Tag Archives: user groups

This Week in Nerdery

Here’s what’s happening in and around The Nerdery this week, and next.

iPhone tech talks: Tuesday and Wednesday, June 29&30: Jon Rexeisen is doing tech talks on iPhone development two nights in a row at The Nerdery. Several of us are staying after school to hear from our all-things-Apple guru, and the public is welcome – please send a direct tweet to the_nerdery if you’re interested (so we can order enough pizza). Both sessions are 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday’s tech talk will be a iOS 101 session covering the basics of iOS development, where to get documentation, etc. Then on Wednesday, Jon will do an iOS 4 session covering the new retina display on iPhone 4, the block APIs, Grand Central Dispatch on iOS, TapGestureRecognizers, and iAds.

Gaming and marketing at JMU612: First thing in the morning Thursday, June 30, Mark Hurlburt talks gaming to a group of marketers at JMU612 from 8-9:30am at Urban Bean in Uptown (Bryant and 33^rd). More at http://javameetup5.eventbrite.com/

PHP meetup: Later that evening (6-8 pm, this Thursday), the MN PHP user group meets at The Nerdery, with a session on Doctrine 2 led by Justin Hendrickson and a talk on Gearman by Mike Willbanks. RSVP at http://www.mnphp.org/calendar/13822783/

Agency primer webinars: Our two free HTML5 and CSS3 webinars are Tuesday, June 29 at 10:15 am and Thursday, July 1 at 3:15 pm, RSVP at http://www.nerdery.com/html5 to get the goods from Brian Litzinger and Matt Tonak.

Looking ahead to next week, the MN Python user group meets at The Nerdery Thursday, July 8 from 7-9 pm, more info at http://www.meetup.com/pymntos/

Nerdery Open House for Recruits: On Friday, July 9 from 3-6 p.m., we’ll host an open house geared at recruiting the next generation of much-needed nerds. Some of our local talent is leaving soon to colonize a new Nerdery in Chicago. Replacements, please RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/742826815

Looking further ahead, July 12-18 is Pentathanerd Week (http://pentathanerd.com/). Watch the second coming of The Summer Games right here (exclusive coverage).

MSP WordPress user group does some pro bono “WordPress ninja stuff” for DesignWise Medical

The Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress user group meets tomorrow evening here at The Nerdery, and we mark the occasion by showcasing the good deeds that 10 of their members (team Full-Court Press) did at The Overnight Website Challenge for DesignWise Medical, a nonprofit pediatric device company.

MSP WordPress ninjas help DesignWise Medical at Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

MSP WordPress meetings are free and open to the public; you need not be a developer to check it out from 6:30-9 p.m. Thursday. There’ll be a session on creating basic WordPress plugins. Please RSVP so we know how many pizzas to order.

Visitors: The Nerdery is open during construction, but please note that we’ve recently knocked down walls to liberate/occupy some much needed adjacent office space.

MnPHP user group tonight; MSP WordPress tomorrow at The Nerdery

Tonight only, the Minnesota PHP user group graciously yields it usual first-Thursday-of-the-month slot at The Nerdery to make way for tomorrow’s Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress group meeting. Please note that Minnesota PHP will return to regularly scheduled programming in March.

Minnesota PHP, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 6-9 p.m.

PHP 5.3 - Mike Willbanks will go over new features in PHP 5.3 (major and some minor you likely wouldn’t know about unless you troll the release logs) as well as anything to watch for in migrating.

Zend Framework Introduction to Zend Application - Nerdery rockstar Justin Hendrickson discusses Zend Framework and utilizing Zend Application.

Please RSVP.

Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress, Thursday, Feb. 4, 6:30-9 p.m.

Session 1:

• HTML for Beginners (Tony Thomas)
• Building WP Widgets with the “new” Widget API (Ray Champagne)
• MSP WordPress Team Meeting to prepare for Overnight Website Challenge: Part I (Tim Elliot)

Session 2:

• CSS for Beginners (Daniel J. Post)
• MSP WordPress Team Meeting to prepare for Overnight Website Challenge: Part II (Tim Elliot)

Please RSVP.

Both events are free whenever you are.

Also, if you’re looking for even more user groups and other tech community-building initiatives to get involved with, check out Central Standard Tech.

If it’s the 2nd Thursday, Python is on

Do you want to learn Python but don’t know where to start? Have you heard about Django, Pylons, or Google App Engine and wonder if it is for your next project? Have you been using Python for a while and just want to talk shop to other Pythonists? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you should come to The Nerdery tonight for PyMNtos, the Python Users Group of Minnesota at 7:00 p.m.

Tonight’s meeting is meant to be an introduction to Python for anyone new. We will introduce everyone and let anyone ask any questions they have. And don’t feel left out If you have a couple years of experience with Python under your belt. Someone has to help answer questions.

Finally, please RSVP at http://pymntos.eventbrite.com, so we have a good 
idea of how many plan to attend. This helps with getting enough snacks and 
drinks.  If you have any questions about the meeting tonight, Python, or PyMNtos, feel free to join the Google Group at http://www.python.mn and ask away.

I want my PHP

Got some friends who like to nerd-out when chatting about web tools of choice? What you have there is a user group, waiting to happen. Here. What we have is a haven for that sort of thing. You are all welcome.

Next up is the newly formed Minnesota PHP group, Tuesday evening from 6:30 – 9:00 p.m., featuring PHP luminary Sebastian Bergmann.

From mnphp.org: Sebastian Bergmann holds a degree in Computer Science and is a pioneer in the field of quality assurance in PHP projects. His test framework PHPUnit is a de-facto standard. He is actively involved in the development of PHP and creator of various development tools. Sebastian Bergmann is an internationally sought-after expert. As an author he shares his long-standing experience in books and articles. He is a frequent speaker at conferences around the world.

Please RSVP.

WordPress for Dummies

If you barely know the difference between WordPress and bench-press, this evening’s WordPress user group meeting is for you.

MSP WordPress is a relatively new user group to gather here at The Nerdery, and this evening’s meeting features a couple beginner-oriented Q&A sessions. About 40 people have already registered, and please RSVP so we can order enough pizza for all.

Here’s what’s happening and when:

6:30 – 7:00 pm: Social

7:00 – 7:05 pm: Salutations

7:05 – 7:55 pm: Session 1:

Super Basic “I know nothing about WordPress” Beginners’ Q&A, led by Gillian Reynolds

“I know a little bit about WordPress” Beginners’ Q&A (i.e. How do

I install email forms? How do I change the website title?), led by Josh Leuze

7:55 – 8:05: You are free to move about The Nerdery

8:05 – 8:55 pm: Session 2:

Blogging with WordPress, led by Mitch Hislop

MSPWordpress.com Website Discussion, led by Toby and Gillian

9:00 pm: You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here