London.pm 10th Anniversary Meeting, Thank you!

[Greg McCarroll]

I've just got back from tonight's 10th anniversary meeting and I can't
say how happy I was with it, and it was all down to the people. Every
meeting I've been to as leader has been like some sweet sixteenth
party, where you fret and wonder if anyone will turn up - I was
nearly in tears (;-) ) at the last meeting, at the Founder's Arms, 
which was outside and it was torrential rain at 4pm ;-).

(
 Anyway, please forgive me If I spell names wrong, or forget someone.
)

First off, Kake as always for booking it, I spoke to the manager
and he seemed more than happy for our unique band to visit.
Kake doesn't just book places but she strikes up relationships with
these pub managers that makes things like the next paragraph possible.

James Laver (ElPenguin) got us an anniversary beer, I must admit, I
thought the chances of him getting the pub, to let us distribute beer in
it (unopened) might have been a sticky subject, but he did it all above
board and it worked, and the graphic on it was excellent - apparently
there is a full colour version of this and if it's a high enough
resolution and there is enough interest we might do a 10th anniversary
t-shirt run. (It's a giant camel walking under Tower Bridge
(IIRC)). More on this later.

The photographers, we had a contingent of 6 made up from our own group,
Birmingham.pm, Shadowcat and an extra from heise.de. All of them have no
doubt captured the big group photo and the entire evening (along with
many other's with digital cameras and mobiles) exceptionally well - so
more thanks here. Two points on this, if you are sticking them on
flickr or similar (or even blogging), please tag as,

   london.pm.10years

Secondly, when we get the snaps of the group photo through, we'll
(try to) figure out the best picture and do a set of high quality
prints of it and call it the official 10 year anniversary picture and
sell it at cost (of print). More on this later.

Leon for organising the GBBF dim-sum and wandering around London all
day with an orange glitter T-Shirt. And generally being a top bloke.

Mark Keating for as well as being one of the photographers, being
revealed as this years LPW organiser (don't hassle him for dates, but
hassling him for muffins is fair game ;-) ).

We mentioned him on the night, but Dave Cross for kicking off this
whole group. 

And I'd like to thank the whole group, but that seems like one of
those classic after thoughts, so instead I'll tell a story...

I've spoke with muttley about this in the past and one of the hardest
things about leader is to finish a hard days work, sit down with your
friends and then jump up and meet the new guy or girl and introduce
them to people hope they have a good time. 

2 things, 

* Tonight when I saw anyone sitting back from the crowd after the
  initial introduction, on my second glance they had someone or a
  group with them talking about whatever weird technology or geek
  stuff that interested them.

* And the second is a great success story, and I hope the guy doesn't
  mind me telling it. We had a Python programmer see the meeting
  announced on GLLUG and turned up thinking it was a Linux thing. When
  he found out it was a Perl event, he was going to have his pint and
  head on, by the the time he finished his pint he had decided to stay
  around for a bit longer, by the end of the night when we next spoke
  he was planning to come back next month and bring a colleague, a
  DBA.

Leaders can't do this, only the group can, and thats why I wanted to
thank the whole group, because everytime you post, chat on IRC, talk
to someone new at a meeting or organise a workshop/tech meet, it's
that that makes the Perl community in London special.

Thanks,

G.