funconf

What happens at the end of funconf, when the bus has run out of fuel and beer?

We stop off at Guinness for refuelling of course :)

The goal of Funconf is to bring together people who are passionate about innovation, technology and web startups. We’ve brought over some great speakers from Silicon Valley and beyond, and they’ll spending be the whole day hanging out with attendees, sharing experience, knowledge and conversation.

The busses only hold 70 people in total, but we want to share funconf with the rest of the Irish web / startup community.

The Guinness Gravity Bar in the home of Guinness is where it’s at. We’ve a capacity of about 150 people for the after-party, so anyone in the community is welcome to come along and have some pints and a bit of fun with us.

The funconf after-party is this Saturday, 11th September from 20:00.

Thanks for Github for sponsoring. You should really host your code with them :)

funconf would not be possible without the support of our sponsors ELC Technologies, Github, Engine Yard, Microsoft & NDRC. A million Thank Yous to them all. 

The latest info on what’s happening around the event will be tweeted - http://twitter.com/funconf & http://twitter.com/#search?q=funconf

Happy funtimes!

Awesome, awesome. One of the things that Eamo and I wanted when we were originally talking about doing funconf was genuinely awesome and relevant goodie bags. The funconf goodie bag will be called the funbag. We’ve already announced that everyone will get a copy of Rands’s book, Managing Humans.

I’ve just confirmed with the Oatmeal that he’ll be bringing 70 copies of “5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin” … his SOLD OUT comic book. The funbag is even more fun.

This is so cool I can hardly speak. Stay tuned for more goodness!

With more delight than you could shake a cloud hosting platform at, I’d like to welcome Engine Yard as a funconf sponsor. Raise a beer or two to them, won’t you?

And with this fine news, I’d like to welcome an Engine Yarder as a bonus addition to the funconf lineup.

Randall Thomas, @daksis, is a huge personality in the Ruby / Rails scene. He’s a passionate developer; most recently training folks as part of Engine Yard university, a bon vivant; he has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of scotch and wine, and a profound, card-carrying über-geek.

It’s really great to have Randall on board and I know that he’ll have wonderful, over-the-top insane stories to tell.

It’s with not a little sadness that I have to announce that Mr. Joe Hewitt won’t be joining us on funconf this time time round. I for one was really looking forward to Joe’s tales from the west.

Unfortunately, Joe’s work commitments in facebook are quite heavy right now and he won’t be able to make it. He’s assured us that he’d be delighted to come next year though!

And with that, I’d like to announce Mr. Thomas Fuchs as a fitting replacement.

Thomas is one of the nicest, smartest folks out there fighting online for the world to be a better place. Thomas is the author of Scriptaculous, and the up and coming Scripty2. Scriptaculous is the javascript effects library that more or less powered Web 2.0.

Thomas teaches advanced javascript and javascript performance masterclasses and is the lead developer behind Freckle. Thomas : we’re VERY excited to have you at funconf.

funconf is fast approaching. If you haven’t already got a schedule or booked a hotel, here are some tips.

Relative to other European capitals and US cities, Dublin is really tiny. Like, really. If you stay anywhere within the city centre, pretty much everywhere is walkable. Even if you stay out a bit, you can still walk. And even if you stay a bit further afield; you should be fine. There are busses.

Try to stay a bit more central though!

For (un)funconf, a lot of our activity was around a small area near the junction of Dame Street and George’s Street. It’s pretty much the best part of Dublin; near some great pubs, restaurants, the main shopping area and a healthy lack of tourists.

There are loads of hotels in the area. The Central Hotel (http://www.centralhoteldublin.com/) has one of my favourite bars, the Library Bar, and I’ve heard the rooms are decent enough. It’s right next to where we’re planning drinks, dinners and brunch.

Le Cirk (http://www.lecirk.ie/) is a cool spot. Although I’ve actually never been there, I imagine it would get a bit loud, but it’s very chic. I expect it would be a nice place to stay.

I’ve also heard pretty good things about the Morgan, even if it’s a bit pricey.

Don’t stay at the Arglington.

If you’re feeling super bling stay at The Morrison, The Shelbourne or The Westbury.

OR, if you’re bling and foodie, two of Dublin’s top restaurants are in the Merrion (Guilbaud’s) and the Fitzwilliam (Thornton’s). Thornton’s has my vote for the best food in Dublin; you can even get haute cuisine tapas: tasty little morsels for small prices. Nom.

If you want to stay a bit out of town, I’ve recommended The Hampton Hotel (http://www.hamptonhotel.ie/) … mainly because it’s nearish to where I live ; not too far from the hustle and bustle of the city, but a really nice area.

Finally, in my opinion it’s ALWAYS a good idea to check out apartment accommodation in any city. Several of the (un)funconfers had good luck with this. I’ve already booked out some of the best ones for our speakers, but there are plenty of good spots.

If you contact Trinity, they might be able to give you a student dorm/apartment (http://www.tcd.ie/accommodation/Visitors/); no nonsense accommodation in one of the most historical parts of Dublin. Sleep next door to the Book of Kells! I lived here for two years, it’s awesome.

If you’re feeling super cheap, stay at a hostel. http://hostelworld.com is based in Dublin, so it has us covered. We know people in there, so we could probably get a discount, but … really? That said, I think Dublin hostels are quite expensive by European standards.

If you need any other help or advice, or you need to know whether you’re about to book a shithole, don’t hesitate to give us a shout funconf@gmail.com.

Wow. Wow wow wow.

(un)funconf was last Saturday, and what a show it was.

Three of our ten story-tellers showed up, Werner Vogels, Joe Stump and Tom Preston-Werner. We managed to keep the cocktail bar open all night and had a fantastic showing from not only some top brass from the Dublin internet folks, but also from a lot of our European attendees. THANK YOU so much to everyone who came along.

If (un)funconf was anything to go by, well, let’s just say we’re REALLY looking forward to funconf.

Speaking of which: funconf is now confirmed for the weekend of the 10th-12th September. Since (un)funconf worked out so well, we decided to run an opening and closing event either side of the bus. Why not, eh? Details to follow.

Again, all tickets are valid and anyone who needs a refund, just email funconf@gmail.com.

See you in September!

So, that damn Volcano has scuppered our plans. 

In an attempt to salvage some kind of fun out of this whole thing, we’re having a drinkup in Dublin city for any that can make it.

All details are on: http://unfunconf.eventbrite.com/

We’d love for you to join us, and help drown our sorrows :)

Paul & Eamo

PS: Hat tip to @mojombo for the lovely picture

Dear Story-tellers & Funconfers,

It’s with a very heavy heart and a nose full of volcano ash that we announce that we’ve decided to postpone Funconf.

We were optimistic at first, but the Irish airspace closures keep getting pushed back. While we could remain optimistic and just forge ahead, we’re facing the following risks:

* There’s huge uncertainty about flights into Ireland for our Story-tellers and Funconfers alike. Cancellations are happening daily and there doesn’t seem to be much sign of a let up.

* With a catastrophe like this, there’s little doubt that the airports will be mayhem. There’s every chance that the flights we’ve booked for our Story-tellers will be delayed, changed or cancelled.

* Even if people are able to get in to Ireland, there’s talk of the volcano erupting again, leaving folks stranded here. As appealing as that sounds, it’s not a fair risk to take.

* It’s not really a fun time for anyone to be travelling at all.

In light of this, we’re taking the following actions:

* We’re going to postpone the conference.

* Realistically it will be sometime towards the end of summer, which will allow time to schedule the Story-tellers, venues and suppliers again, and will be, hopefully, far enough away so as not to clash with any existing plans our Funconfers might have.

* All tickets remain valid

* If you want a refund, email us at funconf@gmail.com and we’ll sort it out.

The conference had sold out late last week, which was awesome, so we’re hoping that everyone who had arranged to come will be able to change their travel plans. A lot of airlines are being very flexible with cancellations.

One last thing, a small consolation: Ireland is an awesome place to visit, some of the Story-tellers and Funconfers have decided to try and make it here regardless.

Since we have no idea who’ll be able to make it or not, we’re going to organise some a drinkup this Saturday 24th April in Dublin city. Eyjafjallajokull be damned!

If it looks like you’ll make it to Dublin on Saturday to help us drown our sorrows over postponing Funconf, or if you have any comments or questions get us on:funconf@gmail.com  / @funconf

Paul & Eamo 

Once upon a time, there was a volcano…

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano, spewing ash over most of Europe, poses a difficulty for both funconf speakers and attendees in time for Saturday.

We’re currently checking with everyone we booked things with, such as accommodation, venues and the busses themselves, to try and figure out what the best thing to do is.