The other day, I was contacted by Nessreen, one of the organizers of GeekFest Jeddah to ask if I could do a GeekTalk about community organizing at their upcoming event. I had contacted her on twitter a few months ago after I first heard of GeekFest and told her that I was really excited about the project and wanted to attend the next event. I just had my fingers crossed that I’d get an invite… and she asked me to present! Of course the answer was YES, YES, YES!
GeekFest Jeddah is an unconference for geeks (think: computer nerds, comic book readers, video game enthusiasts, and amateur science fiends) to connect here in Jeddah. What makes this event special is that it even exists at all. There are very few meetups in Jeddah and very few community-run projects — so when I heard about this, I was super excited. I’ve literally never heard of any other community-driven or community-organizing efforts related to social benefit topics that operate in English in the entire country – and trust me, I’ve been looking! (Note: if you know of other projects like this one, please let me know!)
The next event is GeekFest Jeddah Gamma which will be held on October 11 (10-11-12!). Sadly, it’s invite only, but if any of the readers here are interested in attending, follow the instructions in this blog post, and join this trello board.
I’ll be taking the podium as one of four short GeekTalks to discuss community organizing and ways that we can start/continue to harvest a thriving community of geeks in Jeddah. I’ll be looking to the community for ideas about which groups, resources, websites, and tools already exist. And, we’ll work together to identify ways to have more unconference/meetup style events in Jeddah.
I also want to list a quick thank you to the event TechnoCases for making this event possible: The Store, Graphytes, Samsung, and Virgin. Without their support this event could not happen.
So, go, join the trello board now to (hopefully) secure your invite. I’m so looking forward to seeing you there!