Original photo by The GC Four
Breakfast and registration for BarCampBrighton2 opens at 10am on Saturday 15th March. The introductory talks start at 11am and the first talk of the day is scheduled for 12pm.
You’ll need to make your way to the University of Sussex, Falmer campus and head for Falmer House which is the Student Union (USSU) building. Please note that Brighton University and Sussex University are opposite each other at Falmer, so make sure you head for the Sussex campus.
Trains run from Brighton station every 15 minutes. Car parking will be available and we expect it to be free.
If you’re coming from London by train, then head to Brighton station first and get a Falmer train from there. If you’re driving, follow Paul’s directions in the comments below.
Firstly and most importantly, if you’re unsure whether you’ll actually be coming or not, then please decide now. We have a waiting-list of people who’d like your ticket. Email jay@gooby.org if you know you won’t be coming.
Secondly, if this is your first BarCamp, please come ready with a talk or topic or game or discussion idea. It doesn’t need to be polished, but as BarCamps are unconferences where the schedule is set by the you attendees, everyone is expected to contribute. If you’re stuck for ideas on what to do, or aren’t clear on what this means, then please read our previous post Unconferencing; like fight club* but with 30 minute talks.
Part of the BarCamp ethos is the overnight aspect. The Saturday schedule runs until 8.30pm. After that it’s traditional to socialise, drink a beer or two (in addition to the free beer courtesy of YDN, there’ll be a pay-bar that’ll be open until you stop buying), hack some code and play some games.
We’ll be crashing out in the comfy common room, but you’ll want to bring at the very minimum a sleeping bag. We’d also suggest something like a bedroll or beanbag. At the last BarCampLondon, Google provided tent inners to sleep in. We can’t quite stretch to that, but feel free to bring your own (inner only; there’s nowhere to bang the pegs in :P) if you fancy a little more privacy than just crashing out on the floor.
If you really don’t fancy staying overnight, then trains back to Brighton run until 00:45 on Sunday morning (arrives Brighton 01:09am) and there’s an all-night bus service.
Good places to stay are Jury’s Inn (a minute from the station) plus any number of B&Bs, although many of these won’t do one-night stays over a weekend, so you’d need to book for either Friday and Sat or Sat and Sunday. It varies so try a few.
In addition to your sleeping bag and a change of clothes, you’ll want a wash bag (sorry, no showers available), a VGA adaptor for your laptop if you want to use a projector, your laptop and its charger and some cash for the (cheap!) pay-bar that’ll be open until you stop buying drinks.
We’ll be providing you with (courtesy of our fantastic sponsors) breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and refreshments plus some beers on the Saturday. And breakfast, lunch, snacks and refreshments on Sunday.
For any of you heading down to Brighton on Friday night and wanting to have a pre-BarCamp pint or two in Brighton itself, comment below and we’ll sort out somewhere to meet. I know I’ll be wanting a beer as it’s my birthday :D
Any questions, then please comment below and keep and eye on the responses.
I will be getting a 6:00am train on the Friday a thus will be arriving in Brighton around 3pm so some Friday night food, drink and entertainment would be nice. Perhaps a round of Specificity Snap?
I also have DVI and VGA adapters for MacBook MiniDVI if anyone wants to borrow one.
Hi, thanx for all the info, but can you give some more info for people coming from outside Brighton? I don’t know Brighton that well and this post is a bit mystifying. If I am right, the Barcamp is not in the hart of Brighton, right? So what is the station called that I need to go to, Falmer? Can I get there in one go from London or do I need to switch in Brighton?
hi!
Do you provide vegetarian food?
Thanks!
@putri
Yes, there are vegetarian options at every meal – more than one in most cases. There’s plenty of vegetarians coming so we made sure of it.
@Cristiano Betta
By train: You need to go to Falmer station, which is to the east of the central Brighton station. The trains that go there are on the Lewes/Seaford line, it takes just over 20 minutes from Brighton station and there are several trains an hour.
From London I believe you can get a train direct to Lewes, then come towards Brighton to Falmer from there – it’s one stop from Lewes to Falmer.
By car, from London: come down the A23 (from M23, Junction 7 on M25), then rather than coming in to Brighton take the turning left on to the A27 and to east – the signs are for Falmer / Lewes / Newhaven.
The campus is on the left side of the A27, it’s about 5-10 minutes along the road depending on speed. The road goes to three lanes just before the turn off – there’s a sharp entrance, or if you miss that go up to the roundabout in the main turn off and go left on to the campus. You’ll probably want to take the first left and drive down the hill to the carparks at the bottom as they’re nearest the venue.
@Christiano – it takes more like 7-9 minutes to get to Falmer station from Brighton station via the train. Once there, go through the underpass and follow the path onto campus – the first building you come across is Falmer House, which is where the event is.
This is my first barcamp and I know I have to do a talk but I wondered – are we supposed to post what we’re planning on doing somewhere before barcamp starts? Is there a list of what people are planning on doing somewhere?
Thanks in advance.
@beth Thanx for all the info. I managed to get a lift by car though.
You don’t need to let people know what you are talking about before the Barcamp. The Barcamp is very ad-hoc and therefore called an un-conference. People just show up and give a talk. I still have to think of mine (thinking of doing a dataportability talk maybe). Do you have an idea yet?
@beth – have a look at last year’s set of talks to see the range of stuff that people talked about. It doesn’t need to be technical; you can talk about pretty much anything:
http://barcampbrighton.backnetwork.com/schedule/
All the slots are 30 mins; aim to talk for 10-15mins and then have questions or start a discussion.