Last Saturday I was up early (i.e. 4am) to make the trip down to Brighton. I’d been invited by an old friend Ian Ozsvald to see how Brighton web start-ups do their thing. I won’t try to do a comprehensive review since Ian’s write-up does the job admirably. Instead I’ll jot down some impressions as someone from outside the Brighton scene who’s still wildly interested in this stuff.
The main thing that struck me was the informality of the £5 App approach. The event was free. The speakers spoke freely and for free. The space was donated by one of the speakers. No sausages-on-sticks nor cheap wine was provided. Instead, the participants were led to the ample cafes and pubs of the North Laine at lunchtime and finish. Each talk was of interest (to me at least!) ranging from story of boot-strapping, through a critique of OpenSocial to a masterclass in copy-writing. I had little trouble staying awake all day when an academic seminar usually takes me out in 30 minutes. I guess a large part of the success of this is down to having a passionate collection of people who are happy in exploiting blogs, upcoming, flickr, etc in order to tie everything together and make things happen.
In any case, I’m curious to know whether this formula can be imported to Brum. I know enough entrepreneur/creative-geek types that I could set up a few talks. This probably includes you. Once I get broadband at home I’ll be kicking it all off. I just got central heating last night so I clearly have my priorities messed up.