The May Geek Dinner was long overdue but well worth the wait. I invited a record high number of people, fifteen, but due to a variety of circumstances, a record low number of people made it to the dinner: five, including myself.

I was joined by the always entertaining regulars: Paul Stovell, Keith Zerna, and Jim Burger. We were also pleased to be joined by Nigel Spencer for the first time since I started organising the dinners last year.

Aside from the usual .NET subjects, many other topics were discussed on the night, here are some links in no particular order:

• Clay Shirky on Social Surplus: video, transcript
• Perfection Fresh's naturally grown Enchanted Apple
• NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter metric mix-up
• Self-reconfigurable robots (article preview)
• Are we approaching the Great Filter?

I am writing this summary a week since the night of the dinner and I've managed to forget some of the night's events. Perhaps the other attendees could leave some comments with links to the interesting topics I've missed.

Watch this blog for details of the August 2008 Dinner which I'll likely post after Code Camp SA.

After the success of the local geek dinner in early February, I intended to organise another one in late March but I became a little overwhelmed at home and work and completely forgot to organise it. My apologies to those who had been looking forward to it.

However, I am now officially organising another dinner for Saturday May 17th. Instead of the usual location (where customer satisfaction has taken a turn for me) I will be relocating the dinner to another restaurant. I will strive to choose a replacement that is still located centrally, has good parking and public transport access, and affordable, enjoyable food with the option to split the bill.

At this point I'm considering Caffe Amore on the corner of Pulteney and Pirie Streets in the CBD, about 400m from the previous venue. I enjoyed dinner there with friends a few weeks ago and was quite pleased with their food and service. Assuming I can book a table there for all the guests and no one suggests a better alternative, this will probably be the new venue.

I will be sending an email invitation to all the previous dinner guests but if you don't receive yours before May or haven't attended before and would like to join us, please don't hesitate to contact me as soon as possible so I can give the restaurant an accurate number of guests to expect.

I hope to see a few people who made it to Code Camp Oz this year. I was unfortunately double-booked and unable to attend and would like to hear all about it.

In my last post about the Adelaide Geek Dinner, I intended to schedule the coming dinner for January. Unfortunately, if I scheduled it for the last weekend in January, that would coincide with the Australia Day long weekend and I imagine several people already have plans.

Therefore, the next dinner will instead be Saturday 2nd February, but once again at Cafe Buongiorno, Rundle Street, starting at 6:30pm. I have sent invitations via email to all the people who attended last time and also to those who couldn't make it.

If you didn't receive an invitation and would like to attend, contact me and I'll arrange it. Please RSVP by Thursday 24th January so I can ensure enough seats will be reserved at the restaurant.

I look forward to discussing all the interesting things that have been happening since the November dinner.

My first attempt to organise a dinner for developers in Adelaide exceeded my expectations. Everyone seemed to have a good time and expressed an interest to do it again... we tentatively agreed on January.

This time, I'd like to re-invite some of the guests who were unable to attend in November, and try to schedule an available time for everyone. I'd also like to get feedback on the choice of venue.

Last time I chose Cafe Buongiorno because it is located centrally in the CBD, offers separate accounts to avoid table-banking, and has convenient parking and public transport. Most people like pizza and pasta too. I don't want to bore people with the same restaurant every time so I'd like to hear suggestions for alternatives, but if you all like the cafe it can stay.

Also, I chose a Saturday evening last time so people didn't have to rush from work to get to the dinner but if Sunday or a weekday would be better, or perhaps a lunch-time event interests you, pass on your comments.

Finally, if you know any other developers who may be interested in attending, put them in touch with me and I'll ensure they get invited.

In October I started thinking about organising a dinner to bring Adelaide's .NET developers together. I'd never done something like that before and I wasn't sure about the best way to manage it.

Luckily, I remembered meeting Jonathon Kresner at the Wagga Wagga Code Camp in March. Jon had told me he was developing a website in .NET to organise parties. I decided to send him an email and ask how it was going.

Coincidentally, Jon had reached the final beta testing stages of his website, Preparty.com, and when I explained that I was interested in organising a dinner for .NET developers, he was kind enough to grant me a login if I don't mind assisting with the testing.

Preparty.com basically provides you with everything you need to organise a party of any kind (dinner, music gig, or wedding reception) from beginning to end with a smooth user experience.

You start by finding an appropriate venue by choosing from many popular places already registered on Preparty, or by entering details of your own. You then enter the names and email addresses of all your guests and complete the details of your event such as date and time, theme, and other relevant information.

Preparty then handles the creation and sending of e-Invitations with all the details and even a map of the venue location and follows up with a place to track RSVPs, You can even organise entertainment via Preparty and send SMS reminders to your guests as the event draws near. And when it's all over you can invite guests to upload photos from the event to create a slideshow.

I exercised almost all the features of the Preparty website and only found a couple of usability issues that Jon corrected very quickly. For a website supposedly in beta testing, it was very stable.

Preparty is free to register but charges a very affordable rate to purchase email and sms credits. I know now that the website is out of beta and has been released to the public I'll be looking to Preparty.com to organise all my future events and I recommend you take a look too.

Tonight saw the first (to my knowledge) of hopefully many more evenings with some of Adelaide's top .NET software developers.

While others were invited but were unfortunately unable to attend, a very friendly and interesting eight people ultimately arrived. In no particular order:

• Keith Zerna
• James Chapman-Smith
• David Gardiner
• Paul Stovell
• Darren Neimke
• Steve Burger
• Jim Burger
• and myself.

The evening started at 6:30pm (for most of us ;) and eventually came to a close at around 10:30pm after everyone was quite full from a delicious dinner and meaty conversation. I've uploaded a couple of photos to my Flickr account here.

I was originally uncertain about trying to organise such an event especially as I had only briefly met some of the guys before and some not at all. I am very glad I did though because I learned a lot, had some good laughs, and made some new friends too.

The response was so good that I plan to arrange another dinner, with a few more people who couldn't make it this time (eg Candy ;). An evening in January 2008 is my goal but this time I'll invite suggestions for venue, date, and anything else that you think might be a good idea.

Watch this blog for more information on the next dinner as it becomes available and if you'd like to be invited, just send me an email or leave a comment here on the blog.

I announced earlier that I was planning a dinner get-together for developers in Adelaide. I have since finalised the time and venue and have established an initial guest list.

The dinner will be held on Saturday November 17th starting 6:30pm at Cafe Buongiorno in the city. The cafe is at 187 Rundle Street, near the corner of Pulteney Street and the entrance to U-Park (for convenient parking). They serve familiar Italian meals - pizza and pasta starting at around $15.

I have found and contacted several local developer-bloggers and asked them to attend, some have committed, some have tentatively accepted but the response has been positive. If you are, or know, a local developer-blogger who hasn't been personally invited, send me an email and I'll add you to the guest list and ensure I book a large enough table at the cafe.

I look forward to seeing you there.

I am organising a dinner get-together for local developers to meet, socialise, and learn from each other. I am still finalising details of the time and venue (which will depend on the numbers of guests) but I am currently thinking it will be an evening in the middle of November at a restaurant in the Adelaide CBD.

Also, to avoid being overwhelmed by numbers and to ensure the concept will work here before scaling up, I am going to start by only inviting .NET developers who also publish a blog. I already know a few such people in South Australia and have found a few more on Google and will ensure they receive an invitation but I'm sure I've missed some.

So, if you are, or know someone who is, a .NET developer and a blogger and will be in Adelaide in November, send me an email or post a comment here, and I will make sure you receive an invitation when the details have been settled.

If you are a .NET developer but not a blogger and would really like to attend, just grab a free Blogger or Live Spaces account and post one article about your .NET experiences then let me know.

If the evening is a success then we can plan to have these dinners on a regular basis and open the guest list to a larger range of people. Looking forward to meeting you...