Manchester meetup

[Liz Smart]

Hiya,

How about a festive meetup? (festive in that it's nearly xmas rather than wearing awful jumpers and drinking eggnog - though you can if you want!)

As a random date.....Thursday 10th December 6-8pm somewhere near/accessible from Manchester but not so near we get caught in the traffic chaos.

If I've chosen a completely terrible date that clashes with a million other things then let me know, otherwise I'll find us a location and set up an eventbrite.

Cheers, Liz

[John Arnold]

My wife has her Christmas do that night I'm afraid so I'll be stuck at home with the kids. :(

John

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NorthWestEnglandCodeClub" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to northwestenglandco...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to northwesteng...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/northwestenglandcodeclub/9ec0dda8-6720-47f8-9963-bd1dda3f31dd%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Geoff Riley]

10th December is my sisters half century birthday - so I have a feeling I might be expected to keep that date clear.

It's a self preservation thing: I'm sure you understand. :)

Geoff

[Liz Smart]

Ah I'm hopeless with picking dates. How about 1st or 2nd December? They seem like dull dates that people wouldn't choose to do anything else :)

[Zarino Zappia]

If you’re trying to pick a date that the most people can attend, why not use Doodle?

Doodle creates a little page where people can fill in their availability on a calendar. It’s dead simple and saves multiple rounds of emails.

http://doodle.com/create

It’s free for you to create a Doodle, and your participants don’t even need to set up an account to participate.

Zarino

On 18 Nov 2015, at 13:27, Liz Smart <nort...@codeclub.org.uk> wrote:

Ah I'm hopeless with picking dates. How about 1st or 2nd December? They seem like dull dates that people wouldn't choose to do anything else :)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NorthWestEnglandCodeClub" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to northwestenglandco...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to northwesteng...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/northwestenglandcodeclub/9a4523df-b081-417c-ad54-312c2d0f32f8%40googlegroups.com.

[Liz Smart]

Doh! Don't know why I didn't think of that ... thanks Zarino. Here's the link http://doodle.com/poll/e8x46yux73ee6ken

For 2016 I'm going to do a termly one for Manchester and Merseyside then 4 more one-off meetups around the NW and sort the dates out by January .... my new 'get organised' resolution!!! That's not to say there won't be others too but once those are in they're locked in :)

[Zarino Zappia]

Done, well at least you now have one more person’s availability! :-)

Zarino

On 18 Nov 2015, at 14:19, Liz Smart <nort...@codeclub.org.uk> wrote:

Doh! Don't know why I didn't think of that ... thanks Zarino. Here's the link http://doodle.com/poll/e8x46yux73ee6ken

For 2016 I'm going to do a termly one for Manchester and Merseyside then 4 more one-off meetups around the NW and sort the dates out by January .... my new 'get organised' resolution!!! That's not to say there won't be others too but once those are in they're locked in :)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NorthWestEnglandCodeClub" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to northwestenglandco...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to northwesteng...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/northwestenglandcodeclub/efe47d6e-a124-45ed-9840-e2acf31baa39%40googlegroups.com.

[Geoff Riley]

I entered my availability - then it asked me to create an account; I couldn't see what I'd entered so I entered it again... then the original appeared and I had two entries.

I think I managed to delete one of them... I just hope I haven't mucked the whole thing up!! :)

Geoff

[Liz Smart]

Sorry for the delay. Details sorted now, hope it's convenient and that everyone who wants to come along is still free.

Massive thanks to Joe for hosting it & sorting out something to play with :D

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/code-club-manchester-meet-up-tickets-19776327528

[Geoff Riley]

Tickets ordered... and I've sent an invite to our new host teacher at Stretford to see if she would like to come along.

Our old host teacher suddenly got a new job in a school for kids with learning disorders - I know the school and it's a really challenging job he's got there - but luckily someone else was ready to step up to take over although she's a little bewildered by it all I think just yet. :)

I've not been to MediaCity yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing it 'in the flesh' rather than on weather reports!

Cheers,
Geoff

[Steve Robinson]

Hi Liz, Please don't use Media City again, it cost me £5 to park!

[Richard Vickery]

Liz

Just a quick e-mail to say thank you to youself and the BBC members for organising the meet-up at Media City last night. It was very interesting and good to get our hands on a BBC microbit! Thanks for the mince pies also

Best wishes for 2016

Richard Vickery

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NorthWestEnglandCodeClub" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to northwestenglandco...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to northwesteng...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/northwestenglandcodeclub/928d70ce-72d1-407b-91d5-2a9c1c81cad3%40googlegroups.com.

[Geoff Riley]

Hi Steve,

I don't think that the cost of the parking is really that big a problem - most of the places that we use have some kind of parking charge; and £5 is a long way short of the most we've had to pay. If we don't come in the car, we park at Navigation Road tram station where there is free parking and take the tram in - but the tram tickets cost £8.80 for the both of us.  We live outside the Greater Manchester area, so Carole isn't entitled to concessionary tickets and has to pay full adult rate like me.  We would have used the tram this time if we had realised just how close to the tram stop the BBC was - it was a long walk from the Lowry car park.

We actually took advantage of the Lowry and did a bit of Christmas shopping - which gave us four hours free parking this time, but we spent over £15 to get that, so unless there's a particular reason for doing that 'shopping', it isn't a particularly frugal way to get free parking! :)

As a venue, I thought it was wonderful - although, due to the requirements of security checks and such, it felt a little like gaining entry to visiting at a cat.c prison. I think some people were caught out by the need for ID - and so it all took a little longer than might have been necessary and possibly could have been helped by being mentioned on the booking form (I'm guessing Liz didn't know about the requirement at the time).

The security process is becoming more common - when I visited Google in London a while back, they had exactly the same sort of system there (including the lift 'ordering' system) - so it's likely to be something that we're going to meet again at other venues and should be prepared for anyway.

Looking forward to more meetings - wherever they happen to be - in 2016!

Have a great Christmas peeps!

Geoff

[Liz Smart]

Hi All,

Yeah venues that tick all boxes are hard to find. Code ComputerLove have moved office & Mcr Creative Studio had events on every night I suggested. If we do anything at MediaCityUK again I'll research the parking options, perhaps UTC will let us park there at that time of night if we ask nicely :) On a venue note next term's meetup will be at Manchester Central Library and I'll do a doodle poll for dates nearer the time.

Glad everyone had fun playing with the micro:bits. I'll let you know more about distribution as soon as I know! Here are some links from Jim to give us more information about the Robot Orchestra :

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4pFWmxreayWUUVUdWdWZ1BzXzQ&usp=sharing

http://manchestersciencecity.com/inspire/article/the-robots-are-coming/

See you all soon. :)

[Steve Robinson]

Hi Liz,

Sorry if I came across as churlish, I got home in a bad mood, not because of the parking charge, more that it took me 15 minutes walking round the car park to find the sole(?) pay station!

I did enjoy the meetup and especially the information about and experience of the Micro Bits.

See you soon.

Cheers,

Steve

[Liz Smart]

Ouch, doesn't sound like a brilliant car park on any level Steve! :( see you next time.

[John Arnold]

BIG thank you to Liz and the BBC folks for a fantastic evening and a great venue. I really enjoyed the whole evening and would love to go there again. The parking charge didn't bother me. The microbits were a real treat - just the sort of thing we should be bringing along to our meetings to inspire volunteers. 

Overall I thought this was the best meetup I've been to!

John

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NorthWestEnglandCodeClub" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to northwestenglandco...@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to northwesteng...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/northwestenglandcodeclub/c37ef8e3-cb72-45bc-b90d-5e59ca44260c%40googlegroups.com.

[Liz Smart]

Hopefully we can gather something similar to play with for the next one :)

Thanks for bringing the sphero John, Kayla has so far saved £2 towards one...never seen her so determined before! Not sure she's fully done the maths though haha

[Geoff Riley]

She possibly hasn't realised that there isn't quite as much space to run around in at home either...  I must admit I was greatly impressed with the Sphero. Although they've got some at Stretford, I never saw them actually in action properly - and now that that teacher has left, it is anyone's guess where they are.

It's a great shame that the Microbits are only being introduced into a single intake of secondary students; although I'm glad that Code Club will be getting an allocation as I can see it being a wonderful opportunity for demonstrating how easy it is to program a peripheral device like that.

The 'Internet of Things' is becoming so commonplace that such a device is perfect - the Raspberry Pi is generally overkill because of the need to kit it out with a keyboard, rat and monitor: although the Zero may help in those regards, being more expectant of a remote connection... when I eventually get one I'll find out. :)

Still want to get my hands on a Microbit... it knocks the spots off the CodeBug. [tongue very firmly in cheek]

All the best,
Geoff

[Steve Robinson]

Hi Liz,

At the meetup you mentioned that Micro:Bits might be made available to Code Clubs. I'm about to spend my own money on Codebugs for my clubbers but before I do, is there any news on the Micro:Bits?

Thanks, Steve

[Geoff Riley]

Have they actually reached the stage of getting them out?  Last I heard they had been delayed again - I'd rather given up hope of ever getting hold of any for the club.  I got a Pi Zero for myself to play with. ;)

Geoff

[Liz Smart]

Hey Steve, latest position we have is that we’re still awaiting confirmation from the BBC, but we believe we will receive micro:bits in the spring term. As soon as we know more I'll let you know.

Cool re Pi Zero Geoff, have fun playing. I think the micro:bits have gone out to the teachers now so that they can become familiar with them ahead of the roll out to the kids.