One speaker, a couple of pizzas, a few pints and plenty of great minds.

The first Refresh Teesside meet-up was held last night (Thursday 2nd April) and I am pleased to report it was a great success. I would like to thank everyone for coming and making it a first event to remember. We had a great turn out with people from Barnsley and Newcastle coming to see what all the fuss was about.

The meet-up was kicked off with a brief introduction and welcome then a presentation from Craig Rothwell from the OpenPandora Project.

The Pandora is a unique machine. It was designed based on the input of thousands of forum users with one goal in mind – to make the ultimate open source handheld device. Craig also brought a fully working prototype and also a cardboard cut-out of his original idea. More information can be found at www.openpandora.org

We then took a natural break as the pizzas arrived and people asked Craig questions and took the time to get to know each other, putting faces to names which was one of the core reasons Refresh Teesside was started. Once we found out who everyone was we moved to the pub to carry on the informal style the Refresh meet-up events will follow.

The event has already had some great feedback and the response in the twittersphere (#RFTees) has been great. twitter.com/refreshteesside

Planning now starts for the next meet-up so keep your eyes on the website www.refreshteesside.org and please spread the word.