Tickets for the first PHPNW08 (PHP North West Conference) 2008 are now on sale. The 1 day event has a fantastic schedule and tickets are just £50 (currently) for what looks to be a great event. Go register now.

There is a new event in town, Matt Booth is launching a monthly meetup for digital creatives in and around Manchester called Northern Digitals. It will be held the first Thursday of every month. There is a meetup group that you can join and stay upto date with events and members.

Event details

When: 7PM Thursday, October 2, 2008

Where: Socio Rehab, Edge St, Northern Quarter, Manchester

Cost: FREE, buy your own beer

What: A monthly meetup where digital creatives from in and around Manchester can get away from their screens and talk to other digital creatives.

Last month I was interviewed by Kim May from Let’s Go Global for a video on Manchester’s User Group scene for the MDDA. It was my first ever interview and I was *sort of* nervous :) The interview took place at The Modern Bar and Restaurant in the Urbis. I’m first up in the video then after me is Paul Robinson, Phil Winstanley, James Panton and Chris Maiden.

Last month I mentioned the first PHPNW User Group meeting and this month I’m delighted to tell you about the 1st annual PHPNW conference happening later this year.

phpnw08 is a 1 day event organised by developers for developers to be held on Saturday 22nd November 2008 at Manchester Central and will bring together the North-of-England PHP community for a one-day event of exceptional presentations, challenging workshops, sensational debates and networking events. The conference will have a mix of in-depth and shorter talks and the call for papers is open so go submit a proposal.

Code Computerlove are hunting for a Front End Web Developer with a passion for semantic MarkUp, understanding of cross browser/platform issues, Accessibly, AJAX, DOM, JavaScript, jQuery, Web Standards and a keen eye for design. The position is full-time and will be based in Manchester. No Recruitment Agents! Send your CV to: andrew+jobs [at] geekup [dot] org and I’ll hook you up!

Gay City Rollers’ is back and it’ll be bigger and better than ever before!

Make sure you get your skates on for this ‘Over the Rainbow’ Pride Special. It’s new home will be ‘Pure’ nightclub in the Printworks on Wednesday 20th August, 9pm until 2am and it’s an opportunity to have an alternative night, try something new, party the night away at the bar and make new friends while raising funds for the Lesbian and Gay Foundation - the North West’s leading community based charity, working to end homophobia and empower people. Get your skates on!

On Friday night the University of Salford is being invaded by Girl Geeks. Manchester Geek Girl Dinners hosts it’s second event and this time Kerry and I will be going along to join in the fun.

Event details

When: 7:00 PM Friday, July 25, 2008

Where: University of Salford, University House, University of Salford,
Salford, England M5 4WT

Cost: Around £15 (includes 3 course meal, coffee and drinks)

What: For those who haven’t been before, it’s dinner, wine, talks from inspirational women, networking and discussions afterwards.

Currently two talks planned, if you want to get involved and speak about women in engineering, science and technology, please do get in touch.

Who can attend: Girl Geeks! A lady who has an interest, or is involved in the Science, Engineering and Technology industries. Blokes can come too, but you need an invite from a Geek Girl!

The all important links: Manchester Girl Geek Dinner Event Website, Upcoming.org Event Page and there’s a facebook Event Page

This weekend Manchester’s Castlefield Arena will be host to the Nokia Skate Almighty music tour that’s already been a huge hit in London and Birmingham. The rolling begins this Friday 25th and ends Sunday 27th July. There’s a bunch of us from SilverWheels Skate Rink in Altrincham heading over to the Sunday evening sessions (more specifically 2000-2200). I’ll be taking the camera along to get some photographic evidence so keep your eye out for that.

There is a new PHP User Group in town PHP North West (PHPNW), some of you may remember the the old PHP Meetup in Manchester run by Dan Morris which later merged into GeekUp due to low interest. Since then there has been growth of User Groups that are more focused on a particular technology.

What is PHPNW?

PHPNW is a community of web developers, web designers and anyone else interested in PHP, from the North West.

First Meeting

The first PHPNW meeting is on this Thursday 17th July in Manchester, for full details visit the event page at Upcoming.

PHPNW links

• PHPNW Website
• PHPNW Google Group
• PHPNW on twitter
• PHPNW on Upcoming
• PHPNW on LinkedIn
• PHPNW on Facebook
• IRC: #phpnw (irc.freenode.net)

This Wednesday 4th June 2008 is going be the last Roller Disco Manchester until mid September - so get your neons on and your legs out and roll on down to Pure this Wednesday for a night to remember!

Myself and a few other North West Digital Communities (NWDC) members have been invited to the Big Chip Awards in Manchester by Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA). It’s like the oscars but for the Digital Media and IT Industry outside of London and is certainly the place to be seen. It should be a good night, Code Computerlove have 3 projects shortlisted in the same category so there’s a possibility of a win.

This will be my second awards event after last years FRESH:digital Awards 2007 which I really enjoyed and not just because I won Freshest Digital Young Professional, but because it’s good to see some of the fantastic work that’s produced and see the people involved rewarded for their hard work.

A big hug goes out to the MDDA for invite. I’m looking forward to meeting some new faces and putting faces to people I’ve spoken to via mailing lists like GeekUp but have yet to meet. If your attending and we’ve not met do say hello.

The weekly Roller Disco Manchester returns on Wednesday after last weeks unplanned cancellation due to the violence that erupted following the UEFA Cup Final.

Roller Disco Manchester takes place every Wednesday from 10PM at PURE nightclub in The Printworks, Withy Grove, Manchester. Full details can be found on the event website.

Things are extremely busy right now at the office and we are seeking a full-time standards-aware front-end developer who is passionate about writing clean, semantic and accessible HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If that sounds like yours -or someone you knows- cup-of-tea drop me an e-mail and include your resumé and if possible a list of links to examples of your work.

I’ve uploaded some more photos from last nights Roller Disco at Billie Rox in Manchester to my Roller Disco Billie Rox Manchester set on flickr. Myself John, Dan, Debs and Rob went over after GeekUp. There are not as many shots as usual I was having too much fun skating so didn’t get out the camera much, but there are a few - enjoy.

I’ve been to the Roller Disco in Manchester at Billie Rox a few times this month and have taken lots of photos, some of which you can view in my Roller Disco Billie Rox Manchester set on flickr.

In the wee hours this morning while doing some R&D for a new project I started a few days back, I found out about a Roller Disco that happens in Manchester at Billie Rox on Portland Street every Tuesday and Thursday night! Since a collegue at code computerlove told me she had seen a poster around town about a Roller Disco, since then I’ve been trying to find out about it. I’m going to be attending the next event on Tuesday 2nd January and I’m really excited!

Me and Rachael have previously travelled down to London for the Roller Disco in Kings Cross and the London skates from Hyde Park, its great to see the North getting more attention. I hope this is the start of much greater things to come in the Northern Skate Scene.

Its been a really exciting day at code computerlove as we moved into our new offices and my my they are pretty freaking awesome! - take a look inside.

Not only do we have a new home but we’ve got a new brand identity to go with it. Including a new logo which sports a specially created font and we have commissioned a series of illustrations from Andrew Rae, which can be seen on the various pages at our new web site address www.codecomputerlove.com.

Manchester City Centre will host a temporary ice rink as part of this years festive programme. The rink will be located in Piccadilly Gardens and will be open for public skating from 17th November till 7th January. The 750m2 real ice rink is to be constructed near in the fountain area of the gardens. The rink labelled On Ice At Piccadilly joins the Manchester Christmas Markets, and the Wheel of Manchester to make up Manchester festive program along with many lighting displays around the city.

At £7.50 for one hours skating I thought that was a little pricey but after looking at Hampton Court Ice Rink and Tower of London Ice Rink we get off lightly. Full details including opening times and prices can be found on the On Ice At Piccadilly event page.

I’m going to try and get a bunch of people from the office together and see if they fancy an outing one evening, and it sounds like it could be a fun night out for the folks from GeekUp we’ve been looking for things to do for the Christmas meet, which will most likely involve a meal and then followed by lots of alcohol and maybe a skate?

Dan Morris and I (really it was all Dan) have been working on the GeekUp - Job Board, Web Industry jobs in the UK’s North-West. and its now available for public consumption. It’s still undergoing development and will be improved over time but its being launched ahead of tomorrows Ruby and Rails conference.

If you are looking for a job in the North West specifically in the web industry then the GeekUp - Job Board should be one of the first stops. If you are looking to recruit then its completely free to post a job.

No not my wedding, but GeekUp’s first full day conference and in just a few hours I’ll be the host.

I’m really excited! It’s been a crazy few weeks during the run up trying to get everything organised so I’m hoping it all runs smoothly otherwise we’ll have 40 upset punters.