Following on from the two day Silicon Beach event I was booked to go to the Adido Digital Marketing Summit. This was held at the Hilton Hotel in Bournemouth and featured a full day of speakers with lunch thrown in. All kindly put on for free and gratefully accepted.
This year was the first time I have been to Silicon Beach, an event curated by local Digital Dignitary Matt Desmier that brings a huge number of leading speakers to Bournemouth for two days. He doesn't set any agenda, any themes and as Matt put it himself - Silicon Beach is a selfish project where he brings a slew of speakers that he wants to listen to, we just happen to come along for the ride.
I had previously wanted to attend but for whatever reason I thought it was just some sort of marketing event for marketing types. This is definitely not the case. There was some talk in that direction but it definitely wasn't some how-to type talk. This year had talks on nano-technology, leadership, company culture and management styles, futurology talks, evils of the world and an Orwellian full-on theatrical media production that just stunned the crowd.
It's not for me to give a blow-by-blow account for each speaker and towards the end I didn't bother writing down my wordmaps as I just wanted to spend more time immersed in enjoying it, rather than wrapped up in making meticulous notes.
I am just recovering from a 3 day celebration weekend for our 20th wedding anniversary and wanted to quickly give the following people, venues and acts a mention as they all helped to create a fantastic weekend for us.
The Wight Bear micropub - they gave us a right surprise down at our evening beach BBQ delivering two different takeout cartons of stout as they know that is my tipple. #deliverbrew They also supplied beer to be used at our party at the Cliff House Hotel the day after. They can do the same for you, or you can hire their pop-up tent as well.
The Cliff House Hotel - this is where we had our family day event. Tim and his team ensured everything just flowed and our friends said the staff couldn't have been more helpful. Everyone was very impressed, and so were Angela and I.
The PB Pocket Orchestra - although not local per se, we first saw them play at the Library of Liquor and then catch them at Chaplins Bar in Boscombe when we can. Brilliant people.
Lydia Hannah Davies - young, beautiful talented singer who is local.
Jules the Entertainer - something for the kids, who loved it, and by all accounts something for the adults!
DJ Allan Turner-Ward - Britain's Got Talent semi finalist, thoroughly nice chap, huge fun.
The Larder House - well, it wouldn't have been any other place for our main adult's night out would it? We took over the event on a busy Bank Holiday weekend and they handled it magnificently, as I knew they would. Our friends just loved it. We were able to use the Library as well, a hidden surprise for our guests.
The Floating Rum Shack - another surprise was also in store for our guests with Peter Holland working his Tiki magic right at the top, so another floor in the Larder House building for people to explore.
Enrique and his Salsa Explosion - after dinner, Enrique got the party really started with a Salsa class, which was really fun and got people involved, even the mother in law with a bad knee. Then people danced all night.
A huge thank you to everyone for making it a fantastic extra long 20th wedding anniversary weekend for us. Over the moon that we did it all in Southbourne.
#SoBo #BH6tillIdie #shoplocal
We've just been to Prague again, me for my fourth time and still loving the place.
Blog entry: Prague holiday where beer is cheaper that a soft drink
The first rule of Txoko Club is not to talk about Txoko Club. That doesn’t really help does it, to spread the word on the fun we had that night.
It comes from a Basque (Northern Spain) region event which is a gathering of people that come together to socialise and to cook together. Traditionally it is male only, hence the reason why you see women with stick on moustaches so they can go under cover.
The Larder House has held a few of these already but this was the first one I was able to make time for, and the fact it was a seafood one sealed the deal in reality.
Gordon and Angela Fong - living in Southbourne, working hard, enjoying life, travelling the world, eating great food and drinking some nice tipple along the way.
Give us a wave.
