What to expect when you arrive at GiveCamp UK

Oct 19 2011 3:16 PM

What the hell is going on?!

We’re nearly there … just 2 days to go. You think you’re nervous? This is the bit where Paul and I let go and basically see what sticks. I’ll not lie, as first time event planners we’re pretty petrified too.

By now you have probably had a look through our charity projects. Strangely a lot of them ended up being web-based solutions, but the folks at the other GiveCamp sites tell me that this is completely normal.

So you have a better idea about what you’ll be working on, but what about the rest of the hours in this one weekend?

Friday night without Jonathan Ross

We’ve had the outline of the schedule up on the site for some time. You may have looked at it already. If you haven’t, here’s the link.

To fit in with UCLs arrangements we will open registration at 4pm in the North Cloisters (located at G2-3 on this map). You’ll be able to collect your badge, your GiveCamp UK t-shirt and your swag bag. There is some pretty neat stuff in those bags, but all I will say here is the earlier you arrive, the better.

At 5pm we will move to the Gustav Tuck Lecture Theatre (located on the second floor of the Senit Suite marked on the map at G4-5). Here we’ll do our introductions, our thank you messages, and Paul will identify our team leaders and floating staff (more on that on Friday). Following that, we will introduce you to our charity representatives. The representatives will explain a little about their organisations, what they exist to provide and also a little about the project that they are looking for help with.

At 6pm we will decamp back to the North Cloisters for food and literal team building.

This is where it either gets really complicated or runs exceptionally smoothly.

While we tuck into food provided by our local caterers, we will let everyone mix, mingle and mull over the choice of projects. The only aim that we have is for each project to have at least four team members. Some teams will need to be slightly larger, but in the absence of having a perfect idea of final numbers and developer desires, Paul and I don’t want to assign each volunteer a project. The hope is that you will connect with at least one or two project concepts and we will be able to get everyone working on something that they are interested in.

The rest will have to work with Gary Short Winking smile

Once we have eaten our fill and our volunteers have been assigned to their team leader we will get down to some charideee work!

Snacks (kindly donated by CounterSoft) and drinks (kindly purchased by Paul thanks to donations from our sponsors!) will be available throughout the weekend. Don’t be greedy mind … we all need to share!

Saturday Night Live Coding

OK, so we might not have you critiqued by flipping your code up onto a big screen, but Saturday will be the day that the bulk of the hard work gets done.

We’ll kick the day off with fresh breakfast bagels and goodies from Curved Angel Cafe.  We are trying our best to make sure that we cover as many of our food intolerances and dietary requirements as possible, so there will also be fruit and juices available for the gluten free folks.

After a nice breakfast, I know that you will all be looking forward to lunch! Lunch is being driven in by Luardos Mexican Street Food. We’ll give you a voucher at registration so that you can get your free burrito.

Mmmh, Mexican food … err, moving on!

After a hard day in front of a computer screen, what better way to take some time out than grabbing pizza. Thanks to a hefty discount from Dominos Pizza, we’ll be getting a fresh delivery on Saturday night. At this point, I will be taking on Scrabble opponents!

Again, we’ll aim to keep snacks and drinks available all day.

“A Sunday well-spent brings a week of content”

Sunday morning will be your time to put what will hopefully be the final fanfare of functionality to your projects. You might not be totally content, but fingers crossed you do have some content (did you see what I did there!)

We’ll call time on coding at noon exactly, so your code had better compile! Visual Studio will be shut down (other IDEs are available from all good stores). Laptops are to be powered down. Brows can, at this point, be mopped.

Paul, Lorri and I have set up a fabulous spread for lunch on Sunday. I can assure you that you will not go hungry.

At 3pm, we will hop over the road to The Cruciform Building (shown on the map at C2-D4) for our project showcases. Each team will have the opportunity to show off their solution to resounding praise and applause. and hopefully our charity representatives will be excited by the results.

Following the showcase, we’ll close the event with the obligatory grand prize draw.

We have got an epic stash of prizes to give away. If you make it through, you will not be disappointed!

And finally …

This isn’t a regular UK community event. It’s a little bit different. It’s a little bit nerve-wracking because people are coming to share skills in a different way to that which you’d find at our fabulous DDD events. It’s a little bit more of a commitment of your free time. It’s even a little bit unknown. Trust us when we understand your concerns … we understand because we have the same ones Disappointed smile

What the GiveCamp UK team hopes is that you will enter uncertain, but that you will exit knowing that it was a great experience that you would look forward to doing again.

Looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

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