Downloads

The branch flyer is available from this link, please feel free to print it off and place on your company notice board, etc.

Follow us on twitter - @BCSCoventry .

Events

Past events available here or from "Seasons past" on the left.

The IET and BCS have gathered together all known IT events in the Midlands at www.midlandsit.net, please feel free to check these out and attend any you may find interesting or useful.

Did I mention that all our open meetings are open?  

Branch Events

All events are free (in the unlikely event they are not we will let you know up front) and booking is only essential where we ask you to prebook, e.g. for the Christmas Lecture. A booking link will then be provided by the event.  

Virtual Appliances - Just Fashion or Real Business and Architectural value?

Date	Wednesday 15 May 2013
Time	19:00 - refreshments from 18:30
Speaker	Bharat Bhushan - Principal Connectivity Architect www-01.ibm.com/software/uk/
Location	EC 1-12 - Coventry University
Abstract	Over the past decade, a plethora of hardware and more recently virtual appliances have flooded the market performing specific functions across all 7 layers of the TCP/ IP stack. Are IT managers buying appliances just because they are fashionable gadgets or because they provide real value to the business or Enterprise Architecture? This session explores the history, trends and the value businesses have achieved from these appliances. Are these appliances living up to the hype and delivering real business value? What future do these appliances hold in our data centres and application architectures?.

Development of Safety Critical Software
Joint with IOM, IET IMechE & RAeS

Date	Thursday 13 Jun 2013
Time	19:00 - refreshments from 18:30
Speaker	Duncan Brown - Chief of Systems Capability, Aero Engine Controls, Rolls-Royce Fellow of High Integrity Software
Location	EC G-27 New Engineering and Computing Block - Coventry University
Abstract	Duncan Brown will describe the stages and discuss the key issues in the development of safety critical software for the control of jet engines for Rolls Royce. To book, please follow this link to the IET website http://www.theiet.org/events/local/175216.cfm

 
Alastair Graham-Bryce Memorial Lecture
Inspiring the Young to Engineering - Formula AGB
IMechE Joint with IET

Date	Wednesday 12 Jun 2013
Time	18:30 - refreshments from 18:00 ;THIS LECTURE IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL
Speaker	Bob Shanks - Chairman Imagineering Foundation imagineering.org.uk/
Location	IMechE 1 Birdcage Walk, London SW1H 9JJ
Abstract	Dr Alastair Graham-Bryce (AGB) spent his working career in consulting, but on retiring there was a new found love - encouraging children into engineering. Imagineering was the vehicle. Alastair not only contributed to establishing interventions that were likely to be effective in directing children towards technology and engineering, but also developed material to expand the impact on children. He actively went into classrooms to test his ideas, and was a strong advocate for effective intervention. The IMechE have created an annual Memorial lecture and award in the name of Alastair Graham Bryce and Bob Shanks is honoured to be invited to give the first lecture on 12 June 2013 at Birdcage Walk, Westminster. To book, please follow this link to the IMechE website http://www.imeche.org/events/L324
Downloads	Full details on the poster available from here; please distribute widely

Computing and ICT Teachers' Conference:
Inspiring Creativity and Innovation in
Classroom Teaching and Learning

Date	Thursday 27 Jun 2013
Time	09:00 - refreshments from 08:30 (please note, this will be a one-day conference)
Speaker	Coventry Branch Committee etc al. -
Location	EC 1-29 New Engineering and Computing Block - Coventry University
Abstract	Coventry Branch, Coventry University and the University of Warwick extend a warm invite to teachers using computers in their teaching from primary to sixth form, in the region around Coventry, IT technicians, careers teacher, school governors, anyone interested in Computing and ICT in schools, to atttend our conference dedicated to you. Please check out The dedicated web page

What we can really learn about Project Management and
Software Development from Agile and Waterfall methodologies

Date	Wednesday 20 Nov 2013
Time	19:00 - refreshments from 18:30
Speaker	Barry Evans - manager, coach, trainer and explorer into the creative mind www.TrousersOfReality.com
Location	EC 1-12 - To be confirmed.
Abstract	Was Agile a Trojan Horse full of consultants bearing gifts or a lifeboat to rescue foundering projects from going over the Waterfall of intransigent tradition? It often seems that methodology and management gurus survive by hammering the facts into submission and then leave those responsible for the practical implementation to do the same to projects and systems. Those vying for our attention exaggerate their own virtues and focus in minute detail on the weaknesses, relevant or not, of all other world views. This invariably means that the relevant facts and decision points are buried in a constant stream of misdirection and selective disinformation from every side. In this talk the author of "The Trousers of Reality", "Agile Exposed" and "The Ingenious Engine of Reality" looks at some of the lessons we should learn from the history of IT. He proposes that there are principles fundamental to management and software development that should be liberated from methodologies and treated as baseline skills. Barry was lured into the world of methodologies by SSADM almost 25 years ago. He was an early Agile adopter having met Kent Beck in the late 1990's and been impressed by the ideas behind eXtreme Programming. He was the Lead Agile coach for BT's Agile adoption between 2005 and 2007. He has worked in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Australia and Europe. He is also an NLP master practitioner and trainer and promises to teach his audience some useful and unconventional planning and estimation techniques during the course of this talk that they can take away and use.

Follow us on twitter - @BCSCoventry.