On a beautiful day in March 2025 the Dogsbody team left their desks for an Army Leadership Challenge Day, made possible by our Armed Forces Covenant.

Based at Longmoor Training Camp, we took part in a number of mental and physical military tasks facilitated by soldiers, from various corps within the army, including the army reserves. We learnt about the wide range of army roles and career opportunities the army offers including what is involved in being an army reserve.

Our day started with foraging – being shown what is useful and edible in the forest – pine needles and gorse flowers are an interesting flavour.

Then we moved to camouflage and concealment – and yes this did involve camo’ cream. It was incredible how hard it was a spot trained and untrained (us) professional who were hiding in plan sight. You can cover yourself in bracken for extra ‘hiding’ points and even put it inside your clothes for warmth…..but be warned you will find it everywhere when you finally get changed!

Observation was next, searching out 10 items, in a hide, from a distance with binoculars – we all missed the army reservist in the ghillie suit!

To finish the morning with my personal favourite – Royal Army Physical Training Corps, learning some of the physical tests recruits need to pass.

Lunch was actual army operational rations which were actually pretty nice! The heating method was interesting as army rations no longer requires an open fire.

Our afternoon kicked off with casualty evacuation. Learning about life in the medical corp and then learning how to apply a tourniquet correctly before having a head to head speed round.

Next was infantry, learning about life on the front line and tactical manoeuvre before giving it a go ourselves with paint balling and wooden targets.

Finally we learnt from the Army Air Corps and vehicle recovery, testing our communication skills and team work.

It was certainly a different day from sitting at a desk for 7 hours and it was lovely to get some vitamin D and meet fellow companies.

We highly suggest everyone find out more about joining the reserves and encourage the company to sign the Armed Forces Covenant as we have.

Every two years since 2014 employees from Dogsbody Technology have decamped to a field to attend Electromagnetic Field (EMF Camp).

And this time we brought……..broom handles?!?!

But more on that later..

Now settled in Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire, Electromagnetic Field is “Glastonbury for Geeks” (but it is so much more than that)! Featuring super fast 40 Gb/s symmetrical internet connection and power to your tent –  it is a special and unique event which you have to experience to understand!

Its not all tech – there was also a crochet workshop, blacksmithing, balloon animal making, lock picking and much more! Even the infrastructure is unique with it’s own wired telephony and postal system! Thousands of phone calls were made and people went old school sending 4000 postcards to villages across the event.

 

To achieve the 40 gigabyte internet connection to the field EMF camp now owns a 61 km piece of fibre that runs all the way from Eastnor to Gloucester – its really is absurd – and that is your introduction to exactly what EMF Camp is!

2024 was a monster year for EMF with 3 times more talks, workshops and installations submitted than any other year and 114 villages across the site.

• 129 Talks
• 54 Workshops
• 95 Installations
• 220 events in villages

It would take 12 continuous days to watch all the talks and attend all the workshops.

EMF Camp is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, for fun, including the attendees. 1200 attendees volunteered over 142 person days across 1500 shifts over 3 days! A record number of volunteers shifts where filled. Staff from Dogsbody volunteered their time to help with various jobs including, bar work, audio and visual roles for all the amazing talks and admin roles. If this wasn’t enough EMF also raised £3000 for charity at the Swap Shop – A place for old tech, books, LED panels and more to find a new home for a donation to charity.

Sustainability was very much in focus this year, and whilst unfortunately battery technology isn’t advance enough yet to power the site (diesel generators are the only thing that cut it) there were a number of changes this year including re-usable pint and half-pint cups. Amazingly achieving a return rate of just over 95%, which according to their supplier is “unprecedented”……Like we say EMF Camp is a special place!

Every year the ‘Badge’ is a highlight – usually included in the ticket price, this year, to be more sustainable and stop waste, they charged separately for the badge and made this the badge for future EMF Camps. Future events will add bits, swap bits or provide upgrades hopefully leading to less waste for all.

Finally this year they had a food bank collection at the end of event for non perishable goods which was just a awesome idea.

Now…..remember those Broom handles….This year was also special for Dogsbody. For the first time we actually planned ahead and on the first, very late night, built a 3v 5/8 Geodesic Dome, 6m in diameter and 3.5m high! This was constructed with the Dome kit from Build With Hubs using 165 broom handles of three different lengths totalling over 181 metres.

Want to experience a piece of EMF Camp – 90% of talks are recorded and can be found here. You can also see past years talks.

EMF Camp is a non profit, volunteer run event/festival run every two years, that rely heavily on sponsorship. EMF Camp 2024 only had 38% of the sponsorship they had in 2022. On the first day of the event 43 UK festivals had already gone bankrupt/shut down in 2024 and it was only May!

If you think you or your company can help sponsor EMF Camp 2026 or if you think you have some skills you will be wiling to share to help organise the event please email contact@emfcamp.org.

EMF Camp 2024, as always, was an absolute blast. Thank you to all the organisers, sponsors and volunteers for making it one of the highlights of 2024.

EMF will return in 2026. You can  subscribe to their mailing list to be notified when it is announced.