Let’s guess the rest!
We’re fast approaching the end of 2022, and the final RISC OS show of the year – the London Show, organised by the RISC OS User Group of London (ROUGOL) – was originally scheduled to take place next Saturday, the 29th October. However, due to the venue being unavailable until some months into next year, and no suitable alternative having been found, the event has had to be cancelled.
As a result, there will be no more RISC OS shows until 2023 – and there are two you can add to your diaries straight away.
RISC OS Southwest Show
The last Southwest Show took place on 22nd February, 2020, just scraping in before the pandemic took a hold, and there was no show in 2021. With the cancellation of this year’s London Show, however, the organisers – Richard Brown and Andrew Rawnsley, both of RISC OS Developments and individually Orpheus Internet and R-Comp respectively – have decided to bring the event back, with a 2023 show in February effectively substituting for the 2022 London Show as one to cover the South of England, and Wales.
To that end, the RISC OS Southwest Show will take place on Saturday, 25th February, 2023. The doors will be open to the public, with a £6.00 entry fee, from 10:30am until 4:00pm at:
The Arnos Manor Hotel,
470 Bath Road,
Arnos Vale,
Bristol,
BS4 3HQ.
The venue is easy to reach by car and, if puplic transport is your preference, Temple Meads railway station is approximately one and a half miles away, with regular buses between the two locations.
Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Computer Show
With the Southwest Show covering the South of the country the Wakefield Show effectively covers the North, and – with no other show up there – Scotland. Its organisers, the Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club (WROCC), have secured their unusual venue and therefore a date for the next show.
The show was beset with problems for 2022 (report coming soon!), with first a delay to the scheduled date, putting it back from April until May, and then a change of not just venue, but city – it took place in Bradford rather than Wakefield, making it the Wakefield Bradford Wradfold Show. That unusual location for the Wakefield Show will be repeated for 2023, with the show taking place on Saturday, 22nd April, at:
The Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford,
Mayo Avenue,
Rooley Lane,
Bradford West,
BD5 8HW.
There are no details yet on opening times or entry fees, so watch this space for more details, but travel options are well covered on the show website.
And what about other events?
Please note that any dates below are purely speculative. Do not rely on them – always keep an eye out for announcements, and details on the relevant websites!
Shows come and go, and one that went away a few years ago due to low attendance, and then came back this year in virtual form was Midsummer MUG Show, organised by the Midlands User Group (MUG). Resurrecting the event in virtual form was done as an experiment into taking a slightly different approach to an online show – using virtual rooms for exhibitors – but also an attempt to capture an audience from further afield than would normally attend a RISC OS show.
It is not yet known whether or not the group will proceed with a 2023 show, but should they do so the most likely date – judging by the dates of both 2022’s online event and their previous physical shows – would be either Saturday 1st or 8th of July.
Normally taking place a few months later, and hoping that the usual venue will be available again so that this year represents only a hiatus, the London Show tends to take place on the same weekend that the clocks are put back an hour in the UK. That officially happens in the early hours on a Sunday, with the show taking place the day before – giving visitors and exhibitors who stay overnight in the hotel added value to the cost of their stay.
For 2023, the clock change is set for Sunday, 29th October – so if the show goes ahead, it will almost certainly be on Saturday, 28th, and you can reasonably expect it to take place at:
The St Giles Hotel,
Hounslow Road,
Feltham,
TW14 9AD.
Outside of the UK, the annual Big Ben Club day (English version) – also known as the RISC OS Experience – usually takes place some time in May. Looking at past dates, there doesn’t appear to be a discernable pattern (2012 – 12th, 2013 – 25th, 2014 – 17th, and so on) so I won’t be trying to guess a date for this one, but keep an eye on the event’s web pages and for any announcement as May approaches.
Where it takes place, on the other hand is a little easier – which, unless things change, will be:
wijkgebouw “De Vuister”,
Molenwerf 44,
1541 WR Koog aan de Zaan,
The Netherlands.
User group meetings
When the pandemic hit in 2020, lots of things were affected, obviously including user group meetings. For smaller groups, meetings were generally put on hold until they became practical again – but some groups switched to meeting online, using Zoom. In some cases, those online meetings were more popular than their physical meetings ever were, because they were able to attract a greater attendance from a wider area – distance was no longer an issue.
With things returning to normal, groups are now starting to meet in person again, but those whose online meetings have been particularly popular are – currently – still holding them; in some cases making the meetings hybrid, with some people meeting in person and some attending online.
Online meetings are superb for people who want to join in, but can’t because of distance, but they are no match for meeting in person where possible. So as groups begin meeting up in person again, it is important that those people who can get along to a physical meeting do.
And this is arguably even more important for the smaller groups, the ones that didn’t switch to meeting online. If you have such a user group in your area, please find out when they meet, and get yourself along to their meetings.
As for when (and where) meetings for existing groups take place, the RISCOSitory Events list page shows the groups I’m aware of that were active until recently, as well as how to find out more about them. This will be updated in the near future with known or likely dates for 2023.
And if you don’t have a user group in your area, it might be worth trying to find out if there are any other users within a fair range (there probably are, but you might not know them – yet!) and if so, putting something together. It doesn’t have to be a well organised, fully fledged user group, meeting in a suitable venue for guest speakers – especially if numbers are small. A few people meeting up in a pub for a drink and a chat is a perfectly good starting point. Who knows? Maybe it can grow into something more!
