First meeting

[Stuart Herbert]

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd get this kicked off by saying "thank you" for being
interested in a PHP SW user group.

When and where shall we hold our first meeting? The consensus on
Twitter was Bristol (city centre?). Anyone up for meeting before the
end of the month?

Best regards,
Stu

[Rob Mills]

HI Stuart.

Thanks for getting this organised. I'm in Bristol so that would be
great, not sure on a venue though - The Watershed maybe?

Rob

[Stuart Herbert]

Hi Rob,

No problem :)

I like the idea of the Watershed; it's close enough to Temple Meads
for folks coming by train, and last time I worked in Bristol there was
free parking in easy walking distance too. It would be great for us
to find somewhere with a projector and screen, so that folks can do
short talks each month.

Are you able to swing by there sometime and have a chat to see if
they'd be a suitable venue?

Best regards,
Stu
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[Rob Swan]

Hi Stu,

@bittarman tipped me off about the group :)

Bristol is a bit of a trek from Yeovil, but it definitely makes sense.

Rob

[Stuart Herbert]

Hi Rob (Swan),

Welcome :)

If there's enough interest, we could always rotate the meetings
between Bristol and another location.

Best regards,
Stu
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[Bittarman]

Hi All,

Glad to see you got this going Stu, I've been hoping to see something
start down here for ages, I have thought about doing something myself,
but no way I'd have the time to set it up amongst my other
commitments, so I tip my hat to you sir!

I'm down in Yeovil too, and while i don't mind the treck to bristol
once in a while, it would be good to see it rotate to down here as a
second venue.

If the first meeting is before october, I can try out my talk for
phpnw on you lot if your all interested in Zend Framework, phpnw is my
first time as a speaker, so it would be good to get feedback /
practice in before the big day!

Cheers

Ryan

[Rob Mills]

I reckon its definitely a suitable venue, I've been to a talk there by
Bristol Usability Group but i believe they had to hire the
room(although i think they tend to get a local company to sponsor). I
guess it all depends really on what facilities we need and what
numbers we will have. I'll get in touch with them and see what options
we have.

Rob.

[GomezAdams]

I'm in South Wales about 20 NW of Cardiff, so Bristol is a bit of a
trek for me on a school night.

You guys organise something and give me the date and I'll get there if
I can. If we are thinking of a rotating venue then I'll vote for
somewhere west of the Severn Bridge please. I'm a bit of a PHP newbie
and only an occasional coded, but there are a few other php heads in
these parts so maybe we can organise a group outing.

Mark

[Stuart Herbert]

I'm over this side of the bridge too (but work in Bath), and am
definitely up for rotating it into Cardiff :)

Probably worth me mentioning that I've deliberately picked Bristol as
my suggested focal point because the attempts to get a PHP Cardiff
group off the ground earlier this year weren't successful. Not sure
South Wales could sustain a group on its own, but Bristol's not too
far by train thankfully.

Best regards,
Stu
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[James Chapman]

I've got to admit, being near Chippenham, I think Cardiff might be a little too far for me and I would imagine the Yeovil members too.

Bristol does seem like a good accessible middle ground to me.

James

[Stuart Herbert]

Aren't you moving into a new office in Bath? You've been threatening
to for long enough ;)

Cardiff's only an hour on the train from Bath ... But seriously, I
agree that Bristol seems the obvious middle ground, at least to get us
started.

Best regards,
Stu
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On Aug 19, 7:54 pm, James Chapman <ja...@developmentdoneright.co.uk>
wrote:

[sunwukung]

I'd love to hear your talk Bittarman.
I've recently built my first app in Zend, I remember reading your
article re: Action Helpers during my learning curve.
The more feedback on ZF the better.

[Rob Gamm]

Hi all,

Just saw about the group on PHPdeveloper.org, thanks for getting it
going.

I live in Chippenham so Bristol gets another vote from me!

Cheers,
Yet another Rob

On Aug 19, 4:38 pm, Stuart Herbert <stuart.herb...@gmail.com> wrote:

[m...@zioncore.com]

Hi Stu,

Good work for getting this organised, thanks!

As a Bristol resident, Bristol gets my vote too :-D

The watershed's a good venue - central and well-equipped. Cost might
count against them though.
PHP NW, Leeds and London all meet on a school-night - I imagine this
helps get better venue prices (especially pubs with spare rooms, who
are often happy to let it out for free in return for the bar take from
thirsty geeks on what would otherwise be a quiet night), and people
less willing to let tech intrude on their weekend.
I'm off to Copenhagen early tomorrow - another tech conference :-) -
but I can scout out a few alternative venues next weekend.

To get the ball rolling, can I propose Thursday 2nd September?

Marcus

[Dave]

I live in Bristol so you know where I'm voting for! The Watershed
costs about £2000 to hire for a conference. Not what we require but
just a heads up that it is expensive there. Bloody nice place though,
The Web Developers conference in September has been held there for
past few years. It's a great place to meet.

[Stuart Herbert]

I'm going to suggest Wednesday 1st, as I have regular commitments Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights :)

Alternatives would be good. I think it's vital we go somewhere with a projector (or where we can take our own; I can borrow one from the office), so that we can host talks at each meet.

Best regards,

Stu

--

--
--
Stuart Herbert

e: stu...@stuartherbert.com
t: +44 7966 284577
w: http://www.stuartherbert.com/
b: http://blog.stuartherbert.com/

[Rob Swansea]

I'll try to make Bristol, but I'll be more likely to come when the
venue is this side of the bridge :-)

What's on the agenda?

[Bittarman]

The 1st is probably ok, the car is in for a service, and its pretty
unlikely it wont be ready the same day.
What sort of time are you thinking of getting started?

[Rob Mills]

Hi all.

Got a quote back from the Watershed and looking like it would cost
approx £200 for a room for a couple of hours with a projector. I'll
try and think of somewhere else that we can get for free, what sort of
numbers are we expecting?

Rob.

[sunwukung]

They also used to hold some science talks at the Tobacco Factory in
Bedminster. I don't know how much that would cost to hire out though.
I can find out if the venue is of any interest to the group?

[Stuart Herbert]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for asking them.  I'll keep what I think about that rate to myself ;)

I'm sure I can borrow a projector from work, which might help.  I wonder if it is worth trying Revolution?  iirc, the PHPNW mob meet in Revolution in Manchester, and it's a chain.

Best regards,

Stu

--

[Rob Mills]

No worries, i think £50 of that was for the projector but even so...

Not sure if revolution would work as afaik they dont have a separate
room other than the main bar and the balcony. I'll have a think
tonight what other options we've got.

[Gary (Spabby)]

I would make every attempt to attend the first meeting in Bristol, but
a work night would be tricky for me. I am also in Cardiff, but I guess
if we can rotate around 2-3 venues it gives everyone a chance to
attend meets. I can get us a free conference room in Cardiff Bay with
projector etc easily enough if we decide to come down here.

Oh, and hello.

G

[del]

I work in the Arnolfini building opposite(ish) the watershed. In a
shared office space called the hub (http://the-hub.net/places/bristol)

They have an events space which costs around £50 an hour (inc. VAT).
Because I work here, we can use the projector for free and probably
negotiate a discount for regular bookings. It's a big space ...
there's 115(ish) chairs in there, but room for many more.

Plus, it's available on the 1st Sept ... (I think that's the proposed
date of the first meeting, no?)

If you're interested, let me know and come and take a look ...

del (de...@idew.co.uk)

On Aug 23, 11:26 am, Rob Mills <robjmi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Stuart Herbert]

Hi del,

Yes please ... this is definitely worth exploring!

Best regards,
Stu
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