phpbb North of England Community Meet-Up

AWS · January 20, 2011

The phpBB Team are pleased to announce a North of England Community meet-up on January 29th 2011 in Manchester, UK.

Meeting Venue: Starbucks, Manchester Picadilly Station 12:00–12:30 midday.

Free Registration: http://phpbbnorth.eventbrite.com" class="postlink">Register your attendance on EventBrite

phpBB meet-ups are a great way to network with other members of the phpBB community, make new friends and meet the people behind the usernames. They also provide an excellent opportunity to meet members of the phpBB team, and learn a little more about what goes on behind at the scenes at phpBB.

After significant demand was demonstrated for a North of England meetup, Manchester was chosen as the venue as it is very accessible to most in the whole of the UK via rail, road and air. It’s also accessible to those in Europe and the city centre is easily accessible from Manchester Airport with direct frequent rail connections. Rail tickets can be booked with no booking fee at http://nationalrail.co.uk/. You can also check the times of trains here and plan your journey – if you need help with this feel free to contact http://www.phpbb.com/community/ucp.php?i=pm&mode=compose&action=post&u=1293227" class="postlink">Sam England – the organiser of the event.

To allow people to have the morning to travel, we will be meeting between 12.00 and 12.30pm at Manchester Piccadilly Station. It’s been decided that the place to meet especially for those who may be unfamiliar with Manchester is the Starbucks in Piccadilly station.

After receiving suggestions – http://www.pizzaexpress.com/our-restaurants/3255.aspx" class="postlink">Pizza Express has been decided on for lunch and a booking will be made for the entire group – it’s important that you register for the event (free) especially if you want to come along for this (see below). http://www.pizzaexpress.com/our-restaurants/3255.aspx" class="postlink">Pizza Express is located in Picadilly Gardens – close to the railway station and initial meeting point.

To make the day worthwhile for those travelling from afar, it was suggested that there should be some kind of Daytime activity – http://www.lqtc.co.uk/" class="postlink">Laser Quest has been suggested and if it proves popular this will certainly be going ahead.

We will then reconvene as light fades in the late afternoon/evening and retreat to a good pub or bar which serves food. A good area for this is probably Deansgate. The group will be at http://www.pitcherandpiano.com/locations/bar.cfm?area=Deansgate%20Locks" class="postlink">The Pitcher and Piano in Deansgate Locks from 5pm onwards[Arches 9 & 10 Deansgate Locks, Whitworth West, Manchester] – there are plenty of others bars in the area too.

The idea of putting forward this loose 'itinerary' is to make the day more worthwhile for those who are flying in from Europe. The event will be informal with no real set agenda - the idea of is simply to allow people to put names (or rather usernames) to faces - essentially it's a networking event. It's also a really good opportunity to chat about phpBB and the future of phpBB with some of the most influential and knowledgeable people in the UK and European phpBB scene, whilst having some fun in Manchester throughout the day and over good food and drinks in the evening.

If you’d like to attend – please register free at http://phpbbnorth.eventbrite.com/ – and it’s not too late to make suggestions in the phpBB topic for the event viewtopic.php?t=2104776. In the official topic you can also see the event FAQ and put questions to the organisers and other attendees.

Here’s a brief run down of the day's plans – although these are by no means set in stone.

12.00-12.30 Meet at Starbucks Manchester Piccadilly Station (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Manchester+Picadilly+Station,+Manchester,+United+Kingdom&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.443116,114.169922&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Manchester+Piccadilly+station&ll=53.477499,-2.230622&spn=0.004508,0.013937&z=17" class="postlink">map)

13.00 http://www.pizzaexpress.com/our-restaurants/3255.aspx" class="postlink">Pizza Express (Piccadilly Gardens) not far from Picadilly Station (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Pizza+Express+Picadilly+Gardens&sll=53.480145,-2.235712&sspn=0.002174,0.006968&ie=UTF8&rq=1&ev=zi&split=1&filter=0&radius=0.17&hq=Pizza+Express+Picadilly+Gardens&hnear=&ll=53.480145,-2.235712&spn=0.002174,0.006968&z=18&iwloc=A" class="postlink">map)

Afternoon – http://www.lqtc.co.uk/" class="postlink">LaserQuest (TBC - possible – depending on what people want to do - it will be a 20minutes journey from Manchester city centre to the Trafford centre, and there is plenty to do in Manchester city centre if this isn't what people want - although it is great fun) (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=LaserQuest+Trafford+Centre&sll=53.480145,-2.235712&sspn=0.002382,0.006968&ie=UTF8&hq=LaserQuest+Trafford+Centre&hnear=&ll=53.465493,-2.343392&spn=0.017398,0.055747&z=15" class="postlink">map)

Evening – The group will be at http://www.pitcherandpiano.com/locations/bar.cfm?area=Deansgate%20Locks" class="postlink">The Pitcher and Piano in Deansgate Locks from 5pm onwards

[Arches 9 & 10 Deansgate Locks, Whitworth West, Manchester] (http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&q=Arches+9+%26+10+Deansgate+Locks,+Whitworth+West,+Manchester+google+maps&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=Arches+9+%26+10+Deansgate+Locks,+Whitworth+West,&hnear=Manchester,+Greater+Manchester,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.474497,-2.249912&spn=0.002382,0.006968&z=18" class="postlink">map)

If you have any specific questions about the day that you’d like to have answered quickly – you can direct those to http://www.phpbb.com/community/ucp.php?i=pm&mode=compose&action=post&u=1293227" class="postlink">Sam England – the organiser of the event.

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