How does all this take your fancy?

• An afternoon in the park with your family, friends and some like-minded people during the scorching Summer Heatwave in the UK.
• Some games and laughter mixed with food and drink
• An evening in a pub with some of the leading UK web designers and developers discussing hot topics such as accessibility and usability

If that sounds like heaven to you, you should go to Geek In The Park on Sunday 27th August 2006 - the first geek picnic in the UK organised by those friendly chaps in the Multipack.

Geek in the Park is a day-long get together, picnic, and discussion for anyone to do with the Internet (developers, designers, programmers… whatever!). This is a very informal affair so family and friends are very much welcome to attend too.

The big day is taking place in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Split in to two main events, Geek in the Park starts with The Picnic during the day, followed by The Discussion in the evening. The event starts on Sunday at noon and everything should wrap up by around 11pm.
www.geekinthepark.co.uk

The event came from an idea we had during previous Multipack meetings when we thought we should get out of the pub and find a nice park to get together and enjoy some fresh air for once. It also seemed like a great idea for getting more people involved by releasing the boundaries a bit and venturing out of the Birmingham/Sutton Coldfield/Wolverhampton area. After many discussions on ideal locations, Trev went on a trip down to Leamington Spa and discovered some great park areas as well as some local drinking establishments that were happy to play host to some Web nerds in the evening with enough room for a smallish talk.

Once a venue was secured, it was time to find some people who were interested in giving some talks on the current state of the Internet. We were thrilled when the likes of Patrick H Lauke and Bruce Lawson replied to Trev’s emails. They will be giving talks on their experiences within the Web Standards Project Accessibility Taskforce in “Where the rubber meets the road: Web Accessibility and Pragmatism.”

Don’t forget that this is a totally FREE event. Everyone likes free things (no more than the Multipack) so this event is coming to you completely gratis. We have also been kindly donated some free books from Friends of Ed to give away on the day so there’s an incentive to jump on a train and get your bums to Royal Leamington Spa. We just remind you to bring some food and drink with you (we’re not that generous!). There are cafes, restaurants, bars and shops nearby if you want to support the local businesses and don’t want to lug picnic gear over to the park and around the pub later.

Mix this with plenty of booze on a Bank Holiday weekend and you have a perfect recipe for fun, laughter and Nerdy frolics. Buzz is already building up and we are hoping to have quite a big turn out on the day. So roll up those trousers, grab your sunglasses and put Geek In The Park in your diary for the 27th of August. It’s going to be a Geeky Summer!