Urbanista Synopsis: WomWorld Meetup

There will be a few more posts in wrap-up mode related to my participation (now concluded) in the Nokia Urbanista Diaries and things I did along the way. But this one is particularly pertinent.

In London the WomWorld outfit (WOM standing for World of Mobile), organizers of the manpower behind the Urbanista project, scheduled a meetup for all their mobile device enthusiasts and beta/trail participants in the London area. They brought lots of the nseries devices for people to play with, including several more of the Nokia N82, the phone/camera I had been logging and documenting my whole journey with.

Here is a fellow meetup attendee performing the classic "over the head crowd/event portrait" shot. Exactly the same thing I was doing when I took his picture.



But really, in classic British form, the whole event was a chance to talk, socialize, and of course, drink. Which, combined with the other activity planned for the evening, THROWING CAMERAS, makes for some amusing situations. Not really a full blown workshop like my last effort in Italy, but more of an informal demo followed by LOTS of impromptu participation. Organizers brought some rope lights and "fairy lights" (which I learned is what they call "christmas lights" in England) and some soft surfaces for cameras to land on. Just about everyone had a go at it and the best results were emailed to WOMWorld, where the staff picked their favorite.

Their winner was Abul Hussain, who took this photo in his first evening of camera tossing using his camera phone (a nokia for sure, but not sure which one):


Photo by Abul Hussain, 2008
at the WOMWorld Meetup at The Crown, London on March 5th

There was a good turn out to the event, and although I had to leave early to rest up for another full day in London, the party went on into the late hours. Here is another view of the scene at The Crown. Not a great shot but does demonstrate the powerful punch of the zenon flash on the N82.



I actually wish I had more of the camera toss results from everyone that evening to share. If you were there and reading this, head over to the flickr group and stick them in the pool or discussion threads.