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Posts Tagged ‘2011’

  1. Barcamp Blackpool 2011!

    October 17, 2011 by lallyd

    So this weekend I attended the third Barcamp Blackpool, held at the Pleasure Beach and I have it say, it was awesome!

    The weekend started for me on Friday night, trying to get myself into town where a few of us were meeting up for a bite to eat and a few beers, which turned into a 3am taxi back to the hotel after 3 pitchers in Revolutions on the prom!
    Saturday morning was not a good look for me at 9am. I plastered on a tonne of concealer to hide my vampire eyes, arrived at the venue and the first comment I got was “You look like shit”!
    I powered through it. Went to a range of talks, from the future of the web and development techniques (hosted by one of my college tutors) to how to make 8 bit hama bead badges. As well as the awesome content being generated, there was food, drink, cake, swag, rock and much more. However, of all the stuff that was going on at this year’s Barcamp Blackpool, what I enjoyed most, was the conversation.
    For me this year, I went to a handful of talks, but I talked to so many more people about everything from how I’m getting on at Uni, to what I want to do in the future, and how I can map my path over the next couple of years to get there. I found so many people inspirational to talk to, and what I took away from the weekend as a whole, is how awesome our community is.

    This year I tried to encourage some of my classmates from college to come along and unfortunately I failed. However there was one guy from my class who was working at the venue on the day, and I think he was pretty amazed by the sheer number of people coming and going all day long and the range of topics covered. In lieu of turning them into barcampers, I’m definitely going to get them to come down to Gillespie’s for Geek Up on the 24th October, so they can get a little taste of what a barcamp can be.

    A massive thanks to Gemma for organising the event this year, and to Les for being her wing man. Thanks to Joe, Caius, Tim, Steve, Catherine and many more for the great conversations and the learning! But the biggest thanks of all to the sponsors, who enabled the guys to put on a great day for all.

    Lally.

    Category Events, Ramblings | Tags: ,,,,, | 1 Comment

  2. Communications Officer – Poster

    October 5, 2011 by lallyd

    So as part of my quest to be elected as Communications Officer, I had to create a campaign poster to put up around the college, alongside a manifesto in order to try and get people to vote for me.
    Votes are being cast between 17th and 21st October, so hopefully I’ve enough time before then to spread my name about and get people behind my cause!
    I’ve included a copy of the poster for you have a look at. Any feedback would be warmly welcome. I’ve also added the copy from my manifesto for you get have a look at. Hope you like it! Please leave a comment letting me know what you think, positive or not :)

    Lalita D’Cruze – Communications Officer Poster

    My manifesto:
    “My name is Lalita D’Cruze, most people call me Lally. I am standing for the position of H.E. Communications Officer.

    I am a second year BSc IT student already involved with some activities happening both in and outside of the college. I believe there are a lot of great things going on around campus that not everyone knows about. There are loads of activities and groups already running at the college, as well as discounts and special offers for students which aren’t being taken advantage of simply because people don’t know they exist.

    If elected I will do as much as I can to help any society, student or faculty in promoting their activities or events to the student body. I will do my best to ensure everyone knows about what’s happening at the Student Union and how they are working with the college to constantly improve your time here. I will try to keep the information relevant and easy to understand, whilst continuing the great work already being done by the Student Union, by communicating with students through Facebook, Twitter & around campus.

    I would be happy to take on any feedback about the current communication system at the Student Union and will strive to improve it to make sure your voice is heard by the Student Union and college where possible.

    I am really passionate about sharing and communicating and I recently completed a level two certificate in British Sign Language, which helped me to understand the challenges some people face with communicating on a daily basis. I have also spent time working with organisations in the local community to promote music nights, conferences and technology events and maintain two blogs and a twitter account covering these topics and more.

    I believe the more people are involved in the student community; the better it can grow to be.

    Vote for me via Moodle as Communications Officer and you’ll never be out of the loop.

    Lally”

    Don’t forget to leave a comment!

    Thanks,
    Lally.

    Category Education, Ramblings, Student Union | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  3. Leeds Hack 2

    August 8, 2011 by lallyd

    So, this weekend I attended the second Leeds Hack, which is an event organised by Dom “The Hodge”  Hodgson. The purpose of a Hack Day such as this is for teams of people, usually around 4 per team to get together and create a “hack” for example a web application, a mobile app or maybe even just a simple site in just 24 hours. This year’s main sponsors; Esendex, Affiliate Window, eBuyer and Coding Futures all provided prizes for the teams to compete for which involved using the services laid on by the sponsors as a part of the hack.

    I didn’t compete in any of competitions and I wasn’t officially hacking, so instead I decided I’d try my hand at learning Ruby. With much encouragement from many of the other people at the hack day, and with a small group of others trying the same thing I had a go at using Try Ruby and Hackety Hack to create simple bits like a Hello World! I really enjoyed using Ruby, but the environment wasn’t quite right for me to really learn anything as there was far too much other exciting stuff  to do like chat to people about what they were hacking, and filming Dom being wrapped in bubble wrap!

    The hack day was a brilliant event, which brings together so much knowledge into such a small space and encourages people to share and use it over a 24hour period. The final product of the team hacks (although a few people crept off before the presentations) ranged from a dieting/food diary web app (which I’m going to try out myself over the next few weeks) to a wire-framing app, an app that allows you to text via an interface on your computer and the hack that I contributed to by pointing out flaws and providing moral support – PleasePledge, which is an app that helps charities to get the things they need by appealing to their supporters to pledge money via text.

    The hacks that came out of the 24 hours were outstanding, and as many people at the event said I hope people continue to develop them and even take some of them to market.

    Huge thanks to the sponsors who provided lots of swag, as well as sweets, drinks, crisps, beer and the funds to attempt the UKs biggest take away order from Just-Eat! Thanks as well to the organisers who did a brilliant job of keeping people motivated, creating a fun and friendly atmosphere and encouraging me to go and learn something new! Finally a shout out to the venue, the Mint Hotel in Leeds who let us come back for a second year, provided some delicious food, a greate venue and have the friendliest staff I’ve ever encountered!

    Lally.

     

    Edit: Here’s the link to all the Hacks submitted over the course of the weekend.

    Category Events | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,, | 2 Comments