upcoming

Leamington Gathering

Thursday 27th July, 7.30pm, The White Horse Leamington

Grab a pint in the Warwickshire sun and talk development, design and UX.

Leamington Meetup on Upcoming

StartupMill Brum

Monday July 19th, 6.00pm, Free

The StartupMill is a free community driven event for aspiring entrepreneurs and creative minds. Our aim is to create a network of young fresh thinking talent to collaborate, share knowledge and experiences to help each other get ahead in business.

Hacks and hackers

23rd July, All Day, Free!

Join Journalists and the 4IP funded scraperWiki in building cool stuff with Public Data. The aim is to show journalists how to use programming and design techniques to create online news stories and features; and vice versa, to show programmers how to find, develop, and polish stories and features. Hacks Signup

Tech Wednesday

10.00 am, July 21st, Resource Café, Birmingham Science Park Aston

Second of the new weekday events for web, techy and digital types in Brum.

Tech Wednesday

Epic Win?

Ever felt that your task list lacked a certain, well, gaming element? Soon you’ll be able to level up and collect achievements as you finish your daily tasks… EPIC WIN

If you didn’t already know, The Multipack meets twice a month - every second Saturday in Birmingham and the last Tuesday of the month in Leamington (an iCal feed is available). Our little group in Leamington started a year ago so, on the anniversary of our first meet-up, we celebrated with cake:

Our cake, adorned with an iced version of Paul Robert Lloyd’s logo masterpiece, went down very well. So much so that we’re attributing our best ever turn out to its presence. Many new faces, including some who’d previously not been able to find us, but who had a cake to look out for this time!

Sadly, whilst the cake worked in giving some people a beacon to find us, we can’t bring cake every month, so if you’ve got any suggestions on how to help people find us, we’d love to hear them.

Staying with the same format

The reason we formed our group in Leamington was to give those who couldn’t make the Saturday meet-ups a choice of when to attend. It’s worked really well, and whilst we’ve had the odd month where only a handful of people have turned up, there’s usually always a good, friendly crowd at our Tuesday night events.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve been joined by designers, developers, project managers, social media luminaries, other halves and even the occasional prospective parliamentary candidate, and it’s been nicer still when some of our newfound geeks have hooked up with the larger group in Birmingham on the second saturday meet-ups.

We think it’s worked, so we’re going to stick with it - we’ll continue meeting from 7:30pm on the last Tuesday of the month at the White Horse in Leamington Spa, where you can find good ale, good food and a good atmosphere. If you work in or around the Leamington Spa area and fancy joining us, we’d love you to join us!