Where do women in technology go to geek out? Shelter Dubai on Thursday the night, of course.

This week, Shelter is hosting GeekaFest. That’s GeekFest, with a feminine twist. Featured speakers at the event will be a handful of women who are blazing the way in technology in the Middle East.

Also featured at the event – in addition to all the “usual” GeekFest attractions – will be workshops presented in conjunction with Shelter’s Online Business in the Middle East event. Mita Ray will run a workshop on “PR for start-ups.” PK Gulati will host a workshop on “everything a young start-up needs to know!”

The event runs 7:30pm – 10:30pm

“PR for start-ups” will run 8-8:30pm

“Everything a young start-up needs to know!” will run 9-9:30pm

See you there

-Mary

The Last GeekFest Dubai

Well, the last one at the ‘old Shelter’ anyway… Yes! It’s GeekFest time again – next Thursday, the 28th April, at 7.30PM is to be our last, *sob* GeekFest at the place of its birth!

 GeekFest Dubai – Goodbye, dear Old Shelter!

 We’re bidding a fond farewell to ‘The Old Shelter’, the next GeekFest Dubai will be at the new, painfully funky venue the Shelter team is constructing elsewhere in Al Quoz – we’ll have details of the amazing ‘New Shelter’ to share on the night. Alongside the Shelter Update, GeekFest will feature a mobile applications showcase (well, why not?), some fabby GeekTalks and The Biggest Picture In The World. What more could you possibly want, folks?

GeekFest Mobile

We’re putting on a mobile showcase for app developers: we’ve invited some of the leading mobile applications developers in Dubai to showcase what they’re up to at GeekFest – including ishopaholic, CareZone, and more! They’ll be demoing apps as well as answering questions about platforms, markets, opportunities and whatever else you want to bug them about. !

 Geek Talks

World Bloggers Day

What are we going to do about bloggers?

Ion Gonzaga is by passion and profession a web designer, as well as being a keen blogger and online socialite. He’s been tapped by World Bloggers Day to raise the word among the UAE’s bloggers. How do you want to mark World Bloggers Day? Any ideas? Ion’s looking for feedback and participation alike during this GeekTalk session! If you’re interested, you can check other countries’ agendas at www.worldbloggersday.org. There’s already a page created at www.worldbloggersday.org/dubai!

 MidEast Posts

Content aggregation = voices of the region together

Blog aggregator, voice of the region, the Arab Huffington post or an online newspaper? MidEast Posts represents probably the most diverse and vibrant reading from around the Middle East every day. Co-Founder David Westley takes us through the voices of bloggers from around the region and how MidEast Posts plans to represent those voices.

 Voila Dubai

A community to serve the community

Voila Dubai is a new initiative that plans to bring the city to life through reviews of its places to go and things to do – sharing consumer feedback within a community. Narain Jashanmal explains the idea behind the site – and takes a look at the development of the region’s new digital platforms and innovations.

Malaak, Angel of Peace

 The Angel of Peace

Creating content, popularising content, funding content

Malaak, Angel of Peace, is a highly popular Lebanese cartoon strip created by Joumana Medlej, the prolific multimedia and digital artist and graphic designer. The strip has gone from strength to strength, growing in popularity as it has in scope – and is now in its fifth book. Joumana’s travelling from her native Beirut and will be be talking about the story behind Malaak as well as looking at the innovative online fund raising methods she’s now using to fund the new book of the Malaak story.

Stuff

 The World’s Largest Picture

45 Gigapixel image to be auctioned for charity

What do The Next Web, Engadget, CNET, Wired, Gulf News, Gizmodo, Geek.com, The Independent, Popular Science, Petapixel, and countless other websites and publications have in common with HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum?

 They all covered Gerald Donovan’s amazing panoramic image of Dubai’s skyline (Sheikh Mohammed on his Facebook page!) – at the time of its creation, it was the world’s biggest digital photograph. The 45 GIGApixel image was stitched together from thousands of zoomed images into one enormous, incredibly detailed image. To celebrate the first anniversary of its digital unveiling, Gerald has re-rendered the image using the latest software to correct stitching errors in the original version. And now – for the first time ever – it’s being printed.

 There will only ever be ten copies printed, each one something like an incredible twenty feet by four feet.

 The first signed print, numbered 1/10, will be auctioned for charity, and it’ll be on show for the first time at GeekFest. What we want to know from you is WHICH charity should it be sold off for?

 GameFest

 Powered by tbreak.com, who are also the team behind GeekFest Abu Dhabi, GameFest will feature, once again, the chance to act like a fool or kill people or even both!

Eats and deets

 There is no registration, no formality, no requirement of you other than to turn up and even that’s optional. As usual, catering from the wonderful folks at LimeTree Café! There’s bound to be some other stuff cropping up, so do feel free to keep in touch – you can follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter or find us on Facebook. If you’ve never been to The Shelter before, there’s a map (as well as a funky GeekFest video) on the Shelter website here.

GeekFest will sort of start 7.30pm-ish on Thursday 28th April and will, as usual, end when everyone goes home. The talks will start at 8.00pm and this time we’ll be keeping an eye on the clock! You have been warned!

The first GeekFest Dubai of the new year will tantalise your tastebuds and satisfy your senses on the 20th January 2011 – as usual, taking place at The Shelter in Al Quoz.

We’ve got some pretty special GeekTalks lined up as well as some other bits and bobs. One thing we’ll be getting up to is the source of considerable excitement and was born out of our efforts last time around to help little Ola Abu Jarmous.

 I’m delighted to be able to tell you that the first GeekFest Ramallah is to take place at startup nurturing space place Bazinga! on the 16th February. I’m hoping (passport renewal notwithstanding) to be there, which is another adventure entirely. One thing we’ll be doing on the 20th is recording your messages from GeekFest Dubai to Ramallah.

 Following on from the Palestine theme, the first GeekFest Dubai Geektalk on the 20th will be given by Steve Sosebee, the founder and CEO of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and we’re hoping to have a really useful debate about social activism and social media, especially following the success of Ola’s life-saving appeal.

 He’ll be followed by Emirati animator and composer Mohammad Fikree, who’s going to be giving a sneak preview of his new (and literally, just finished) animated short ‘The Girl & It’. Mohammad’s animation work is as delightful as the soundtracks he creates are innovative – what’s more, they’re catchy as hell!

 We’re going to be welcoming Eros Group, the uber-retailers of electrical trickery and gadgetry, who will be holding a TechnoCase of superlative things that go tinkle, blip and boink. You can follow them on Twitter at @erosgroup or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/erosgroup.

 As before, back by popular demand in fact, nosh will be provided by The Lime Tree Café.

 GeekFest2011 takes place at The Shelter in Al Quoz from 7.30pm on Thursday the 20th January 2011. There is no registration, no formality, no requirement of you other than to turn up and even that’s optional. Other GeekFests have taken place in Cairo, Alexandria, Amman, Beirut and Damascus and there’s talk of GeekFests to come in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

We’re rolling it back a little this GeekFest and not having so much stuff going on. You can try too hard, you know and I, for one, had stopped enjoying it because of the pressure to make all the new stuff happen. The whole idea is that stuff happens because it happens so we’re going back to that a little.

It nearly didn’t happen at all – Saadia Zahid has left The Shelter and I realised that the event was more about working with Saadia than it was working with The Shelter. Her successor, Oliver, has been great but it was with Saadia that the whole scheme was co-conceived and it just seems odd without her.

Strangely enough, it was the other GeekFests that provided the impetus to carry on: Beirut is being driven by Lilliane Assaf (@FunkyOzzi) and the Maniachi and they’re going for it again early November. Last week the first GeekFest Damascus took place and it looks like there might be another GeekFest Amman under new UNmanagement. One thing that is becoming clear is that there is no fixed schedule to GeekFests – they’re happening as they happen and most of the UNorganisers are simply too irresponsible to do things like fix dates in advance and stick to them. Which is fine, no?

I hope we’re going to have some amazing GeekFest news for you on the 21st October, which is when the cycle closes and we finish a year of GeekFests – the sixth bi-monthly Dubai event.

So what’s planned for this GeekFest Dubai?

GEEKTALKS

We’re going to try and squeeze in five GeekTalks. I know, I think it’s mad too, but if the speakers (and they’ll be the first if they do) stick to their 15 minute slots, we’ll be fine…

To Nablus by Cam

Blogger Sara has won numerous hearts with her delightful accounts of life as a volunteer teaching in Nablus. Her blog, UssaNabulsiyeh, instantly gained a wide readership that has grown steadily day by day. We’re going to talk to Sara over videochat and listen to what she’s made of the Nablus experience so far. If this works we’ll try and do other cam link-ups in future.

The Giga-Pixel Man

Gerald Donovan’s videos of the Dubai fountains have gained him over two million views on YouTube, while his speeded up Dubai Metro video was hosted by Gizmodo and CNN. His GigaPixel images of Dubai have been similar smash hits. How does a man who seems to have the knack of ‘going viral’ view the phenomenon and what’s he going to get up to next? One answer is a stunning Gigapixel image of Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed mosque, unveiled especially for GeekFest!

New Music Nation

DJ RoneJaxx is one of a burgeoning band of Middle East based hip-hop artists who are finding a growing audience around the region as young people take to the musical form to find expression. With catchy tunes and smart videos, he’s a leading member of a regional scene that’s finding its feet – but does the Arab World need to ape US rap and hip-hop or does it need a musical identity of its own? And how is technology affecting artists with something to say and no deal with ‘the man’ to help them say it? (A name-check here to Hass, whose Re-Volt Radio hip hop blog led to us discovering Monsieur Jaxx!)

Where are we going to go now?

Needing no introduction, Yousef Tuqan Tuqan comes from a long line of computer nerds and is one of the most respected figures in the world of Web Development in the Middle East. Online agency Flip Media have carved a niche as the go-to guys for web stuff, from sites to apps – even if they command a premium in return for a ferocious reputation for quality work. So who better to ask where the Internet is actually going next? Yousef’s promised to tell us…

The New Entrepeneurialism

There’s more talk of innovation, funding and the like these days than ever before. There’s more concrete reality taking place as well, with funds like Jordan’s Oasis500 and angel investors popping up to support new online businesses. One of the team behind the amazingly successful, and arguably first, entrepreneurial event in the region, ArabNet, Samer Karam Founder and CEO of Seeqnce, the first startup catalyst in the Arab World, will be outlining some of the initiatives in the region that are driving a new wave of online entrepreneurship – taking from similarly risk averse cultures: their challenges, opportunities, threats, solutions.

GAMEFEST – POWERED BY LOCHALARCHADE

Popular gamer site LochalArchade will once again be bringing the best in mind-numbing violence and awful heart-rending action to GeekFest. The gamers have long been a feature of the event and have generally been well behaved, haven’t bitten too many people (only two Geeks have required rabies jabs in all the months we’ve been doing GeekFest Dubai) and have generally just confined themselves to ‘fragging’ each other.

GeekFest Dubai remains the only GeekFest with a strong gamer element and I’m not quite sure why, but the LochalArchade guys are going to be ramping it up this time around and getting jiggy with the multiplayer mayhem. We deny everything.

TECHNOCASES

Samsung are all over this one. They’re demoing some amazing new stuff, bringing some people, doing some other things. There’s a really, really cool preview thingy going on (only slightly ruined by the fact that they pre-previewed it but, hell, that’s the technology biz – today’s preview is tomorrow’s discounted item) and the Samsung guys, as all present at last GeekFest Dubai would likely agree, ‘get it’ and are showing some cool things to those wot is interested and leaving the rest of us pretty much alone. Which is nice!

DA TELLY

Dubai TV are going to be filming at GeekFest this time around. Just sayin’…

That’s all folks!

The Bean Bag Workshops idea was nice but takes too much organising. The ArtStuf is a lovely idea, but not enough artists are pushing themselves. Without the community jostling for a place, it’s not worth trying to ‘drive’ stuff. GeekFest is organic – if you want it, then you make it happen!

New Look

The tear-jerkingly talented Naeema Zarif has come up with yet another funky design for GeekFest as you’ll see from the above. If you want to see more of her work, it’s here.

SAMSUNG will be presenting the Galaxy S the Android-powered Smart Phone in our TechnoCases

The Android-powered Galaxy S incorporates a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and a 1 GHz application processor that enables vibrant HD videos, rich augmented reality content through Layar Reality Browser.

The ‘Social Hub’ provides always-on social networks connectivity allowing users to enjoy communications with their friends, colleagues, and families whenever they want and wherever they are. Social Hub which allows the consumers to efficiently manage their communication needs by providing intuitive and unified access to emails, IMs and Social Networking Sites (SNS). The benefits of Social Hub are further enhanced by the Wave’s TouchWiz 3.0 UI, delivering superb user experience. Availability of Social Hub can be decided by market demands.

The Galaxy S immerses users in a world of rich multimedia. The large 4-inch Super AMOLED display delivers unrivalled screen quality, with less reflection, free viewing angles and super-fast touch-response. The mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) – a technology used in Samsung’s best-selling LCD and LED TVs – boosts an even sharper and crisper viewing experience for photos, videos, and e-books. It creates a perfect environment to record, edit and play HD video, to browse the Internet, and to read your favourite e-books. A variety of Google applications from Android Market allows users to even more extend the benefits and excitement of smartphone experience.

Living a “Smart Life” requires intelligence, and the Galaxy S delivers just that by utilizing personal preferences to gather information online that each user needs and wants. With a user-defined daily briefing, lightning-fast processing speeds and location-based search options like Layar Reality Browser – the Galaxy S gives users the information they need wherever and whenever needed. The Galaxy S represents the next level of intelligence in smartphones.

The Galaxy S integrates every aspect of life in a smart and sophisticated way. In addition to wireless integration with a variety of other devices, such as notebooks, TVs and cameras, the highly advanced Social Hub plugs users quickly and conveniently into their complete world of social networking and email.

Samsung Galaxy S is the perfect device for people in all corners of the world who want that extra edge; to be more effective, productive, better connected, and in tune with their smart life – both personal and professional – all in a very easy and simple way.

GEEKTALKS!

Talking Pandas
Fadi Abu Ghali who runs Dubai based advertising and communications agency Aya Middle East along with Laila Abdullatif, the Emirates Wildlife Society in Association with World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF)’s Sustainability Coordinator are the some of the people behind the recent neat little animation for EWS-WWF that used some tricksy animation to remind us that we’re making an awful mess. They’re going to be telling us a bit about the problems the ad is intended to address, how they came up with the idea, the technical wizardry they used to create the animation and how they’re using social media and all that kind of stuff to spread the message.

Why Marriage is the Theme of My Life
Areeba Hanif needs no introduction. A lecturer in digital film making at SAE Institute and a director, writer and editor, Areeba founded her company to produce webmercials and documentary style wedding movies. she is also GeekFest’s official videoguru, making sure the GeekTalks are there on Vimeo for all to see. she’s going to be talking about her struggle with arranged marriages, one broken engagement, her feature script “Match Made in Parental Heaven”, My Big Day Films and finally the real reason for putting on the scarf.

Moving Ahead With Ramallah
TEDxRamallah is an independently organized conference (licensed by TED) happening in Ramallah where the theme is to showcase inspirational stories of Palestine. The event is taking place at Ramallah Cultural Palace on the 9th October 2010. TEDxRamallah is actively casting about for speakers with inspiring stories, from any field (education, business, art, science, technology, etc). The community are encouraged to nominate speakers as well. Ramzi Jaber is the dynamo behind putting this event together. He’s working closely with a group of volunteers to make it a successful gig – this talk’s a chance to throw in your ideas and stuff.

One girl’s quest to change the world using education
Masarat Daud is 26 years old. Belonging to India’s largest and most illiterate state of Rajasthan, she has lived in Dubai all her life. Last year, she realised that the world is not someone else’s responsibility and embarked on a journey to make the change that she wishes to see. This led to the creation of 8-Day Academy, a smart program that focuses on educating rural communities…in just eight days. Masarat will be talking about the Academy, about TEDxShekhavati – a TEDx event in rural India, and about her belief that village people can change the world.

Caution. This talk has a bitter/sweet ending.

Bean Bag Workshops!

A new feature at GeekFest, the Bean Bag workshops are a chance for small groups to share expertise in doing stuff. The idea’s to have a semi-circle of 10-12 beanbags and a presenter looking at ‘how to’ type topics. This is very much an experiment, so if it works we’ll do more of ‘em next time around.

8.00ish    Blue Sky Thinking
Photographer and photoblogger Catalin Marin will be sharing ways of getting beyond the Dubai summer haze and taking that awful washed out, white sky effect out of your summer photography using some simple and smart Photoshop techniques. He’s here, by the way.

8.30ish     Pump up your personal SEO
When was the last time you Googled yourself? Do you own you? Do you want to build your blog traffic by being higher up in search? Time for some SEO weight training, then! SEODubai’s Jon Santillan will be sharing some simple ideas and approaches that will help you to build your personal Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO.

ArtStuf!

Born in Nanjing, China, and raised between Bahrain, Dubai, and New Orleans, Lantian Xie is a visual theorist who utilizes interdisciplinary methodologies to investigate our contemporary relationships with time and space. His work is either hard-to-understand genius or just plain strange. But it’ll be projected at GeekFest, where we hope Lantian will also be taking the opportunity to create another of his groundbreaking pieces of surreal video.

There’ll also be a slideshow of photography from blogger and well known social media gadfly Kinan Jarjous.

GameFest!

As usual, the slavering, snarling pack of gamers will be huddled around the FragZone at the back of The Shelter, hooked up together and killing each other and/or various alien life forms. Some Big Iron is apparently coming in this time around, so we’re arranging backup generators and asking people to turn off their televisions in the surrounding area.

TechnoCases!

There are no TechnoCases.  If you decide you want to do a TechnoCase, you’ve still got 24 hours or so to get it together.

Stuff

As usual mOre will be serving up food and drink but we haven’t got a tab because the damn TechnoCase didn’t come through. It’s at Shelter in Al Quoz (this is the link to the location map). You can do the Facebook thing or follow @GeekFestDubai on Twitter. GeekFest Dubai is jointly UNorganised by Alexander McNabb and Shelter supremo Saadia Zahid (@Saadia on Twitter) and is a not for profit event held without harming any small furry animals.

There are also GeekFests taking place in Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, Amman and one looks like it might happen in Damascus.

The World Cup. If you want to watch the world cup at GeekFest you are genuinely more than welcome. But you’ll have to bring a TV or something. If you would all like to agree that GeekFest will be a vuvuzela free zone, that would be just fine with me…