Right, so unfortunately it was yet another year of this awful pandemic!
As with the bulk of last year, there hasn’t really been anyone that wanted to do the usual presentations or practicals that we normally do as “Workshops”, basically because they just wouldn’t be the same online. There was a brief moment in the middle of this year where it seemed like limited gatherings would be alright, but it wasn’t sufficient to relax the rules for guests (which we are) of the room we that we normally use (which belongs to a local company), and it didn’t last long anyway until the next lock down!
It’s understandable that people don’t want to do much online, as naturally it would require a lot of time on webcam showing yourself to people (which not everyone is happy with), screen sharing, hoping you’re bandwidth is going to be good enough, and just a lot of extra work… for what has become a much smaller audience as the bulk of our regulars prefer to be in person and are just waiting it out.
This hasn’t stopped socials however as we’ve caught up with people a few times online and even done some gaming… unfortunately no chance of having a drink together!
However! It’s customary to have an end of year workshop, so we’ve done another one online again (just like last year) as there isn’t really a specific presentation anyway, so no work really goes to waste if not many people can join. As usual it is sort of like a social, but with a bit of structure as we try to look back on the year, do some planning for the next year of the LUG, and generally get feedback (and if was in person, it would have been in the normal room, rather than down the pub!).
Given everyone who wanted to attend was OK with using Discord, we were a little lazy this time and just used that rather than breaking out the Jitsi server!
This little screenshot shows things as they were just beginning and people joining, as it’s just good judgement not to publish peoples conversations online!
A fair bit of planning was done to dust off some of the events that we’ve had on hold for a while and refresh them ready for the new year of 2022. Hopefully this winter lock down won’t run on forever, but it’s also going to be up to the company that runs the room we use, to tell us when they’re happy for guests to be back on their premises.
Got a few ideas on what people will be wanting for Christmas, obviously a lot of people were eager to get a Steam Deck but it seems like they won’t quite be ready for Christmas!
Shared some tech stories from over the last year, possibly some muffled noises of someone eating a mince pie, that was it really.
Stay tuned for events in 2022!
