GeekFest Jeddah:

Put all those humanoids together at an underground dump, where they sweat and swat over communal contact with the more banal class of society, and what do you get? A GeekFest, of course! And for good measure, just add a few watts of cerebral circuit and lots of obscure jargon (read what I mean??).
GeekFest is their “little get-together”, organized the world over — a celebration of the geek packs, nerd camps and those pledging their loyalties somewhere in between.
GeekFest have unique event constructs of their own, specific to each city or country, but share uniformity in their gathering of individuals who possess a developed interest in the field of science, innovation, technology or arts.
Most commonly, GeekFest-goers “dig” the latest technological gadgets, understand the techno-manic market and surely have an opinion on it, in addition to having a massive impact on online forums (who else do you think chunks out those long blogs reviewing Call of Duty, dishing out free advice on how to dodge Apple update hurdles and oh, let’s not forget the babbling on the best Android that rocks and why you should buy it!)
GeekFest is an informal, “unorganized” (yup! That’s what they called it?) networking event that attracts a crowd of techno-savvy enthusiasts.
Our very own Jeddah city organized their second GeekFest event recently on April. Yeah, more power to the geeks!
The GeekFest Jeddah concept, an offshoot of the original GeekFest Dubai format, has had similar replications throughout the MENA region, hosting a schedule of GeekTalks, ArtStuff, GameFest and TechnoCases at their event nights.
In keeping with the segregational norms of the Islamic faith, male and female dorks had to obligingly comply. Tashkeil — a Middle-East creative network platform in the field of art, design, architecture and culture — hosted the female attendees as part of their corporate social responsibility, while Fab Lab Arabia entertained the males.
“There are many intelligent and creative people that would not have had the opportunity to meet like-minded people otherwise. We are honored to host GeekFest to be able to provide them with a venue to network and share their ideas and expertise”, said Yolanda Perez, partner at Tashkeil.
“It is a great way to bring developers, bloggers, social media and online enthusiasts together in an offline social event”, she added.
GeekTalks is the time when the nerds gab off on the most wondrous topics they know better than anyone else. GeekFest nominated four guests from diverse backgrounds to engage the anticipating crowds: Sofana Dahlan (Tashkeil CEO), Dania Al-Hamrani (EggDancer Productions CEO), Eric Martin (KAUST VentureLab Manager) and Mohammed Tayeb (FabLab Manager).
“It was a great event and it was nice to see different personalities with impressive backgrounds getting together. The Saudi entrepreneurship system needs more people with unique passions to pursue start-ups and new businesses”, said Eric Martin.
While ArtStuff encouraged exhibitions of new, chosen artistic talents in town, GameFest brought hard-core gamers together to try the latest offering of virtual play-offs available in the market.
In keeping with the true spirit of these techno-manics, TechnoCases — a slot dedicated to technological companies — allows them an opportunity to market their latest gadgets to their target audience.
If you are already a geek/nerd or are looking at becoming one, then follow the twitter handle GeekFestJeddah to join their next event. For more information, visit: http://www.geekfestjed.com/