A great event that I
was part of in May was the Manchester Girl Geeks MiniBarCamp hosted by
AutoTrader in the new part of town First Street!
So...What is a BarCamp?
Well it is a day where
people come together and share interesting information with everyone else. So
essentially you have no idea what you are going to find out about until the day
of the show/presentations, as anyone who comes for the event is encouraged to give a
presentation about any particular topic they feel passionate about. It is most
commonly known as and ‘unconference’.
Most of the talks
presented are STEM related but don’t have to be, they can just be a piece of
fun/interesting/cool information you want to share with everyone else. And the
best part is it’s all free. So all you have to do is turn up and take part
either as an audience member or to give a presentation.
Program of the day:
1.
Morning:
a.
Registration (As you had to book your ticket before arriving)
b.
Receive a goodie bag filled with great swag(free stuff)
c.
Have tea/coffee and snacks.
d.
Sign up to give a talk on the day.
e.
Introductions
2.
During the day:
a.
Attend a variety of talks/presentations going on in different rooms at
the venue.
b.
Present a talk of choice, if you are feeling courageous.
c.
A number of people decide on the day to give a talk.
3.
Lunch provided by the organisers.
a.
Get chatting to new people you’ve met/ friends.
b.
Network and get new connections.
4.
A few more talks/presentations after lunch.
a.
Cake and drinks during breaks provided by both attendees and the
organisers
5.
Finally a raffle prize draw takes place at the end of the day and some
thanks yous are presented.
My involvement:
As a member of the MGG
I volunteered to be part of the organising committee for this years’
MiniBarcamp. This was a great insight to the process of organising a completely
free event with the help of many organisations to sponsor everything! It was
such a great experience and with every Girl Geeks events I got to make new
friends in the process. What a fantastic opportunity – learning new skills and
making new friends.
A short summary of some of the talks I attended:
Geocaching
Something I have only
ever heard of once before but didn’t really understand the concept until now.
It is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, getting people outdoors exploring their
surroundings and new areas.
The whole idea is to
go outdoors and search for a box... it goes something like this:
1.
Visit the Geocaching website and enter your location.
2.
The site then produces a number of ‘caches’ for you to find by giving
you some GPS co-ordinates.
3.
With your co-ordinates in hand you go out and find the ‘cache’. And what
you usually find is a box with a list of people who have also found the box and
recorded the date they found it. Then you just do the same – add yourself to
the list and simply put the box back where you found it. And the nest person
can find it.
The aim is to have fun
exploring and getting out-doors and discreetly find the box so that it’s not
obvious for the next person. You then go back online and write a report on your
experience by sharing it on the website.
I think you can
sometimes find items to take away as a prize or swap...
*A top tip from an
experienced Geocacher is: wear good walking shoes if you’re going out far.
Personal Life stories presentations:Being off the grid...
A young lady decided
to start a new life in a new city, so with the last bit of her savings she gets
a first class train to Manchester. Without any money or income she became a
(legal) squatter, living in an empty house that a friend owns but couldn’t afford
to run.
Life was tough during
this time – living on the very basics and trying to change the situation.
Throughout the talk
many questions from the audience came up that led to group discussions about
living off the grid, getting benefits or struggling to survive without benefits
on basically nothing by choice. As well as the stigma and judgements that go
along with any personal life choice one may make.
What I learned: Everyone has their own opinion about other people’s life choices but ultimately it’s up to you to decide what will lead and control your choices. Being determined and self-confident helps you make choices for yourself and not for others.
PhDs – no filter...
Two women in STEM
revealed to us the reality of completing a PhD. A real eye opener to me and
many others.
It is a challenging
experience that requires a lot of your time and energy. You need to be focused,
driven and highly self-motivated throughout the whole process. Some great
benefits include: researching something you’re passionate about. Carrying out
experiments and discovering new concepts that no one else has found. Having
your work published and being able to collaborate with many other organisations/researchers/scientists/engineers...etc.
The drawbacks however
include: stress and loneliness during the few years of your research, as in
most cases you are the only person researching a specific idea and you don’t
have many people around you to talk to about it.
Everything that you
present is constantly judged and scrutinised and you have to justify everything
you state. Some of your published work will include a long list of other
authors, claiming they helped you with the work, when you did most or even all
of the work.
It is a strange state
that you find yourself stuck between a student and a member of university staff
when you are neither. And if you are paid during your research, it is as they
described: essentially a low paid job that you have to do all year round,
sometimes with very few holidays.
One major piece of advice that I came away with from this talk was that if you
want to successfully complete a PhD you have to be good at managing your own
time effectively. Everything you do during the research years is up to you so
you have to be able to drive the project forward.
A few other fascinating talks on the day were:
·
The internet of things. Free software. New things to try out for fun. Mathematical Comedy
Summary: Final Review
It was a great day to
experience for the second time (my first Barcamp was in 2014) and it was even
more exciting for me to attend this year as I was part of the organising team.
So I got to experience both the completed event and the planning stages – behind
the scenes.
And I got to meet some
super, cool, intelligent people on the day who are passionate about STEM just
like I am and thus could lead to working on some future projects.
It takes a lot of
coordination of like-minded people to come together and be part of creating
something as fun as a Barcamp. It also makes you realise the awesomeness of
human kindness by working together with many different organisations willing to
be part of the event it was a great success.
This years’ event was
a miniBarcamp as it was smaller than last years’ event due to our venue
capacity. Some people might have thought there weren’t enough people there but
I felt that it made the whole day even more exclusive, as we got to have more
relaxed discussions in smaller numbers.
I would highly
recommend being adventurous and attend an event like this one. I learnt so much on
the day it felt like I had a talking encyclopaedia introducing me to new ideas
and information.
A huge thanks to the MGG team I worked with and a
special mention to the ladies I met on the day and had great
conversations with: @N_alomary a woman with super cool
advice on security on your mobile devices. @FINOkoye UX developer with a
passion for science and tech. She promotes STEM to everyone particularly with
the intent of getting women of colour to be part of the movement. @upsideteach a great ambassador for STEM and science
teacher. @mcrgirlgeeks TEAM: @ZoeEBreen, @stecks, @samheadleand, @emilylovedhim, @Gem_Hill, @NatCLiberty
Image source: @mcrgilgeeks
PS: just a note, men
are always welcomed to Girl Geek events!!
As always love, comment and share!
NC-Liberty x
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