The promise of free drink and good company had ITers flocking to a
London pub to enjoy another Thirst Thursday on 4 July, writes
Nathalie Towner.
Miraculously the rain held off for the evening, and everyone made
the most of it by stepping out onto the balcony of the Doggetts
Coat and Badge pub by Blackfriars Bridge, where they were able to
enjoy views of the Thames and
St Paul's Cathedral.
Some people travelled considerable distances to get to Computer
Weekly's informal IT industry networking event. Applications
developer Royston Waddington and two fellow ITers came all the way
from Oxford.
Most had rushed straight from work in central London and by 7.30pm
the balcony had nearly 100 IT professionals exchanging views and
sipping beer. Some were on a job-hunting mission and quickly
tracked down the recruitment consultants from event sponsor TMP
Worldwide for a chat.
However, the majority were focusing all their energy on the free
bar. The event attracted plenty of new faces, along with hardcore
regulars such as IT staff from the Corporation of London. The whole
IT community was represented, with Java developers, IT consultants,
systems analysts, Citrix contractors, IT managers and software
engineers all mingling together.
Lager was the evening's drink of choice. The bar tab shows that
Becks, Carlsberg and Stella Artois were the most popular drinks of
the night.
But it wasn't all about drink. The Thirst Thursday quiz challenged
the intellect of the assembled IT boffins, and some were seen to
phone a friend for answers to the toughest questions. It was a
struggle to get all the forms in after the allotted 10 minutes and
some had to be forcibly wrested from struggling teams.
As usual, quiz master Martin Couzins was in danger of losing his
voice as he shouted out the answers to a mixture of groans and
cheers. Only a couple of teams were able to recall how many goals
England scored in the 1998 France World Cup, with most
underestimating the correct total of seven. The contest was won by
the Norfolk and Chance team, whose members promptly sprayed their
prize bottle of bubbly in a manner worthy of any grand prix
winner.
Who paid for the drinks?
Thirst Thursday was sponsored
by TMP Worldwide, a new IT recruitment consultancy created by the
merger of TMP Worldwide and Apex. The organisation provides
specialist local expertise, knowledge across all sectors, global
resources and complete IT recruitment solutions. More at
http://er.monster.co.uk.