It was a really great night and a great turn out to our meetup at The Northern last night. Lots of new face, lots of old all drinking, chatting and drinking.

There was also the small matter of the free event raffle. Everyone who wanted to go to either Flash On The Beach or b.TWEEN conferences got put into a hat, well it was a big glass jug really. We then did the draw.

First out the hat was Adam Palmer of Love, who won the ticket to Flash On The Beach. He already had a ticket so kindly decided to put it back into the hat, sorry, jug. So next to be drawn out was Jon Stutfield from Flame Digital who will be going down to Brighton this September. Then was the draw for b.TWEEN in Liverpool on 11th and 12th June. This went to Jen Williams from Code.

Well, here’s how you can get you hands on a ticket to either Flash On The Beach or b.TWEEN at this Thursdays meetup.

We’re going to keep it simple with a free raffle. To be in with a chance all we ask is:
You are a Northern Digitals member. If you aren’t join up here.
You are there on Thursday at The Northern when we do the draw.
You can/want to go to either of these events if you are lucky to win. These are pretty special prizes and we don’t want them to go to waste. Tickets won’t be able to be sold on.
Oh, and if you are the lucky winner, you take plenty of pics when you are there for us all to share.

That’s it really, good luck and we’ll see you all there.

The prizes for our next meetup on Thursday 4th June at The Northern just keep coming.

I can’t believe it’s been 12 months since I embarrassed myself doing a Pecha Kucha style talk at las years b.TWEEN conference, but it is, and it’s here again.

b.TWEEN is a great 2 day networking event with great talks by industry leaders. It really was worth while for me last year, making some good contacts including Northern Digitals member Warren Slingsby of Make in Huddersfield.

This year it is at FACT in Liverpool on 11-12 June and you have the chance to win a 2 day pass by coming along to our next meetup on Thursday 4th June at The Northern. We’ll let you know how you can get your hands on this prize closer to the time but one things we can say is that you will have to be a Northern Digital member, RSVP’d YES, and be there on the night. In the meantime here’s what the event organisers say about the event:

You may have heard through our twitter that we have a great prize to give away at our next meetup.

Well…

that prize is…

wait for it…

a free ticket to this years Flash On The Beach - www.flashonthebeach.com, which has kindly been donated by the organisers.

For those who don’t know, Flash On The Beach or FOTB is a 3 day creative/flash/film conference in Brighton from 20th - 23rd Sept.

For those who do know, will know how good this prize is.

You simply don’t get the calibre of speaker at an event like this in the UK, with speakers such as Joshua Davis, Hillman Curtis, Rob Chiu, Carlos Ulloa, Keith Peters, to name a fraction of the talent speaking.

I went to the 2007 event and was blown away with what I saw. WARNING! You may decide to give up the day job when you see the work, ideas and general crazy sh*t on show.

Other Northern Digitals members who have been included Stuart Hamilton and Adam Palmer. If you don’t want to take my word for how good FOTB is, give them a shout at the meetup.

So yes, there will only be one lucky winner at the next meetup. We haven’t yet decided how we are going to give this away but you will have to be there on the night. Keep an eye on this site and twitter for more information before the meetup.

If you aren’t the lucky winner and have a healthy interest in anything creative and digital, you must not miss this event.

At writing this there were 102 Double Early Bird tickets left at £239.

See you all there on Thu 4th June at The Northern, Tibb Street, Manchester.

We’re going to give a new venue a try for the next meetup on the 5th March. It’s going to be at The Northern on Tib Street. It will also be at the earlier time 6pm. Here’s how to find it.

See you all there.

It was a great turn out for Feb’s meetup last Thursday.

On the night I found out that Paul Smith had finished his contract at the BBC and is now starting with the guys at Fudge after meeting them at Northern Digitals.

If you’re a regular to our meetups it would be great to hear what you think of the venue, day and time. We want the meetup to be accessible as people as we can.

Send your views to matt@northerndigitals.com

The details have been announced for Manchester Twestival, the world wide Twitter event aimed at raising money for the charity Water.

It’s on 12 February at 18:30 at The Living Room on Deansgate.

Manchester digital agency Code Computer Love have been named as sponsors for the event.

Tickets can be bought and donations can be made at manchester.twestival.com.

You can also follow the event on twitter.

Photographer Andrew Brooks is holding the exhibition Hidden Manchester at the Urbis until the 8th May.

Gaining access to the parts of Manchester we don’t see he has created a series of stunning photographs.

The Big Chip Awards 2009 (the largest digital awards outside of London) are now calling for entries.

There are 13 categories to enter including Best Use Of Visual Design, Best Use Of Search & Best Freelancer/Micro Enterprise.

The closing date for entries is 16th March.

On 12 February 2009 cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for the charity water.

You can RSVP to the Manchester one here.

See you there.