Nerd Nite Austin

I attended (and presented during) Nerd Nite in Madison, WI many times. This was my first Austin Nerd Nite experience.
As other Unilocaler’s have mentioned, arrive early! 15 – 30 minutes beforehand and you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a seat. Great presenters, fun crowd. Depending on where you sit, it may be difficult to see the bottom portion of the projected presentation.
Fun, information, and free!!! Highly recommended.

Imagine if TED Talks and an Irish Pub had a love child… you’d have Nerd Nite. Lots of interesting information in a fun atmosphere with plenty of booze to give you the courage to talk to that red head with a PhD and two full sleaves of tats.
The topics constantly change so you may get lucky and hit something you are really interested in or you may learn something that you didn’t even know you want to know. Either way, it is a good time and totally worth trying out. Word of caution though… GET THERE EARLY because by 7pm it is packed tighter than illegally harvested asian tuna in there.

This is truly nerdy. Not pretty girls wearing glasses and posting selfies with #nerd to try and convince the world they’re smart. but legitimately nerdy. And I dig it! It’s nice to participate in something cerebral for a change.
If you’re down to get nerdy with it, here are my protips for maximizing your time:
– Get there early. It’s packed and you’ll want a chair for these lectures.
– Carefully peruse the topics before committing. They’re going to dig pretty deep. Not every nerd night is going to be for you
– There’s a bar! And specials! Take cash to get out of there more quickly.
– Eat before. There’s pizza at the North door but it’s a small kitchen
– Make plans for post-​nerd because you’ll want to keep drinking and digest the information with your buds.
Had college been like this (lectures with drinks and humor and fun) I can guess that more people would have actually learned… and enjoyed it.

This month it was held at Central Market and it was my first time attending. The topics were about a new super telescope, dark matter and the perception of time and were presented by astrophysicists. The Dark matter stuff was way over my head and from where I was sitting I couldn’t see the presentation with any of the slides about the telescope talk, so that was kind of lost on me too. The perception of time speech was fairly interesting however. I like the idea of the event, but may just enjoy some other topics a bit more and would attend again.

Super-​fun way to learn about all sorts of things. How is sake made? Why do we lie? The evolution of Austin traffic. Bizarre linguistic rules. Robots!
It’s a great way to diversify oneself and meet some neat people!

I am not a hipster, but I must say that every time I come to Nerd Nite, everybody in the audience looks hipster-​hawt!

Always a good time! It can get a little loud now that some people seem to be showing up just to talk loudly through the presentations?

It is like Ignite but longer. It is like TED but more open. It is like the Discovery Channel with beer! Nerds gather on the first Thursday of the month to drink and hear their fellow nerds speak. There are three speakers on a given night with topics ranging from film, history, science, music, robots, and of course sex. Anyone can volunteer to speak on their favorite topic, and it is completely free to attend. Plus there is free billiards afterwords!
This month is a sexy themed nite for Valentines Day. It promises to be a hot one.

Nerd Nite originated in New York and has since come to Austin.
Nerd Nite Austin is run by Dan Rumney and JC Dwyer and is held in the upstairs section of Buffalo Billiards on 6^th street.
If you’re interested in listening to great talks all while having a good pint or cocktail with friends, then you should definitely check this out! All of the presenters are local so you know there will be definitely some interesting people as well as the topic’s subject matter.
Nerd Nite in general has been featured in print and on the web by various media sources, and it is definitely progressing into one of the most happenin’ places for Nerds and those that are Nerd-​curious.
Go!