The CTO and founder of Joyent's Jason Hoffman will be in Cape Town next week and there is going to be a small Geek Dinner with Jason on Wednesday night. Let me know if you're keen to attend. All you pay for your dinner and drinks at the restaurant.
Just got back from the Geek Dinner at Primi in the Waterfront. Joseph Jaffe was the 'guest speaker' this evening. (Note to self link to Glen's video clip on Zoopy of the 5 minute speech once it's been uploaded).
One of the most sought-after consultants, speakers and thought leaders on new marketing,Joseph Jaffe is President and Chief Interruptor of crayon, a new marketing company.
Stormhoek as per usual sponsored the wine. Eskom struck twice so we went without power for quite some time. These rolling blackouts aren't fun.
Anyway we headed to the Alba Lounge for drinks and to continue the conversation. I can't wait for the next Geek Dinner on the 27th to continue with the conversation. In a way I'm excited about various networking opportunities the Geek Dinners provide.
Geeks are doing some interesting things at the moment. Things I'm sure I'm not going to mention but rather will get them to speak about what they are busy doing at the next couple of Geek Dinners.
UPDATE:
Already receiving some feedback. This is for one of the 'original' Geek Dinners arranged by Max and Dave. Not the Cerebra rebranded 27Dinners or the Joe/Clug ones.
Oh my word. Don't get me started on how disappointed I was about the 27 dinner this evening. Trying to cram 100-odd people on the second-floor of Relish in Gardens, does not cut it. I'm not keen of tight spaces, sweaty gym smelling small spaces with no air to breathe that you start falling a sleep. We need a bigger venue where we can sit down and chat. I have to admit that it was difficult to get around and chat to everyone!
It was good to bump into the likes of Max, Shelly, Henk, Dave, Kath, Glen, Brett, Pat, Jason, Jackie, etc.
The first presentation was nothing about dolphins but was supposed to be seeing dolphins in pictures. I'm still not getting that. But none the less, I'll stick to sys admin for the moment.
Ended up winning a ipod thanks to the Zoopy team, which a friend dropped and cracked the screen. But none the less I think she won't live it down till I break my current pair of headphones.
Ending up ducking out with a couple of the guys from where I was standing and heading out to the waterfront for a good meal and chat. Let's just say we made the best of the situation.
I'm going to try and remember about the Geek Dinners in future may be more suited to my taste.
UPDATE:
Read what others have to say about the 27-8 at Relish:
I went to the 27 Dinner last night (yes I just got home a few minutes ago) and decided to spend a couple of minutes hacking on this before going to bed. I made sure I was sitting near the interesting crowd of social networking guys and catching up with the good old days and ensuring that I had an alrightish view of the proceedings (apart from the pillar in the way).
I have to admit that the food tonight was excellent. Although there was less of a choice as with the first 27 Dinner, which was held at relish, this time around the quality was excellent although the portions were smaller.
Ian Gillifan spoke about the Talent Exchange amongst other things, and how banks create money at the click of a mouse.
Graeme from Stormhoek spoke (yes I did see your wines on the table at this venue)! It's quiet interesting hearing about the way you guys buy your grapes from different vineyards and do blending, etc.
Mike Scott spoke about his comic strip, and the inspiration he had and some of his thought processes and how he uses a Wacom Intuos to draw his cartoons. The Wacom Cintiq is more fun! I got to use one at a previous employer and being able to see on the screen what you are attempting to draw is different.
Tania Melnyczuk spoke about her domain name snapping up of domains like magazine.co.za and money people pay for domain names, and how co.za does not have a snapback feature like various overseas registrars do. I gathered that this is a requirement of her day job.
Jason Elk from Zoopy spoke about what he and the team were getting upto, and that they were beta launching a new feature at 27 Dinner.
Uno de Waal went on about some random stuff when all he really was asking was where can he find a DMS? The answer is Knowledge Tree, which will sort out his problem.
Henk from Skyrove raised around R 2k for the guys at Icommons.
Chatted to various people ranging from the Zoopy gang, Skyrovers (Henk and Stellio), Neil (uber-PHP hacker who's hacking python these days), Miquel, Dave, Jaco, and various others.
Links to 27 Dinner - 27 April 2007
