

London Hacker News meetup will be on Wednesday, 27th March - dmitri1981
http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/events/109966642/

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xedarius
I've noticed that once the wheels of conversation have been greased (via beer
and a few presentations), during the interval people really seem to mingle and
chat. To my mind this is the golden 10-15 minutes of the hacker news meetup.

Here's the rub, there's usually only a 10-15 minute break. I'd argue that
these conversation are largely the point of the whole meetup. Dmitris'
introduction quiz was a good idea, and I think worked well. However ultimately
people need time to develop and evolve a conversation.

My suggestion would be to cut one of the talks in the second half and let the
mid-session break stretch on for 30 minutes .

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lhnz
I completely agree.

I normally skip many of the presentations in order to talk with people
outside.

The whole point on these events for me is to find good hackers or business
guys to work with, I can sit coding or watching biz/tech presentations the
other nights in the week. :)

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mcdowall
My team (TfL Online) has a hackathon coming up soon based on our new API, it
would be good to hear how we can get that out there for the attendees to be
aware of?. (I'm sure you are pretty jam packed on the schedule this time round
though)

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xedarius
I have to say you've done a fantastic job with the Tfl API. Any chance you
could put up a link to the hackathon here? Or at least give us a few more
details?

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mcdowall
We're just in the process of nailing down the venue, but aiming for the end of
May / start of June (essentially once we've managed to do some more testing
and integrate some new data sources).

Without giving too much away (I'll get shot by the press team!), its a single
API covering all modes of travel in London and surrounding areas, mostly for
the first time, think fares, enhanced accessibility options, geodata etc.

Drop me a mail and I'll get you on the invite list if your interested.

~~~
xedarius
Sounds great, email sent.

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42tree
Looking forward to see a HN meetup in Shanghai, China. Does anyone have any
plans? I'd be willing to help organize.

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ximeng
You should put a way to contact you in your profile like an email so that
anybody who does have plans can let you know.

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42tree
thanks for pointing it out! email added to profile

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babuskov
What a coincidence, I'm travelling to London this Sunday. I was hoping to go
to node.js group meetup the same evening, but this seems much more
interesting. See you there.

edit: Is there some way to pay via credit card or wire transfer, as PayPal is
not available in my country?

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Peroni
If necessary you can pay in cash on the night but obviously we'd prefer if
folk paid via meetup as we won't be carrying change or taking many on the spot
payments.

~~~
babuskov
Is the number of attendees limited? If so, I'd like to somehow book it.

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Peroni
Technically it's limited to 400 and we usually reach that figure however we
have 'emergency capacity' for an additional 200 so I promise you won't have
any issues getting in. Drop me an email (info in my profile) and I'll give you
my mobile number so you can call me if you have any issues at the door and
I'll sort it.

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laumars
I'm considering joining. Just one question (and sorry if it's already answered
on the meetup page, I did read it but didn't see the answer). Are the topics
usually a surprise or are they related to the sponsors (though I notice your
headline speaker isn't one of the sponsors)?

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Peroni
Not usually connected to the sponsors although one of the speakers is due to
popular request.

The remaining speakers will be announced very shortly.

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ig1
With the inevitable clashing, it clashes with Josh's Biz Dev for Early Stage
Enterprise Startups event:

<http://www.meetup.com/unsexystartups/events/109255182/>

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Peroni
It's literally impossible to arrange a tech meetup in London without it
clashing with another event.

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ig1
Yep hence the word "inevitable" :)

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Peroni
If there are any previous attendees monitoring this, we'd be happy to hear any
feedback or suggestions on what you think we can do to improve the event.

~~~
chaghalibaghali
Pretty minor, but it tends to get quite stuffy by the time the final speakers
are on - if it's possible to open some windows then that'd be good.

~~~
Peroni
Valid point. I'll make sure there is plenty of ventilation.

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dutchbrit
Looking forward to see a HN meetup in The Netherlands, does anyone have any
plans? I'd be willing to help organise.

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sp3n
is this a monthly event? i will not be able to attend this one but would love
to attend the next.

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Peroni
Indeed it is. Usually the last Wednesday or Thursday of the month.

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tcwc
Is Sanderson compering? He really made the event in the past.

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Peroni
Unfortunately no. Due to his recent significant fame increase, he's in high
demand and his schedule clashes with this months event. I have it on good
authority that he is definitely returning next month.

Until then, you're stuck with my angry ramblings during talks.

