Note: This entry has also been cross-posted over at The Multipack Blog - you can get involved with the group and find out more about us there.

It's been a year since we started our little midweek group over in Leamington, so it seemed like a good idea to have a bit of a birthday party!

If you didn't already know, The Multipack meets twice a month - every second Saturday in Birmingham and the last Tuesday of the month in Leamington (an iCal feed is available). Our little group in Leamington started a year ago so, on the anniversary of our first meet-up, we celebrated with cake:

Our cake, adorned with an iced version of Paul Robert Lloyd's logo masterpiece, went down very well. So much so that we're attributing our best ever turn out to its presence. Many new faces, including some who'd previously not been able to find us, but who had a cake to look out for this time!

Sadly, whilst the cake worked in giving some people a beacon to find us, we can't bring cake every month, so if you've got any suggestions on how to help people find us, we'd love to hear them.

Staying with the same format

The reason we formed our group in Leamington was to give those who couldn't make the Saturday meet-ups a choice of when to attend. It's worked really well, and whilst we've had the odd month where only a handful of people have turned up, there's usually always a good, friendly crowd at our Tuesday night events.

Over the past 12 months, we've been joined by designers, developers, project managers, social media luminaries, other halves and even the occasional prospective parliamentary candidate, and it's been nicer still when some of our newfound geeks have hooked up with the larger group in Birmingham on the second saturday meet-ups.

We think it's worked, so we're going to stick with it - we'll continue meeting from 7:30pm on the last Tuesday of the month at the White Horse in Leamington Spa, where you can find good ale, good food and a good atmosphere. If you work in or around the Leamington Spa area and fancy joining us, we'd love you to join us!

Update: An edited version of this post is available over at The Multipack's Blog, where you should get involved and leave your comments.

Around this time last year, I heard about an event called Geek in the Park, through Jon Hicks' blog. Given that it was being held in Leamington Spa, a few minutes walk from my door, I figured that it'd be silly not to go along - especially given that it was a free event.

From that point on, I've been going to the regular monthly Multipack Socials in Birmingham, and on the second Saturday of every month - with an alternating schedule that flips between social meet-up and seminar-style events - we meet up, socialise with our peers, have a drink or two and talk about all things web, tech and general geekiness.

A lot of us understand, however, that it's not always possible to give up a Saturday afternoon every month in order to travel up to Birmingham. Weekends are premium time, to spend with your families and where you deal with your other out-of-work, weekend commitments.

Weeknight Socials

It's often easier to meet up for a quick beer or two straight after work and so, with that in mind, we're going to meet up, regularly, on a weeknight to complement the larger Birmingham-based meet-ups. I know there's a burgeoning web design and development community bubbling under the surface in Warwick and Leamington so, with help from Si Jobling (@Si) and Tim Print (@timprint) - who hail from Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon respectively - we've started a local Warwickshire chapter of the group and will be holding socials in Leamington Spa, with the scope to expand throughout south Warwickshire on a rotating schedule.

Our first meet-up was held last night, on Tuesday, June 30th, at The White Horse in Leamington Spa and, as launch meet-ups go, it was relatively successful, with a number of new faces from the area joining us for a few beers to discuss local community groups and efforts, such as PHP West Midlands, WXWM and a number of others. The weather was fantastic, and our choice of The White Horse and their courtyard worked out really well, with a handful of us staying a little later to sample the excellent food.

Getting Involved

As part of our discussion on getting people to attend, we discussed the fact that it’s not always easy - especially for people who are on their own - to make the jump into attending an event such as this. Meeting up with a bunch of like-minded individuals you’ve never met before can often be difficult for first-timers - a valid point that Richard mentioned - which means it’s all the more important to talk to your friends, colleagues and local contacts who are interested in the web and encourage them to join in.

We’d like more Warwickshire-based geeks to meet up with us and, occasionally, join up with us at the larger Birmingham-based Multipack meetings. If you’re interested in coming along to our next one - the date of which is still to be decided - then please keep your eye on this website, follow @Multipack and @abitgone (me) on twitter, and join the discussions over at the Multipack Forums, where we’ll notify everyone about upcoming events.

The only thing we'll need next time is something to draw newcomers' attention to us!