UNorganizing Gamma

You're a geek. Or you just started becoming one. Or maybe you want to meet smart people. 

And you happen to be in Jeddah.

Luck be a GeekFest event named Gamma, happening in just 2 weeks.

I've blogged about GeekFest before (HERE), but here's the Geekifesto (written by the guy who started GeekFest) to better understand what we're on about.

To give you a summary, here's what we have on our Facebook Fan Page:

So what's a GeekFest? 

Jeddah's own community of geeks get together for: 

GeekTalks Presentations or discussions on relevant topics. 

GameFest An area to geek out with gamers and get sucked into the power of the gaming world. 

TechnoCases Showcases by technology companies to share their products with the geeks in a fun and interactive way. 

ArtStuff Creative geeks can display their work and collaborate with others to create new things. 

Alongside it is much technology and chit chatting (and noms!) with all that show up.

GET INVITED

Due to logistics, we can only invite a very limited number of people for this particular GeekFest. If you'd like to get an invite to Gamma, simply follow these steps. Think of it as a first-come first-serve game of some kind. The bonus to this game is that you get to be part of the GeekFest community.

THE SUPPORT SYSTEM

Gamma is made possible by, first and foremost, our Venue Partner "The Store", a concept store + cafe. (Read about The Store on Alaa Balkhy's blog, and another post by Mai Al-Athel.) They are providing us space for our activities. Check them out.

Graphytes, a local design company headed by Ammar Sabban, is responsible for these awesome Gamma posters and all of Gamma's other design needs.

Samsung is showcasing some of their products at Gamma, notably their Smart TVs, and are providing us with an additional activity at the event.

Virgin Megastore (OH, YEAH) is providing Gamma (and the entire geeky community) with a surprise activity that we will announce soon.

MAKING IT HAPPEN

Gamma's UNorganizers - the people who have been using the planning of this event as an excuse to meet up and have LOLs - have worked hard to bring Gamma to Jeddah.

We have Khayra Bundakji to thank for bringing GeekFest (Alpha) into our part of the world in November last year, and the rest of the team continues to brave special circumstances that surround the planning of GeekFest in a city like ours.

There are perks to being part of this geeky community as an UNorganizer.

For instance, we got to meet the likes of Tamim Kashgari, who has helped us develop a sustainable system to plan current and future GeekFests (also, check out his blog on gaming), and Usman Bashir, who is developing an app for GeekFest to use for invites and registration at future events.

If it's not a perk being around such smart people, I dunno what is. (Although, if you are me, you might feel slightly cowed and embarrassed by the fact that the smartest thing you've ever accomplished is winning at Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. Once.)

Another perk: Getting shot.

Long-time friend of this blog Souma did a photoshoot of the UNorganizers, the theme (developed by also long-time friend of this blog Squeek) of which was "You Are Not Alone". While we might look lonely in these pictures, please don't weep for us. We had loads of fun (and pizza), and Souma got a bunch of geeks to wallpaper her room. Win-win.

Check out the album HERE.

Yes, Geek living your life in silent solitude in Jeddah, You Are Not Alone. Find us.

Here are the UNorganizers of Gamma.

1) Me = the bad cop. I claimed the role of nagging everyone and giving drawn-out lectures about getting things done. It is not uncommon for the others to inwardly roll their eyes at my attempts at military dictatorship.

2) Omair (@amrush) = the poster child. He's a perfect example of the kind of people we'd like to be part of the community. To illustrate this point, I'll tell you the story of how, one time, for fun (and before a game of Magic: The Gathering), he explained to me some basic principles of Physics using my tarha. (I think it was Physics. I'm pretty slow.) He's also not posing in this photo - he really is a problem-solver.

3) Abdullah (@squeeko639) = the Jeddawi. Everybody knows him, and he knows everybody. Squeek is a valuable resource of information and ideas, if you can sit him down long enough to pick his brain. I've also recently discovered that he is not as patient with me as Omair is at explaining complicated theories like Time Travel or Thermodynamics (is that a theory, you guys?).

4) Sarah (@duhhbrain) = the silent master. Amusingly - and mysteriously - nicknamed "Sh" in the group, Sarah displays all the qualities of what being a geek (and an UNorganizer) means. She has mastered the Trello boards in half the time it took the rest of us, she speaks pirate on Speak Pirate Day, and she has started a fun IRL Book Club where people can discuss and recommend books to each other.

5) Hassan (@LeThALBargi) = the comic relief. Probably one of his greatest qualities as an UNorganizer is his ability to lighten things up. It gets a little stressful sometimes when we're all shuffling about to get things done, but Hassan has the right amount of seriousness and comedy that reminds us that we're doing this for fun. Also, Hassan and Omair have started MTG Friday nights, so contact them for details.

6) Sara Grace (@LegnaSara) = Not Just a Geekling. Sara started out as a geekling at GeekFest, helping us out during the last event (Beta), and is now one of the people making Gamma happen. She is eager to learn new things, and can take care of the small details that the rest of us tend to overlook.

We're hoping to see new UNorganizers, and the hope is that every member of our community would at least help out at every event. After all, this is one of those for-us-by-us things, and we are the machine that keeps moving this forward.

Are you interested in being a GeekFest Jeddah UNorganizer? Contact us on Twitter or Facebook (or even Google+).