ThingsCamp5

Description of the event: We’re continuing a series of ThingsCamps around the country, following on from successful events in Plymouth, Greenwich, Bristol and London. Each takes a local flavour according to the priorities of people and businesses in the area, with topics suggested and led by attendees.

The upcoming event on 16th and 19th June in Birmingham will see a focus on transport, mobility and public sector data challenges. We’re working in partnership with Birmingham City Council to bring some relevant big/real-time data and some of the challenges they hope to address, and we’ll be running one of the days specifically for residents and community groups to scope out solutions with the second of the days being aimed at supporting innovation and collaboration between local SMEs and the council/partners.

ThingsCamp events provide a welcoming, low-pressure shared space for building more inclusive activity around IoT and data, pointing a critical lens at connected devices, and helping us see beyond the commercial and theoretical perspectives. But ThingsCamp is also an opportunity to get close to the technology: understanding and exploring it through experimentation and making.

The event is an unconference, with attendees pitching sessions on what they’d like to do or talk about, and we provide samples of existing tech available on the market now to help people understand how they work and how they might be used, to demystify the space and include more perspectives in the discussion.

How much they want: £500

What we will use the funding for: We raise sponsorship for each event to cover all costs, to keep the tickets free to attendees; we have a sponsored venue and have built up a small collection of demo equipment so a contribution from UKGovCamp will enable us to cover refreshments/ lunch for attendees.

About them: Beyond is a data/design/digital collective and a social enterprise, comprising a team of three:
Lucy Knight (@jargonautical / lucy@beyond.place) is a data analyst and visualisation specialist working on improving connections between humans and data.
Simon Gough (@mistergough / simon@beyond.place) is a service designer with a particular interest in participatory design and systems.
Martin Howitt (@MartinHowitt / martin@beyond.place) is an IT architect with an interest in the overlaps between service design, open data and civic technology infrastructure.