With the introduction of the first drafts of the HTML5/CSS3 specs and with it the introduction of the possibilities to include video, audio and custom fonts into a website is becoming a lot easier. Dave will be walking us through some of the details of the @font-face CSS rule and the eminent web font revolution that will follow.

We don’t have a venue yet but as usual it will be in central London and I will let all of you know when I’ve found a venue.

When: Thursday, September 17th 2009 18:30
Where: TBA
Speakers: Dave Crossland
Topic: Open Fonts
Cost: Buy your own food (most of it for £5)
Nearest tube: TBA
Signup: Signup on EventBrite

We’ll be changing location this time, heading directly for the pub where we can have some drinks and food. The pub is located within walking distance from London Bridge station and has cheap food and nice drinks. We hope to see you all there on Tuesday!

When: Tuesday, July 28th 2009 18:30
Where: The Miller
Speakers: Jane Finette & Pascal Finette
Topic: Mozilla Labs
Cost: Buy your own food (most of it for £5)
Nearest tube: London Bridge
Signup: Signup on EventBrite

This GeekDinner is not just an event where we can brag about BCL6, but it’s also your chance to become part of the BCPLA and help determining the future of BarCampLondon by becoming a full member, or a volunteer. So if you loved previous BarCamps and would love to organise one or something similar, come along and let us know!

We don’t have a venue yet but we’ll announce that by the end of this week.

When: Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 18:30
Where: Hummus Bros Holborn (Upstairs)
Speaker: Members of the BCLPA
Topic: The future of BarCampLondon
Cost: Food and drinks on buy your own basis
Signup: Signup on EventBrite

David G.W. Birch is a Director of Consult Hyperion, a global IT management consultancy that specialises in electronic transactions,. Before helping to found Consult Hyperion in 1986, he spent several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East and North America. Described by The Independent as a ‘grade-A geek’, and by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation as ‘one of the most user-friendly of the UK’s uber-techies’; he is well-known for his “Second Sight” columns in The Guardian’s Online supplement.

Dave will talking about Consult Hyperion’s work on M-Pesa. (Featured on the BBC and all good news outlets.) The M-Pesa payments service is used by 17% of Kenyans [5.5m users], with over 10,000 signing up every day. Despite objections by mainstream Kenyan banks, M-Pesa’s growth not only avoided regulatory issues, but helped trigger legal reforms to open Kenya’s money transfer market.

Dinner will be upstairs at the Holborn Hummus Bros in Holborn at 6:30PM. It’s buy your own dinner (about £15 a head) and book early as it’s not a large venue! To let us know that you’re coming and reserve your ticket, email me at mseckington@gmail.com.

We’re going to be in our usual place again, Hummus Brothers in Holborn (first floor) and we’ll commence at about 6:30PM. be sure to join us and please let us know if you’re coming on our signup page.

So instead we’re going to give away 2 x 2 free tickets here on the Geek Dinner blog! All you have to do is leave a comment behind here with what your favourite Geek Dinner was this past year. Entries must be left behind before Wednesday 14:00 and is open for UK residents only. I’ll email the winners on Wednesday afternoon.

Again another London Geek Meet! And again something a bit different. This time we’ll be going to the Victoria & Albert Museum for their special Cold War Modern exhibition. Here’s the description about the exhibition from their site:

This period from the end of the Second World War to the mid 1970s was a period of great political tension and exceptional creativity which touched all aspects of life, from everyday products to the highest arenas of human achievement in science and culture. Art and design were not peripheral symptoms of politics during the Cold War: they played a central role in representing and sometimes challenging the dominant political and social ideas of the age.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this exhibition, including the fun and mysterious promotion of it through The 7th Syndikate. And thanks to the guys at 1000heads we’ve gotten 10 free tickets to share with you all!

To make it fair though, we won’t be giving these tickets away. Our idea is this: depending on the amount of people who sign up, the cost of the extra tickets that have to be bought, will be split over all people who attend. So if 15 people sign up, everybody pays £3 (£9*5/15). If you are interested in coming, email mseckington@gmail.com. This is absolutely necessary, because we’ll probably have to book tickets for a specific time slot.

Because not everyone has been to the Victoria & Albert Museum before, we thought it would be a great opportunity to also see the rest of the museum. We’ll meetup at 11:00 before the entrance in Cromwell Road. If you’re only interested in the Cold War Modern exhibition, we’ll have a second meet-up point at 14:00 inside the musuem in the hall before the exhibition. 

When: Sunday, December 7th December 14th
Time: 11:00 for main museum, 14:00 for Cold War exhibition only
Where: Victoria & Albert Museum
Nearest Tube: South Kensington
Activity: Museum exhibition
Cost: Food and coffee on buy your own basis, tickets depending on how many people sign up (won’t be more than £7 per person though)

Sign up by sending an email to mseckington@gmail.com.

Update: We’ve had to reschedule to a week later to December the 14th.

Update: This event has been cancelled.

This time our guest will be Adrian Hon, Chief Creative Officer at Six to Start. He is one of the main designers and producers behind Perplex City, the world’s first commercially successful ARG (Alternate Reality Game) and has since then been at the forefront of ARG development. This time though Adrian will give us a talk on “The Death of Reading”. 

Again the venue will be our regular Hummus Bros in Holborn at 18:30, with the talk starting between 19:30-20:00. Food will be on a get your own basis, so no need to pay online. If you’re running late and can’t find us at the Holborn place anymore, we’ve probably moved on to the pub down the street.

When: Wednesday, December 10th 2008 18:30
Where: Hummus Bros in Holborn
Speaker: Adrian Hon from Six to Start
Topic: The Death of Reading
Cost: Food and drinks on buy your own basis

Please RSVP on our signup site if you are coming, there is only limited seating.

BBC Backstage is teaming up with most London and Manchester communities to hold two Christmas parties. We will be drinking, having fun, and probably make a fool of ourselves on the dance floor. Will you join us?

Only a little more than 50 tickets left, so sign up quick!

Joining us is James Gardner, the Head of Innovation and Research at Lloyds TSB. He will talk a bit about the book he has got coming out soon and tell us some amusing anecdotes about medieval banking datacentres and internal bureaucracy. 

Because we are hosting this together with the OpenFinanceCoffeeClub, the number of places will be split evenly between the two. This means 15 spots available for GeekDinner people, 15 for OpenFinanceCoffeeClub members.

Again the venue will be our regular Hummus Bros in Holborn at 18:30. Food will be on a get your own basis, so no need to pay online. If you’re running late and can’t find us at the Holborn place anymore, we’ve probably moved on to the pub down the street.

When:  Tuesday, November 18th 2008 18:30
Where: Hummus Bros in Holborn
Speaker: James Gardner
Cost: Food and drinks on buy your own basis

Please RSVP on our signup site if you are coming, there is only limited seating.