It’s geek festival season, down here in Brighton. First up is dConstruct, a one-day conference on the cutting edge of interface design and user engagement.

And then it’s good old BarCamp Brighton, now into its fourth incarnation. BarCamp, always a favourite, is a handmade 2-day conference, pulled together by its community of participants. Everyone gives a talk on something they feel (geekily) passionate about, and they bring sleeping bags to spend the night at the donated event space. This time, we’ll be moving into the old Music Library for the weekend.

Dharmafly is again a proud sponsor of BarCamp. I had in mind a fun little game to give away to the attendees, but not quite had the time to pull it off. Next time, next time. (And no more crunchy spirulina, like last time). See our BarCamp archive for more.

If you’re at either of these events, do roll up and say hi.

Update: At BarCamp, I gave a talk called “Indestructible JavaScript Widgets“, about the pitfalls and solutions when developing widgets to embed in third-party websites (like our widget for BBC World Service). No pretty slides, but my notes are at: dharmafly.com/bcb4.

This month, we’re taking great pleasure in helping out both the London and Brighton Twestivals on the 12th of February. We’re donating a mind-expanding, floaty prize to the London Twestival raffle, and we’re a main sponsor for the Brighton Twestival.

Why the sponsorship?

As ever, we’re interested in helping out with events that are run for the community and by the community. This time, we’re extra-enthused because the Twestivals also embody several other passions of ours:

1. We love gatherings where positive, chance meetings happen between like-minded people.
2. We want to support events in aid of charities (all proceeds help Charity:water‘s efforts to bring safe drinking water to the world).
3. We’re excited about events that have been enabled by social media (in this case, the ever-growing community on Twitter), where online communities create events in their very own neighbourhood.

What’s this about Twitterers floating?

At the London Twestival, one lucky raffle winner will win our prize of a year’s supply of float tank sessions.

Sometimes you need a rest from all the hubbub, wittering, twittering and chasing about. At London’s float centre, Floatopia, you’ll find a haven from the mad rush of life in a warm, relaxing, womb-like pool:

Whilst suspended in a dense Epsom salt solution, warmed to skin temperature, one soon gets the illusion of floating in air. The resulting sense of serenity and deep well-being will stay with you for days after your float.

(Warning: You may have to leave your iPhone outside).

Six months of the prize is courtesy of Dharmafly and this has been generously matched with another six months by Floatopia. You can read more about the benefits of floating on the Floatopia site or Wikipedia.

Happy Twestivals! We’d love to hear your experiences if you’re the winner of our floaty prize, and even if you aren’t, drop us a comment below and let us know how the Twestival went for you.

Update: Another prize – Green Hosting

We’re also now offering a prize of one year of our 100% renewable energy web hosting for the Brighton Twestival raffle. Best of luck, raffle peeps!