I haven’t been along to one of these events but John O’Rourke from the organising team has this to say:

“The event structure takes 12 early stage startups with a something to demo, puts them in the informal setting of a Dublin pub, and lets conversation flow over a few pints. Everyone who’s demoed with us so far has been blown away with the range of tough questions they’ve fielded on the night.  

So far we’ve had two events with over 400 people at each. We’re gearing up for our third on April 30th. Since then the direction has morphed somewhat; we have positioned ourselves as an open platform for emerging startups to get quality community mentorship from various backgrounds. From a startup perspective there are no barriers to demoing, we don’t charge for the demo stand (its actually just a pub table) and there’s no powerpoint presentations. All a startup needs is good chat.”

If you’re interested in demoing then you can register via their website http://dublinbeta.com/  You can also find them on twitter: @dublinbeta

If you do wind up going along, please drop us a message on hello@startupcafe.co.uk to share your experience!

A growing number of you apparently – I hear that the number of Drupal users in Scotland is growing rapidly.  So why not head to Edinburgh University’s Informatics Forum on 25-26th May 2012 to attend DrupalCamp Scotland – a free training and networking event – to meet, learn from and hang out with other users and fans?

Free Drupal training sessions are being planned for Friday 25th May as is a Drupal for Business event aimed at folk who want to understand how the free and flexible, open source modular platform can make a difference to their organisation and clients.  Saturday 26th is to be filled with presentations and discussions to suit all levels of practitioner.  Social events will be arranged for the end of each day.

So would you like…

…to attend?  You know, so you can chat to your peers (whether developers or non-tech business folk) about their experiences?

…to sponsor?  Go on, show your love for the community!

…to be actively involved and propose a session?  You know, so you can show off, ahem, share your knowledge? You’ve got until 30th April for this.

Then get in touch with the organisers on @drupalcampscot or visit the website: http://camp.drupalscotland.org. Oh, and tell them you found out about this via StartupCafe (‘cos we like it when our ears get warm).

• Who would like to have a meaningful impact on the world?
• Got a cool idea but lack the skills to bring it to life?
• Or want to use your superpowers in design, web dev or business to help develop someone else’s vision for improving education, healthcare, finance, community or mobile?

The Idea Transform team are organising a startup bootcamp weekend where people pitch ideas on a Friday evening, the audience votes for ideas they’d like to work on and people form teams to work on projects over the rest of the weekend.  The event aims to inspire projects that can deliver long-term change across the globe.  These projects will then be judged, and a winner announced on Sunday evening.

Teams will be supported and inspired throughout the weekend by mentors and speakers who will be on hand to answer questions and offer advice. The event will be held in Cambridge on 20th-22nd April 2012 at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is supported by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning.

I’ve been told by the organiser that last year’s event saw many make their way down from Edinburgh and Glasgow so, if this is of interest, check out their website for more details.  Developers in particular are especially encouraged to attend!  

The event is open to both students (£40) and non-students (£70) from the UK and beyond!  Ticket prices include lunches and dinners (yum yum) as well as a steady supply of caffeinated beverages and soft juices.

As usual the event presents an opportunity to meet cool and talented people, make friends and network with mentors, judges and speakers. You have until April 8th to buy the £70 tickets – afterwards the price will go up!

[Updated: DISCOUNT CODE to reduce standard non-student ticket price from £70 to £50!  Valid until 8th April 2012.  http://ideatransform2012.eventbrite.com/?discount=ITTWENTY ]

Twitter: @ideatransform

WhiskyWeb is conference created for the web community, by the web community, Whisky Web will have something to offer everyone who works with the web, be they a designer, a developer or something in between. This is an amazing opportunity to get your geek on in Scotland’s inspiring capital.

There’s not that many tickets left so make sure you get yours quick!

[http://whiskyweb.co.uk]

Gameippy.com is a portal where consumers can find fun games to play to win discounts and prizes from their favourite brands!

It is also a platform for brands to engage innovatively with consumers and deliver promotions through mobile games.

Why should brands use our platform as opposed to only their website?

• For exposure to a greater audience than just those that would normally visit their websites
• To cultivate goodwill with customers by engaging with them in a fun and rewarding way
• Players will be able to share the games they like with their friends
• Players can rate games resulting in rankings that show companies how they are performing
• Companies will be able to ‘feature’ their games

Wanted: we need some feedback from companies, and agencies who are responsible for delivering campaigns for big brands.  Please spend 60 seconds to answer a few questions:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGh3QkZLRkU3OGZRdEdzcUlyTWsxUHc6MQ#gid=0

Thanks folks!  :)

There next two events will be held on:

• Wed 8th Feb 2012
• Wed 15th Feb 2012

I haven’t been along to one of these meetups yet (I’m in London at the moment so unlikely to be able to attend for a while) so if you do go along, please let me know how it is!

Here’s the link to the meetup page:  http://www.meetup.com/learn-programming-in-edinburgh-alloa/

If you work long hours in a job that doesn’t fulfill you, if you have ideas for starting your own business and aren’t afraid to relocate to make it happen –  then this could be the an opportunity you can’t afford to miss.

They’re looking for aspirational families who have the assets and the attitude to grasp new opportunities – to radically change their career, their home and with that, their standard of living.

Their team of experts will value your life – everything from your house to your car to your Jimmy Choos. They’ll reveal how much it’s actually worth and how you can spend that money to start a whole new happier lifestyle for you and your family. Not only will you be presented with these plans, you will also get the opportunity to really experience what making these life changes would be like.

If this sounds like you and you’d like more information on how to get involved then please contact Helen Soothill on hsoothill@truenorth.tv or0113 394 5497.

There are nine slots for attendees to present along whatever theme they like (as long as it involves WordPress) and take questions from the floor.

This is the second in a series of planned one-day events, following on from Blacknight WordUp Edinburgh 2011, which will take place across Scotland in the next 12 months.

http://wordup.wpscotland.org/glasgow2012/

• There are over 150 companies hiring at SiliconMilkRoundabout this weekend with over 500 technical jobs up for grabs at London start ups (with salaries from £20k to £100k

• There are 3,134 Graduate technical jobs available in the UK and over 1,000 in London currently listed on Adzuna.co.uk, the UK’s most comprehensive job search engine.

• The average Banking IT salary is £57k which is 19% higher than the average tech start up salary. Tech startups offer greater job satisfaction and the upside of options, but this salary gap is what the start hiring community is up against.

• 23% of start ups currently hiring in London are offering stock to graduate tech employees; 0% of banks hiring graduates are offering stock.

• Despite their age, workhorse languages such as C and C++ continue to remain at the top end of the software development landscape in terms of use and job potential. That being said, Ruby, Hadoop and HTML5 are the fastest growing “in demand” tech skills with employer demand up 70%+ year on year for all of these search terms

• Graduate Mobile developers can demand a premium, with the average graduate salary for iPhone developers at £34k and Android developers at £35k, 20% higher than the average graduate tech job.

• Despite what appears to be an abundance of tech jobs in the UK, 13.1% of computer science graduates remain unemployed (source: HESA). 7,000+ computer scientists graduated this summer from University in the UK.