Preamble: Firstly, check out The Alternate Diff blog for more things to do in Cardiff (found via a profile on the Cardiff Blogs blog). Secondly, I’ve created a new page to serve as a public editorial calendar for this blog. It’s going to serve mostly to remind me about upcoming blogging topics, but those may frequently be local events so there’ll be some overlap.
Onto the events…
GamesDev South Wales – Wednesday 30th January
Upstairs in O’Neill’s (Trinity Street) at 7.30.
Everyone interested in the games development industry is welcome: AAA, indie, mobile, social, desktop or whatever. Students and hobbyists, too!
We gossip, drink, rant about various games-related topics, and occasionally have people showing off their latest work.
There’s also a lecture session planned for Thursday 28th February. Scroll down for details.
Follow @gamesdevsw.
thinkARK: First monthly meeting of 2013 – Wednesday 30th January
Upstairs at 33 Windsor Place from 7ish.
thinkARK are a volunteer group / social club for people interested in making communities better through fun, engaging and collaborative projects. In addition to this monthly meetup, they hold a weekly Wednesday Club.
Details of times and places seem to be in flux, so ask @thinkARK on Twitter for details, or send them an email.
Project Cardiff exhibition – 2nd–24th February 2013
At the Milkwood Gallery (Opening Times: Wednesday – Saturday, 11.00am – 5.00pm).
The Project Cardiff exhibition consists of a portfolio of photographs of people who have been identified as making a positive contribution to the creative life and soul of the city.
Follow @ProjectCardiff.
unified.diff – Wednesday 6th February
No speakers announced yet, but you can get an idea of what to expect from the videos of previous talks. Follow @UnifiedDiff for updates.
Design Wars: The Designers Strike Back – Wednesday February 6th
Time and venue to be confirmed.
Tag-Teams of multi-disciplined designers will take on a collaborative design challenge to illustrate, cut, paste and layout a design, culminating in a fight-club style showcase to flex their design skills to the max. There can only be one team winner and the audience will decide.
RSVP on Facebook. Follow @burningred.
doo:zie Love creative networking – Thursday 7th February
Upstairs at 10FeetTall, from 6pm.
doo:zie describe themselves as:
[…] a creative community for creatives, in and around Cardiff and South Wales, aimed at providing an opportunity for creative people to come together : to meet : to connect : to discuss: to process ideas : to share knowledge and skills : to collaborate and realise creative ambitions.
Follow @doozie_cc on Twitter.
Cardiff Digital Coffee Morning – Friday 8th February
From 8am to 9.30am at 33 Windsor Place
You are invited to the Cardiff Digital Coffee Morning. We would like to meet creative digital designers, content writers, programmers, techies, enthusiasts and everyone who works in or has an interest in the digital industry. It is an informal gathering to share, discuss and learn about anything in the industry. It’s free to attend but there will be refreshments to purchase.
Cardiff Dev Workshop
Cardiff Dev Workshop is a volunteer-run series of workshops for software developers in the South West. We meet up, someone gives a talk, then we do some practical work and try to answer each other’s questions.
Their next event is at the Indycube in Castle Arcade from 2pm:
High Quality Code – Saturday 9th February
Poor quality code is a big reason that projects fail. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be that way! We’ll look at things like:
- Writing clean code
- Continuous integration
- Unit, functional and integration testing
- Code reviews
- … and whatever questions you come with!
It’s free, but ‘pay what you want’ to help cover costs. Register on their website.
South Wales Linux User Group – Tuesday 12th February
At The City Arms from 7pm. These gatherings are monthly, with the next one falling on Tuesday 19th of March.
MathsJam Cardiff – Tuesday 12th February
In the Grape and Olive from 7pm, and on the second Tuesday of every month.
WordPress Users Wales – Tuesday 19th February
At Indycube in Castle Arcade, 5.30pm until 7.30pm. Register with EventBrite.
James Cryer will be talking about responsive design. The event is free, but there will be a donation bucket to help cover the costs of the venue.
Follow @wordpresswales.
Ignite Cardiff #10 – Wednesday 20th February
At Porter’s Bar from 6.30pm.
We’ll be showcasing some of Cardiff’s brightest and finest brains with another mad spread of subjects covering anything from “Living in the moment” through to reasons “why everyone should upsticks and move to Barry”
Follow @IgniteCardiff.
Games Dev South Wales Sessions #2 – Thursday 28th February
Screen 15 in Cineworld at 7.30.
There will be two 45 minute talks from Andrew Walsh (a freelance games writer and director) and another unannounced speaker, plus time to mingle in the bar afterwards.
Book on Eventbrite and follow @gamesdevsw on Twitter.
Cardiff International Comic and Animation Expo – 2nd-3rd March
At the Mercure Cardiff Holland House Hotel again. Lower-price tickets are available until the January 30th. I’m not planning to attend this one, but if you haven’t been before it’s absolutely worth going!
Read my writeup of the 2011 event: Cardiff Comic Expo: My first convention
Follow @CardiffExpo.
Canton Social Media Surgery – Wednesday 6th March
In the Cwtch Bar at Chapter Arts, from 5pm until 7pm. Spread the word to any family and friends who need help with social media use for their community organisation or charity.
Cardiff Blogs – Wednesday March 27th
At the Maldron Hotel.
The March meet-up is going to take the form of a panel debate on what you can (and can’t) say online.
Do we have freedom of speech online?
We live in a golden age of communication where your words can reach thousands in a matter of minutes, but that isn’t always a good thing. From destroyed careers to criminal records, the impact of something as small as sending a tweet can be devastating if you’re unfortunate enough to fall afoul of the law.
There doesn’t seem to be a time announced just yet. Follow @cdfblogs for updates.
Wales and West Windows Application Group (WAW-WAG) meeting – Wednesday 17th April
At O’Neils Trinity St. from 6.30.
This is the second meeting of the Wales and West Windows applications group. The group now covers Windows Store applications along with Windows Phone applications.
Get a free ticket from Eventbrite.
Diffusion Festival 1st-31st May
This new Cardiff International Festival of Photography is being run by ffotogallery.
A month long festival of exhibitions, discussions, screenings, performances, events and celebrations in both physical and virtual spaces and places.
Follow them on Twitter for updates: @_Diffusion
Port80 – Friday 10th May
At the University of Wales, Newport (so not Cardiff, but I’d be remiss not to mention it). Tickets are not available yet, but the speakers have announced themselves.
There are also regular ‘localhosts’ events held in Newport under the Port80 banner.
HybridConf – 15th-16th August
At The Coal Exchange, Cardiff.
HybridConf is a brand new conference exploring and embracing the interdependence of form and function.
Learn new skills from the best of the other side of the fence by seeing intelligent and inspiring design and development talks from a range of quality speakers.
Follow @HybridConf on Twitter.
Have I missed anything? Leave a comment.
A note on updates: Usually I care a great deal about being transparent with revisions I make to my posts, but it makes sense to drop that standard for this type of post. The last one became a mess of strikethroughs and updates: This time I’m just going to keep adding and altering dates and details until I’m done.
halfblog.net 
How about thinkARK? meet up every week and have arranged monthly events in 2013 (first one this wednesday), at 33 windsor place. Open for anyone who wishes to create projects and evtns that highlight Cardiff and make it a better place.
Handheldconf – http://www.handheldconf.com
Lineup being announced early Feb
Thank you for featuring The Alternate Diff on your blog! It looks great :)
You are quite welcome. :)
Don’t suppose there’s a Google Calendar for these events that I could subscribe to? It’d make it easier to keep track of the goings on and copy over what I want to attend :)
Not to my knowledge. If you find one, be sure to come back with the info!
Thanks for the info! I’ll certainly bookmark your calendar page. I wish I knew about the upcoming cardiff dev workshop before it was fully booked.
The Windows user group (WAW-WAG) have an event coming up on the 17th April. It’s held in O’Neills function room on Trinity Street. For the developer community who actively create applications for the three new Windows platforms.
Mobile Monday Wales will be holding a networking event on May 13th at the Radisson Blu Hotel Cardiff. It’s free to attend and there will be presentations from established speakers to discuss the latest trends and developments in the mobile industry.