The RISC OS User Group of London (ROUGOL) has a couple of meetings coming up that people like to know about – as well as confirmed news of something a little further ahead.
Since early 2020, as a result of the pandemic and consequent lockdowns in the UK, the group has been holding its meetings online, using the Zoom video conferencing software. Prior to that, however, the group had just moved to a new venue – and has returned there in recent months, with physical meetings possible once again.
The move to virtual meetings has been beneficial to the group, since it can attract guest speakers from further afield who might not be able to come along in person – and it is therefore beneficial to anyone who wishes to give a talk for the same reason, and to the RISC OS community as a whole because more people can attend the meetings than would otherwise be possible; audiences throughout the period have included people (and speakers) from not just all parts of the UK, but also from overseas as well. Recognising this, the recent physical meetings have been hybrid ones, with some people meeting in person, and some attending using Zoom – and this is set to continue going forward.
With this new model, for those who can come along to the meetings in person it is very helpful to the group that you do – the room is provided at no charge, but the venue can only do so provided enough people attend the meetings that their trade isn’t adversley affected with other people not being able to use it. The address is:
The Duke of Sussex Pub (upstairs in either the Chichester or Petworth Room),
23 Baylis Road,
London,
Se1 7AY.
The meetings are free to attend, and take place on the third Monday of each month, with the talks scheduled to start at 7:45pm – though there is usually someone from ROUGOL on hand at the pub from 6:30pm, and the Zoom meeting opens from 7:30pm to give people time to join before the talk begins.
Conveniently located behind Waterloo Station, the pub is very easy to reach by public transport from in and around London. For drivers, there is car parking available outside on Coral Street from 6:30pm – access to which is via Waterloo Road/Pearman Street.
February meeting
First of all, the February meeting, which will take place on Monday, February 21st, and features the group’s first in-person speaker in two years! Since the virus first landed on the UK’s shores and the country went into its first full lockdown, with various limitations in place for many months after, the group’s meetings have been held online via Zoom.
In recent months, physical meetings have been possible again and the group has returned to its in-person venue but those meetings have been hybrid, with some attending from afar using Zoom, and even for those meetings the guest speaker has been a remote one.
For February’s meeting, however, the guest speaker will be turning up at the pub to deliver his talk. Terry Swanborough will be there to talk about the various games he produced during the lockdowns as a diversion from work, explaining the processes behind their creation, and the issues he found along the way. He will also provide some example code to demonstrate how to produce smooth game animation – and if there is time, he may delve into his commercial software, printed circuit board design package RiscPCB.
March meeting
Make sure you have your party hats ready for the March meeting, which will take place on the 21st – but it will be celebrating a 30th.
Herbert zur Nedden, the editor of GAG News, the newsletter/magazine of the German Archimedes Group, will be joining the group – virtually, back to Zoom again – to celebrate its 30th birthday, and talk about the publication.
London Show 2022
The date has now been confirmed for this year’s London Show as 29th October, and as before it will be held at the St Giles Hotel, Feltham.
If you were unable to attend the 2021 event, the three theatre talks can be watched on YouTube, and there is a brief write up on Icon Bar of the show itself, with a separate page of photos, and notes from the talks. The RISCOSitory show report is now almost ready with just a little tidying up to do – so keep your eyes on your RSS feeds, or keep checking back!
