Brussels Girl Geek Dinner

Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #6 takes place in my hometown Mechelen, a city that was once the capital of the Burgundian Netherlands (present-day Belgium and Holland). Mechelen has one of the highest concentrations of monuments North of the Alps, and is unique in Flanders in being listed not once but four times on the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage sites. Check out the city’s key sights.
A compact city spun in a medieval web around the gigantic Cathedral tower, the city centre offers an inviting range of squares, terraces and shops, all within walking distance of each other. Try a guided tour or discover the city at your own pace on one of the tourist routes.

Tempted to see more? Then stay overnight – Mechelen has accommodation to suit every budget. Take congress and heritage centre Lamot (pic by Koinksy) for example, where the Girl Geeks will meet to see the speaker, have a few drinks and enjoy a special evening tour of the exposition Anno Expo. I’m particularly looking forward to Timelevel, a virtual representation of the Expo back in 1958…

The sixth edition of Brussels Girl Geek Dinner will be in Mechelen. In short:

Tue 24 June 18:30-21:30 CET
Lamot, Mechelen
Speaker and topic: Peter van Wijnaarde on Paleofuturism.
Event includes free entry to the Anno Expo exhibition in Lamot.

As usual, entry, cold food, drinks and a goodie bag are free but you have to register first. Last time we had some trouble with the wiki. Sarah Blow suggested EvenBrite to me. So, if you want to join: use the Eventbrite feature.

During Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #5, one of the main attractions was Ronny the Singing Egg. Or rather, Rolly the ultra cool moving and shining mp3 player by Sony. They aren’t available in European stores yet, and I’ve been told it quickly sold out in the States and in Japan. But Sony Belgium announced that they’re giving away one Rolly to a member of Brussels Girl Geek dinner. Street value of a Rolly must be around 250 euros (educated guess). What are the rules?

1. participants have to be female, geeky, and living in Belgium
2. participants have to write a post with text, photo(s), artwork and/or videos about the Rolly
3. this post has to link to http://www.brusselsgirlgeekdinner.be/?p=128 and has to be written between 14 May (date of BGGD #5) and 14 June 2008.
4. a jury of Sony Belgium employees will judge the most original, funny and witty post on 15 June 2008. The winner will be announced on this blog and will get his prize by the end of June.

Questions? Comments are open!

UPDATE: better image below. And a more fitting description of the Rolly (Source: Sony Electronics Blog)

“On one hand, it’s a music player – it has 2GB of embedded memory and plays music aloud with great clarity. However, on the other hand, it’s also a robot, sharing technology that was created for Aibo products. In many ways, it’s truly an “experiential” device in that you can not only hear your music, but see it as well. It is this visual aspect that sets the Rolly apart- it really can dance to the music.”

Some quotes (pardon the Dutch):

De opkomst was hoog en vrouwelijk. (Pietel.be)

Bij Duval Guillaume konden 60 dames en een paar pratende sjakochen terecht voor een hapje (hele lekkere broodjes en boterhammen met speculoospasta), drankje, praatje en een presentatie over artificiële inteligentie door Koen Vervloesem op het 5de Girl Geek Dinner. Ook Isabelle Peeters gaf een inspirerende uitleg over het managen van haar chaotische leven. (TenderFeelings)

Girl Geek Dinner number 5 already. I’m a geek not a freak. Out of the 5 Brussels Girl Geek Dinners, I have attended 4 till now. Luckily I missed out one, otherwise I couldn’t defend myself anymore when people call me a freak . (TheIceCreamDebate)

Maar dé ster van de avond was toch wel Rolly! Dit kleine muziekrobotje van Sony heeft ieders girl geek hartje gestolen. Die lichtjes, die move’kes! Of hoe een gadget ook écht schattig kan zijn… (FientjeGrasmachientje)

Ik ben verliefd geworden op Ronny, de Rolly van Sony. Ja, ik heb hem Ronny Solly gedoopt en niemand houdt mij tegen. Nah! (Verbeelding.org)

More on how to win Ronny in our next post…

Appelogen‘s Uw Moeder thought: why write a review on Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #5 if you can simply display what everyone twittered about it?

By the way, if you haven’t already, do join the Brussels Girl Geek Dinner groups on Facebook (49 members), and on LinkedIn (52 members).

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The fifth edition of Brussels Girl Geek Dinner was a success! I haven’t counted them, but I think we were 70?

So before we forget, a big THANK YOU to our sponsors, who not only helped us keep the event free, but also took care of the goodies and the prizes.
Please give lots of linklove to:

• Lotus, who donated 50 of those hard-to-get Speculaas bread spread
• Flair, for 40 issues of their kick-ass magazine
• Senseo: Senseo coffee pad “choices boxes” for everyone, and a limited edition Senseo coffee machine, designed by Tord Boontje for 3 lucky winners

And of course the kind people at DuvalGuillaume Brussels, who took care of location, catering and drinks. And of course speaker Isabel Peeters, who was funny and witty, and learnt us the basic rules of chaos management. (Her main advice was: Embrace chaos. Chaos is not a bad thing).

Just a quick note to say that there will be some free bandwidth during Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #5. (Thank you DuvalGuillaume!) So if you want to liveblog or twittercast, you can. Also, feel free to take pictures and movies – we have two interesting speakers and being the first to see a Rolly in the wild is going to be fun. Use tag BGGD5 for Flickr, Technorati etc so we monitor your posts and repost some stuff here.

Tomorrow, Ann Glorieus of Sony Belgium will be attending GGD for a small showcase of Sony’s newest and very cool gadget: Rolly. In a nutshell, it is a stylish audio player which combines music with movement and light. Quite a fancy gadget, which will give GGD 5 a little extra schwung. At this moment the Rolly isn’t available in Europe, but hopefully it will be later this year…

You can check Rolly out on Youtube.

If you’re really interested, feel free to read the article of Rolly’s designers on sony.net

PS: Want to see Rolly shaking it on your favorite song? Just drop it in the comment section and we’ll see what we can do…

Some info:

Address:

Duval Guillaume Brussels
Antwerpselaan 40
B-1000 Brussel

-> ring the bell at the door.

Phone:
Reception: 02 412 08 88
Pieter Baert: 0473 66 78 61 (mobile)

Orientation points:
close to Sainctelette and Rogierplein (Nieuwstraat)

How go get there:
By foot: walking distance from Brussels North train station.
Subway: metrostation Yzer is in front of the door
By car: use your GPS.

Parking
Unfortunately, there is no private parking for GGD. If you are by car,
try to park close to the building. When parking in dark alleys, do not leave
any valuable items in your car and watch out for cheap Eastern-European
hookers. :)
Parking of City2 is on 10 minute walk. (check closing time)
Neigbourhood is safe, but you¹re in the big city.