Home > Sean's Technology and Writing Blog

See you at the Raspberry Pi 3rd Birthday Party!

26 February 2015

I'm looking forward to this weekend's birthday party for the Raspberry Pi in its home town of Cambridge. The programme of events looks incredible, with talks, workshops, marketplace stalls, discussion areas, a Robot Wars style obstacle course, and show and tell tables, plus a party in the evening. It's going to be amazing.

On the Saturday, I'll be helping to run a Scratch hackathon where we'll be inviting attendees to see what they can build in a couple of hours in the afternoon. We'll have some CamJam EduKits available, and we'll have ScratchGPIO, so attendees will be able to make physical gadgets with LEDs, buttons and buzzers controlled from Scratch, as well as more traditional on-screen experiences. Tickets for this session are now fully booked, but if you don't have one, please do come along to the session in lecture theatre 1 at 3.30pm to see what they built! We're expecting some children to take part and I'm sure they would love to show you what they made. If you'd like to get an idea of how you can use Scratch to light up LEDs and make a burglar alarm, see my new article here.

On the Sunday, I have a show and tell stand. I'll demo my Minecraft maze maker, and have all my coding demos from my books available. I'll also have my Scratch burglar alarm set up, so if you want to see how you can use Scratch for physical computing, please drop by. I'll be happy to chat and see if I can help if you have any queries.

I'll bring along some books too (including the new edition of Raspberry Pi For Dummies, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps, Web Design in Easy Steps, Raspberry Pi Projects, and Coding for Kids). I'll have copies of Raspberry Pi in Easy Steps and Python in Easy Steps on hand too.

Ready to rock!

I've got some Code Club leaflets, and I'll be happy to talk to you about my experience as a Code Club volunteer helping to teach programming in a school. If you're interested in helping to inspire the next generation, or want to find out how you can set up a Code Club in your school or local venue, drop by for a chat.

Mike Cook, my co-author on Raspberry Pi For Dummies, also has a Show and Tell stand, so look out for him too!

It's going to be a busy weekend and there is so much to see and do, but if you've got a moment to say 'hi', it would be great to meet you!

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Dip into the blog archive

Credits

Visit www.sean.co.uk for free chapters from Sean's coding books (including Mission Python, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps and Coder Academy) and more!

Discover my latest books

100 Top Tips: Microsoft Excel

Power up your Microsoft Excel skills with this powerful pocket-sized book of tips that will save you time and help you learn more from your spreadsheets.

Scratch Programming IES

This book, now fully updated for Scratch 3, will take you from the basics of the Scratch language into the depths of its more advanced features. A great way to start programming.

Mission Python

Code a space adventure game in this Python programming book published by No Starch Press.

Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps

Discover how to make 3D games, create mazes, build a drum machine, make a game with cartoon animals and more!

Raspberry Pi For Dummies

Set up your Raspberry Pi, then learn how to use the Linux command line, Scratch, Python, Sonic Pi, Minecraft and electronics projects with it.

Earworm

In this entertaining techno-thriller, Sean McManus takes a slice through the music industry: from the boardroom to the stage; from the studio to the record fair.