Welcome to TechSPARK’s regular events round-up, summarising the upcoming tech-related events in Bristol and Bath!
*Featured Event*
FireTech Summer Camp: Computing Courses for 12-17 year olds, Bristol
11-15 August and 18-22 August
Creativity. Innovation. Technology. Fire Tech Camp is bringing these together to empower your child with the skills and environment to build something amazing. Fire Tech Camps aim to put the power of technology into kids’ hands so that they can create their own games, design their own smartphone apps, and build robots to do their bidding! During school holiday periods children age 12 to 17 can spend five days at UWE Bristol gaining great skills, and getting exposure to the inner workings of the games and tech world.
In the words of one of Fire Tech’s 12 year old recruits “Fire Tech Camp has inspired me to believe in myself and I had an amazing experience at Fire Tech Camp and I really want to go again in the summer. Thank you so much!”
There are 4 courses to choose from in Bristol:
Hardware / Physical Computing: Getting Started with Arduino for 14-17 year olds.
Coding Java with Greenfoot for 12-17 year olds.
Teen Coding with Python for 14-17 year olds.
Video Game Design for 12-17 year olds.
All the above courses are run twice, for 5 days each time, on the 11-15 August and 18-22 August.
Startups Bristol: It all starts with an idea, Horts Bristol
12 August @ 7pm
Startups Bristol are new monthly meet-up for those interested in startups. They aim to share knowledge, discuss ideas, innovate and provide members with information that can help their startup succeed.
Their first ever meetup will be an open social event to allow everyone to get to know each other and discuss their ideas/startups. Everyone will have the opportunity to talk about their idea/startup to the group and receive feedback. A great way to get honest feedback and new insights into your idea!
Bath Scrum Users: Agile Speed Dating, Bristol Prudential Buildings
12 August @ 7-9pm
A ‘crazy idea’ from the organising committee, to have short focused conversations about any subjects you like. It’s a mix of agile networking and knowledge exchange, with the usual opportunity for a natter after proceedings!
The concept is a mix of open space and speed dating. We always get smaller groups in summer, this format takes advantage of that allowing you to get to know more members, and to talk through issues that interest you in depth. Join Bath Scrum User Group and register for Agile Speed Dating.
South West Data Social, Watershed Bristol
12 August @ 7:30pm
They describe themselves as “the omnipotent data group that is all things to do with managing, handling, analysing and delivering data in the mild mild South West.” The South West Data social is an evening for those involved in using, learning about or discovering data technologies to meet and network. Topics of discussion include Big Data, NoSQL, NewSQL, OldSQL, document databases, linked-data and more.
The night takes place on the first Tuesday of every month in various locations around the South West. Join the South West Data Meetup.
SEEDCAMP Meet & Greet hosted by South West Founders, Watershed Bristol
13 August @ 5:30pm
Seedcamp is a pan-European London based accelerator launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors that provides startups with seed money, mentorship, office space and support over a yearlong program.
This will be their first ever event in Bristol and will be run in partnership with the South West Founders meetup group. Having already invested in local superstars BaseKit, who build website editing software, Seedcamp are “excited to be meeting other ambitious startups and tell you all about Seedcamp”.
For those of you lucky enough to have nabbed a ticket to this extremely popular and now sold out event, you can find the event schedule via the Seedcamp Eventbrite page. If you haven’t managed to get a ticket for the event, you can find out more about how to apply for support and funding for your startup on the Seedcamp website.
Simpleweb: Games Hack Night, Bristol
20 August @ 7pm
Simpleweb are a meetup aimed at bringing creative and tech minds together to create innovative applications and web toys. “No limits, just cool stuff.”
Join them for their August meetup at the Simpleweb office in Bristol for hack away with anything to do with games. They’re open to other projects and ideas to and have a variety of tech free to use at the meetup; from a Raspberry Pi (credit sized computer), to open source electronics platform, Arduino. For more information, join the Simpleweb meetup group.
PHP South West: Testing & CI
20 August @ 7pm
PHP South West are hosting a series of three short talks on testing and continuous integration, sponsored by Brightpearl.
– Designing for testability
Dave Liddament, PHP, Java & Python Software Developer
– DOs & DON’Ts with PHPUnit
Kat Zien, Software Developer at Brightpearl
– Hollywood on Demand
Gavin Davies, Software Developer at Radify and author of Deal With It: Attitude for Coders
For more information and to sign up, join the PHP South West meetup group.
If you have an upcoming tech event we haven’t mentioned in this list, tell us about it!
