More pictures of the event

Andy Jones and Harry Broome survey their accomodation for the night.

Andy Jones, Pete Clark and Claire Glynn attempt to rain proof Pete's bed for the night whilst everyone else stands by.

We did it 3!

Some of the chill was taken out of the cold October night with our own wood burning stove provided by Mike Blakeley of Chimfix, the Wood Heating Company. Mike also provided us with logs which kept us going through the night.

Is Andrew Fisk of Tagish looking for somewhere to plug in his electric blanket?

We did it 2!

The Fishermans Lodge provided us with a hearty meal to keep us going in our efforts. Jocelyn Maxfield owner of the Fishermans Lodge who also slept rough with us is pictured (right) with Claire Glynn and Pete Clark. Can you see the spooky spectre on the left of this photo, did we have an additional uninvited guest at our sleep out in aid of Byte Night on Halloween?

I certainly seem to have been spooked by something!

We did it!

Well we did it, we spent last night under the stars, literally. There were only a few stars in the sky but there were 13 stars in the grounds of The Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene. Shortly after midnight on the spookiest night of the year we retired to our "luxury" accomodation outside of The Fishermans Lodge. After a very cold week the temperature was not too bad to start with and we all thought this was going to be easier than we first thought.

For the first couple of hours we talked and enjoyed a couple of warming brews around our camp fire. Pete Clark of Bond and Claire Glynn of Atomic Web Solutions get into the spirit with the spirits on Halloween (left). Claire Jerrard of Sage enjoys a cuppa (perhaps with a drop of brandy Claire?)
It was all in aid of Action for Children and 2 brave souls from the charity braved the elements with us. Currently our efforts have raised over £3000 and we are well on our way to £4000. We would all like to thank everyone who has supported us so far, however if you would still like to sponsor us please click the following link and go to the page of the person or team you would like to support. http://www.justgiving.com/event/190924

More pictures to follow shortly, please visit again soon to share our experience.

Only 2 days to go!

There are only 2 days to go now until Byte Night. Isn't it great that the British weather has decided to turn really cold as well this week! With temperatures dropping below zero over night I thought it was worth putting together a little checklist of what we need to bring on friday night.

• Very warm clothes! One guy from here suggested to me that he was going to bring his skiing clothes and I think thats a great idea as they will keep you warm.
• Something to keep you off the ground. As the temperatures drop the ground will be very cold so anything to keep you off it would make sense, a deck chair, foldable camp bed anything like that will do.
• A flask with a hot drink or any other drinks that keep you warm! However please bear in mind there are no toilet facilities after midnight.
• A hat
• Some of those hand warmers that last for a couple of hours may come in useful.
• Steven Willis is kindly bringing some torches.
• Action for Children are supplying some water proof bags for your sleeping bag and some Virgin survival bags. They also have some umbrellas just in case.
• Andrew Fisk is going to bring a camping stove to brew up just in case.
• Chimfix are also supplying us with a wood burning stove for the night which will help to keep us warm. However Action for Children rightly pointed out that we need to ensure that no sleeping bags are too close to the fire etc.
• You may also want to bring your own personal entertainment, ipod etc.
• Stories - bring some ghost stories along to keep us all entertained!
• If all else fails - a sense of humour!

A warm meal will be provided before midnight and the bar is open to buy drinks.
If your partner/children etc are coming along to support you before midnight that is fine but please let me know so that I can advise Jocelyn of numbers for catering.

I think it is also worth remembering why we are doing this and that is to raise money for Action for Children. Now is the time to put that final effort in to raise some sponsorship. This is something thats really different from the sponsored walk or run and should attract plenty of support from your friends, family, customers, suppliers, people in the pub, neighbours etc. If you have not already done so please send out an email to everyone you know and make that final push to raise some money.

We also hope to get some PR on this in the papers next week too, I am going to bring a camera and a video camera so we can get some photos on the blog and I am sure our PR company will be able to get us in the papers too. As we are the first to do this in the North East I will make sure that everyone is aware of who we are and how brave you all are!

Finally I know the temperature is dropping and you may be worried as we approach friday but remember its a maximum of 8 hours in your life that you will be perhaps a little uncomfortable for and it is one of those experiences that you will look back on with pride that you were the first to do it in the North East. Well done everyone for taking part and good luck and stay warm!

Tagish "tag on" one more

Andrew Fisk from Tagish will be joined by colleague Chris Johnson on friday at Byte Night. If you would like to sponsor Andrew or Chris please click this link http://www.justgiving.com/andrew_tagish

Jocelyn Maxfield says "yes" to Byte Night

Our latest recruit is Jocelyn Maxfield. Jocelyn has decided to not only host the event at the Fishermans Lodge but she is also going to sleep rough with the rest of us. She said "I must be bonkers, but it is a fantastic cause so I had to join in"

Harry Broome hopes to "sweep" up some sponsorship

Harry Broome of RWE is the latest recruit to Byte Night.

Claire Glynn gets some practice in!

Had a bit of practice staying up all night earlier this week!

Was flying back from Turkey on a ‘night flight’ so no sleep and quite uncomfortable - although warm, to warm if anything.

Anyway landed into Newcastle airport at 6am, taxi waiting and back home and into bed by 7am. Straight to sleep feeling really comfy and cosy in my own bed only to wake up an hour later as the drilling started …….. and continued all day!!!

Our neighbours had decided to get their drive done! Oh no!!! If only I had told them we were going away and when we’d be back!

Anyway all good practice for sleeping rough in aid of Byte Night on Halloween I thought!

http://www.atomicwebsolutions.com/

Claire

To sponsor Claire click here.

Shared Interest show more interest

Andy Jones from Shared Interest is joining Steven Willis in the sleep out planned for this halloween. Welcome on board Andy.

To sponsor Andy or Steve click here to go to their Just Giving page.

Chimfix help to keep us warm

Mike Blakeley of Cramlington based Chimfix kindly offered us the use of a wood burning stove to help keep us warm on our sleep out for North East Byte Night. Chimfix the Wood Heating Company, have been a customer of ours for over a year and the offer has gone down very well with the sleepers, thanks very much Mike!

Sage join in the fun!

North East software giant Sage have agreed to join our intrepid team of sleepers on Halloween. Claire Jerrard a member of the senior management team at Sage is going to brave the elements this halloween in aid of Byte Night.

To sponsor Claire click here to visit her Just Giving page.

Steven Willis of Shared Interest joins in

Steven Willis has agreed to join us for Byte Night at the Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene this halloween. Steven is from Shared Interest.

Aaron Matheson from Increase Computers increases our number

Aaron Matheson from Increase Computers in Gateshead has agreed to join us in our efforts to raise cash for Action for Children on the North East Byte Night sleep out on halloween.

To sponsor Aaron click here

Andrew Fisk from Tagish makes it four!

Andrew Fisk from Alnwick based Tagish brings our number to four.

Claire Glynn joins us

Claire Glynn is joining us on Halloween to sleep out in aid of Action for Children. Claire from South Tyneside based Atomic Web Solutions became the first company to join Bond in their sleep out plans in aid of Byte Night which will take place at the Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene on 31st October 2008.

How do I get Involved?

If you would like to join us on 31st October at The Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene please click here for your Sleeper Pack. we will send you all the information you need about the event and how to get started raising some money for this great cause. We look forward to seeing you at the North East Byte Night.

Sponsorship

If you would like to sponsor us please click here and then click on the link to the page of the person you would like to support.

Our First Sleeper

Derek Curtis and Pete Clark from Bond Solutions in Sunderland are kicking things off. We hope to be joined by around 20 other brave souls on Halloween.

What is North East Byte Night?

Welcome to our Blog. On 31st October 2008 around 20 IT professionals from North East companies are going to sleep rough in aid of Action for Children. This event has taken place in London for the past 10 years and has raised millions for the charity in that time. For the first time it has been opened up to regional events and our event will take place in the grounds of The Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle. Thanks go to Tom and Jocelyn Maxfield for allowing us to use the Lodge and also for providing us with a hearty "last supper" on the night to warm us up.

North East Byte Night is the brain child of Kari Owers of O Communications and Derek Curtis of Bond Solutions

Please visit the blog regularly to see who else has signed up for the event.