Electromagnetic Field 2016 – An Amazing Weekend

This weekend we attended Electromagnetic Field (EMF) in Guildford. EMF is all about making things, breaking things, fixing them again, and learning a whole lot of stuff whilst you’re doing it, either directly through your hacking and experimentation, or via any of the fantastic talks and workshops, of which there were many.

We headed to EMF on Friday, which started as any normal day at the office; arrive at 9am, sort your tickets and have a cup of tea.

With the everyday stuff in order, it was time to head to EMF. This was my first time at EMF, and I must say it was AWESOME! Some of my colleagues had been before and told me great things, but I didn’t realise it was going to meet, and beat, my expectations so swiftly and so completely.

I was not completely sure what to expect, but as soon as I arrived at the site, you could really feel the excitement, with people looking forward to what was to be an awesome weekend. Everybody at EMF was very friendly, and everybody was there for the same reason; to learn and have fun. We got our (awesome) camp set up and said hello to the neighbours.

The Dogsbody Technology camp site at EMF 2016

The variety of topics and talks was endless, from balloons to beer, and from security to sex robots, there really was something for everyone!

One of my favourite talks was from freakyclown who makes his living gaining access to various establishments and businesses in order to test their security. He explained how with nothing more than a hi-vis, a clip-board and a lot of confidence, you could work your way into some seriously secure places. It was actually a bit frightening to hear just how easy it is to breach certain security measures. A very well-prepared and well-presented talk, providing awesome insight into what is otherwise a fairly secretive (with good reason) industry. It also looks like freakyclown enjoyed giving his talk as much as we loved watching it.

Thank you everyone that attended my talk #emfcamp @emfcamp was such a lovely reception from the audience

— freakyclown (@__Freakyclown__) August 6, 2016

Another talk that caught, and held, my interest was WhiteSpace by Beth Healey. The talk consisted of Beth telling us about her long stint at Concordia, one of the most remote and hostile locations on the planet, where she carried out research and experiments. Although amazing in itself, the data gathered on Beth and her colleagues during their time at Concordia would later be used by ESA and NASA to see how people coped in the extreme conditions, which will help them when we finally get around to sending people on a very long, manned missions to other planets in our solar system. Very exciting stuff!

Great vibe at @emfcamp and interesting questions from the audience – thanks for having me pic.twitter.com/grZ0tcddZs

— Beth Healey (@Bethahealey) August 6, 2016

Now I could talk literally all day about all of the fantastic things we did, people we met, and contraptions we created, but as the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words. So here’s some of our favourite snaps from the weekend. Please leave some comments below and share your thoughts if you went along to EMF, we’d love to hear what you got up to! We will also be updating this blog post with links to slides and videos from the talks when they become available, so do check back.

Sadly EMF is only on every two years, but it will be back in 2018, and I’m sure the Dogsbody Technology team will again be in attendance. See you there!