Bloomington Geek PICNIC, June 29th, Bryan Park

Yes, we're trying something a little different this time. Instead of having a dinner in dark of night, requiring busy parents to find a babysitter or not come together, we've reserved a shelter house in Bryan Park for the day. Geeks are invited, significant others who aren't geeks are invited, kids are invited. I like to say, food, drink, and tech with the geeks of Bloomington, but it's not quite that simple this time! Come out to this event and meet the families and friends of those geeks you already know!

What to bring? Bring something to snack on, lawn chairs, the usual picnic stuff. Bring food for a few extra people if you feel so inclined; don't if you don't. We're still working out the details of what we'll have available.

When: People will be there at 1PM. Come at one, come later, come whenever you can.

Where: Bryan Park shelterhouse, the one off of Woodlawn.

See you there!

Geek Dinner, May 5th, Crazy Horse

We left the scheduling kind of late, but you weren't doing anything anyway, now were you? Come join us at the Crazy Horse Monday, May 5th, to celebrate IU finals being over (if it applies), the primary election on Tuesday (if it applies) or that it's your birthday sometime near then if it applies - and it does, for me :) Come help me celebrate! The kind folks at Envisage are going to try to reserve the back room from about six to about nine, so come when you can and leave when you like. See you there!

Cinco de Mayo for the next one?

Good dinner last time - around 25 people with a MacBook Air, a OLPC, and a Pleo in the offering. We were considering a Cinco de Mayo celebration for the next one. Drop me a note if that doesn't work for you, and let me know where the bext place in Bloomington to celebrate it is!

Geek Dinner March 20th

Yes, it's about that time again! This time we're going to Michael's Uptown Cafe at 102 E. Kirkwood; a fairly well-known and locally owned restaurant here in town that is, I hear, the place to go for European soccer fans to watch matches. Thursday, March 20th is the date. The people that responded to the poll were pretty much all over the place, so I'm sorry for you folks that were hoping for a weekend date...however, between IU's spring break, Easter, and St. Patrick's day we thought this was the best time to fit it in.

A few people will be there as early as six P.M., but feel free to come whenever you like. There were people hanging out at least until nine last time, and I remember being disappointed that people had left so soon until I realized what time it was. We're going to try to reserve their back room for that evening, but if not we'll just grab two, four, or eight tables. Looking forward to seeing someone show up with a Kindle this time, or at least a Twitter-driven toy rabbit :) See you there!

Dinner at El Norteno's

It was a very nice event, with somewhere between 15 and 20 people showing up. There were four or five Envisage folks, as is usually the case, but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who showed up that I had no idea who they were! The coolest toy award goes to Felix, who brought along his One Laptop Per Child machine, which was something I had not seen before. I was surprised by how small it was, by how much like a Fisher-Price toy it looked, and on the inside, what a neat little operating system it had. Aargh, but he couldn't demo the wireless connectivity owing to the lack of wifi in the restaurant. For the number of places in Bloomington that provide free wifi, we haven't selected one for a dinner yet.

For the next time, I'll do a little more organizing for space, since I'm pretty confident that no less than 15 will show up - word is starting to spread. One thing I'm struck by is really how little alcohol is being drunk - I had assumed that a place that at least served beer would be essential, but now I'm thinking that the available space and perhaps wifi is more important.

There was at least one comment on the Facebook group suggesting that a weekend date would be better. I've been more of the opinion that people would prefer to spend the weekend hanging out with their friends and family, but maybe I'm wrong. Vote in the poll on the right and tell me what day you'd like to meet for a Geek Dinner.

And don't forget, you only have a week left to sign up for the Bloomington Startup Weekend. I'll see you there!

Geek Dinner Jan. 30th

Come join us Wednesday, Jan. 30th, 6 P.M. for a Geek Dinner at El Norteño on Walnut Street. We'll have some Mexican, a little beer and talk tech - and there's a lot of tech to talk this time around as the Bloomington Startup Weekend will be February 8th - 10th. People will get together and try to create an entire company from start to finish in a single weekend. Should be pretty amazing. What's your idea for what the company should build? Kick around some ideas on the 30th! Hopefully we'll have a wider range of folks than we did last time, but even if we don't I'm not going to let all the folks from a single place sit next to each other this time - you Envisage folks will have to sit next to grad students! Mark it on your calendar, and see you there!

Mother Bear's Geek Dinner

We had around eleven or twelve show up, including at least three couples; wasn't sure if the spouses considered themselves geeks or not :) I was pretty pleased with the numbers, considering how busy everyone it in December, but disappointed in the turnout from the Bloomington community: there were quite a few Envisage employees, but almost everyone else that showed was an IU Informatics grad student. However, Felix and Cathy Wyss had good excuses for not showing, as their first baby was born just two weeks before the dinner!
Congratulations to the Wyss's.

Next time we won't have it so close to the middle of campus to make sure community members can get to the location easily. I'm liking the suggestion of El Norteno right now, but leave any other suggestions you have in the comments! Look for the next dinner in late January.