When Computer Weekly announced that it would be giving away free
drinks, ITers flocked to the venue with the intention of having a
good time - and that is exactly what they did, writes Nathalie
Towner
The occasion was Thirst Thursday, Computer Weekly's networking
event for IT professionals. The idea of the evening was to give
people in the industry an opportunity to meet in an informal
environment, have some free drinks, tell us what they would like to
see in the paper, and perhaps even find a new job.
This month the venue was the First & Last pub in the heart of
the City of London.
The event attracted a good mix of ITers from a variety of sectors,
with the public sector particularly well represented. Internet
consultants, network analysts and IT managers mingled with
technical support staff, helpdesk administrators and project
managers, and by 8pm the room was buzzing with the gossip of almost
100 IT professionals.
It was good to see some familiar faces from previous Thirst
Thursdays, many of whom brought along colleagues new to the event.
Some even tried to bring their whole department - ITers from Bupa
and the Corporation of London turned up in large numbers and
succeeded in upping the noise level by quite a few decibels.
Thanks to the generosity of recruitment specialist tmp.apex, which
sponsored the night's festivities, there were two magnums of
champagne to be won during the course of the evening. Sally Morales
from Bupa nabbed the first in a free prize draw and merrily
staggered away with her weighty prize.
The second magnum was reserved for the winners of the infamous
Thirst Thursday quiz. As usual, quizmaster Martin Couzins had to
struggle to make himself heard above the music, the groans from the
crowd and the complaints that the questions were about IT.
After desperate attempts to get questions repeated, assorted
cheating, collusion and gamesmanship, the bubbly was eventually won
by a motley crew of IT's finest who had clearly been making liberal
use of the bar all night.
Lager was the favourite drink of the evening, with Grolsch the top
tipple, followed by Budweiser. For the first time since 2000,
Smirnoff Ice failed to make it onto our booze graph (below), with
only 10 bottles quaffed. However, Red Bull squeezed into the top
five, ensuring that there wasn't a sleepy ITer in sight.