MERSEYSIDE’S digital community is set for another exciting year, with the return of Ignite Liverpool and plans for another Barcamp “unconference”.
Ignite Liverpool, which sees speakers give five-minute presentations on subjects close to their hearts, is set to return in February.
And the organisers of Barcamp Liverpool say the event proved such a hit that they hope to organise another one this year.
In the past three years, members of the city’s creative and digital community have come together to organise regular events. They include Ignite, Social Media Cafe, and others organised through the How? Why? DIY! network and via Twitter.
The last Ignite event was held at Leaf Cafe, in Bold Street, in December, and featured talks on subjects from kayak diving to the price of beer.
Liverpool’s first Barcamp was held in the Baltic Triangle three years ago – but the event was revived in November by some of the team behind hi-tech shared workspace, DoES Liverpool.
The event had no fixed agenda, with those who attended expected to volunteer to give talks on subjects of their choice.
As with other Barcamps, the event focused on technology – but organiser John McKerrell said it attracted a broad spectrum of speakers. He said: “People talked about hardware, and things such as website technology. But, also, a good proportion of the talks were about politics. We also had talks about offbeat subjects, such as bell ringing.
“The whole idea is that it’s an unconference – you can talk about anything you want.”
Fellow organiser Paul Freeman said: “The thing that I found interesting was that there were a lot of people who hadn’t been to a Barcamp before. They were people who’d been to events such as Ignite or Social Media Cafe Liverpool and had thought ‘if these guys are putting it on, we should go’.
“Everyone who came said it was a very worthwhile experience.”
Mr Freeman and Mr McKerrell said they hoped to organise another Barcamp this year, as the event had proved so popular with Merseysiders and visitors alike.
Mr McKerrell said: “We had a lot of people come from outside Merseyside. All of them had been to a Barcamp before and knew it was worth taking a day off and travelling up here.
“It’s a really useful event. It’s a networking event, a knowledge event, and a learning event.”
Other regular events designed to bring the digital community together include Jelly Liverpool, held once a fortnight in Leaf. The “co-working event” gives people who normally work at home or alone the chance to work alongside other freelancers.
Jelly and many other Liverpool digital events are backed by Liverpool John Moores University’s Open Labs project.
