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Comment by aaronbasssett | Hacker News Reader

Scotland also a pretty active tech/meetup community. Living in Glasgow I'm mostly familiar with the ones which happen here, but if you're interested in tech startups or want to chat with some fellow geeks you should come along.

Some of my favs are RefreshGla, RookieOven, Techmeetup and Popup Hack (which I organise)

There are details and more events listed on http://glasgow2.com/

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Seconded, I organise Techmeetup and regularly visit Edinburgh Coffee Morning, Edinburgh Hacklab, Edinburgh Refresh and many others. I've just been helping others get 3 new meetups going (PHP, Android & Open Rights Group) so it's looking great in Edinburgh.

Don't let ppl tell you there is a Edinburgh vs Glasgow divide btw; it's only 50mins via trains that run late at night so it's easy to nip across for the evening.

Also check out http://opentechcalendar.co.uk/index.php - that has more Edinburgh events at the moment but it's very early days for this site and more are being added all the time. (Disclaimer: That's my project.)

Would have to disagree with you about the divide. To a lot of people (such as yourself) it's a non-issue however the majority are averse to travelling across the country (people in both cities). I can understand cost being a factor with it costing >£25 peak time to travel across the central belt.

The number of people from the capital who have attended RookieOven meetup at least once over the past year is appalling. I get the feeling it's the same for TechMeetup, Refresh, Popup Hack and more.

Cost is a factor, but if there's any way you catch the 4:30 train it drops to £12 which is much better. Or the bus has no peak time charge, but it takes longer.

I guess I'd just like more people to think about it. To many people go "Glasgow/Edinburgh, eww" and set up a false divide without even considering if it's possible to head across.

From what I've seen at Techmeetup (both Edinburgh & Glasgow) the number of travelers is small, but they are there.

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