Ben’s USA Tour Dates

Today I fly to New York to start my Raspberry Pi USA Tour!

Thanks to everyone who submitted a request for me to speak for them while on my USA Tour. I’ve adjusted my route according to where most of the requests were located, and I’ve been organising dates with those who contacted me.

usa-final

I’m travelling from New York City to Salt Lake City over two weeks, stopping at a different town each day. Most days I’ll either be speaking at an event or going in to a school or other organisation. Most events will be open to the public. The dates and towns are as follows:

Tue 05 Aug – New York City, NY
Wed 06 Aug – Washington, DC
Thu 07 Aug – Raleigh, NC
Fri 08 Aug – Charlotte, NC
Sat 09 Aug – Greensboro, NC
Sun 10 Aug – Duluth, GE
Mon 11 Aug – Chattanooga, TN
Tue 12 Aug – Talladega, AL
Wed 13 Aug – Somerville, TN
Thu 14 Aug – Louisville, KY
Fri 15 Aug – St. Louis, MO
Sat 16 Aug – Kansas City, MO
Sun 17 Aug – Kearney, NE
Mon 18 Aug – Denver, CO
Tue 19 Aug – Rock Springs, WY
Wed 20 Aug – Salt Lake City, UT

See my tour page for the full list of events with details and links to sign up. The page will be updated as information comes in, so if I’m coming to a place near you, keep checking back for details.

If I’m passing through your area then come and see me speak or get in touch to see if we can meet up!

Liz adds: Ben is currently at the airport, where, according to Twitter, he is trying to be humorous by signing on to the WiFi network  as Edward Snowden. If we don’t get a call asking us to come and bail him out within the next couple of hours we’ll assume he made it onto his plane.

33 comments

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Or he will be on a no fly list :)

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Perhaps they won’t let him come home. (He’d look GREAT in an orange jumpsuit.)

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Hmm… I seem to remember reading about a prison in the US where they are moving away from those orange jumpsuits, since they were considered to “sexy”…

Would black and white stripes work for him? ;)

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The plane is about 300 miles into the flight so if you haven’t heard from him requesting a lawyer i think it’s safe to assume he’s on it

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Yes, he’s on a plane .. just not the one he expected
.. John O.

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Nebraska is NE not NB :)

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Thanks, fixed.

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Sounds like an exhausting tour – still he is young.

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Rock Springs, Wyoming ?!?

It’s not the middle of nowhere. But it is the last truck stop before you get there. :o)

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On his way out of Rock Springs on his way to Salt Lake, he needs to stop at Little America for an ice cream cone. We used to stop there all the time when I was a kid. 10¢ then, I think they’re 50¢ now. But they are the size of your head.

Ice cream, American Style :o)

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Ben has a large and ornate head. It is possible that therefore, this ice cream will not live up to expectations, but I will make sure he checks it out. ;)

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Are the Rolling Stones going to be the opening act for your 2014 Tour?

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Please. It’s OBVIOUSLY got to be Don McLean.

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Oh dear, now look what you’ve made me go and do Liz ;-)

A long long time ago
I can still remember how those rumours used to make me smile
A twenty-five dollar SBC
Designed for everyone – you and me
We simply had to be patient for a while

But February (2012) made me quiver
With every Pi that got delivered
Great news on the homepage
The Pi had become all the rage!

I can’t remember if I cried
When I saw the Farnell website had died
But something touched me deep inside
The day I Raspberry Pied

So hi-hi to the Raspberry Pi
All the sales numbers went shooting up through the sky
And the Farnell and RS sites were slowly revived
Singin this’ll be the Raspberry Pi
This’ll be the Raspberry Pi

Did you patch the code of Linux
And did you write the kernel tricks
Eben Upton made it so
Now do you believe in Open Source
It’s all GPL-licensed of course
And can you teach me how to compile real slow?

Well I know that you’ve got a Pibow Case
Cause I saw that multi-colour grin on your face
You plugged in your USB mouse
And your USB keyboard too

I was a lonely teenage hacker geek
With a wireless router that didn’t leak
But I knew that I had hit the peak
The day I Raspberry Pied

I started singin hi-hi to the Raspberry Pi
All the sales numbers went shooting up through the sky
And the Farnell and RS sites were slowly revived
Singin this’ll be the Raspberry Pi
This’ll be the Raspberry Pi

Now for two years they’ve been growing strong
I can’t believe it’s only been that long
But that’s not how it used to be
When they filmed a video for Rory’s blog
Which turned out to be a bandwidth hog
They knew they’d have to face a bit of an uphill slog

Oh and while the internet was looking down
Pete was concentrating with a frown
He optimised the design
Into something really fine!

And while people read about the power quirk
The Chinese factory got to work
And some people on the forums lurk
The day I Raspberry Pied

We were singin hi-hi to the Raspberry Pi
All the sales numbers went shooting up through the sky
And the Farnell and RS sites were slowly revived
Singin this’ll be the Raspberry Pi
This’ll be the Raspberry Pi

Then the Model B was joined by the Model A
I’ll have to finish this off some other day…

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Reading that got me wondering whether American Pi(e) or Macarthur Park is longer and more maundering. Amazingly, American Pie wins.

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Andrew,

Your lyrics are very clever.
However, you’ve got too much time on your hands.

LOL !!!!

Patrick

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Will Ben have any Raspberry Pi Swag to sell? :)

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Not to sell, but I’ll be handing out free stickers!

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Awesome. I can’t wait.

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-How about a Costa Rica Tour 2014?

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*A long, long time ago,I can still remember how that Turtle used to make me smile…*

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?? what the dell? I’m in NYC. Too late now. I guess I’ll miss it.

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According to http://www.raspberrypi.org/ben/usa-tour/ it was a “closed visit” in NYC anyway. Maybe you’ll be able to track down Ben this evening using Twitter? ;)

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We’re back in NYC in September for Maker Faire (which is why Ben’s not hanging around there this time round) – come and see us then!

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alright I may go to makerfair. taking my sons.

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I’d really like to attend the event in Duluth, GA. at “Wallyware”.

You’re going to NOT get a lot of attendees if you can’t clear this up quickly, as no one nor any search engine I’ve tried knows anything about a “Wallyware” in Duluth, GA.

Perhaps you mean ‘Walmart’, which we fondly refer to as “Wallyworld”? Which Walmart? There are several in and around Duluth.

Also hope you’re going to start posting presentation hours.

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WallyWare is a small, privately held, yet wildly successful corporation located in Duluth, GA. A small reception was held for Ben that included the President, the two surviving Beatles, and an unidentified Kardashian. We dined on escargot, caviar, and unicorn steaks while washing it down with 50 year old scotch. During dinner, Robert Downey Jr. entertained the guests with select readings from the screenplay of Less than Zero. Sadly, I don’t recall seeing a “John Colt” on the invite list.

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If it’s going to be at Wallyworld (which one?), please be sure to specify whether it will be held in the produce department, the bakery department, or the electronics department.
I would hold out for the electronics department, as the traffic there has been near zero ever since their offerings have consisted only of Win8 machines and GoofybooksChromebooks. AND…
if you manage to sell eighteen RPi s, Wallyworld will likely have exceeded their total computer sales since last December.

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“Goofybooks” was supposed to have been “striked”. I thought your comments section understood basic HTML. My fault; NOW I see you use . Woops.

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Ben, where exactly will you be in Chattanooga? I have a nephew in chattanooga that wants to get started using the Pi and this would be the perfect opportunity for him to get some exposure.

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The linked tour page says:
Red Bank Middle School, Chattanooga, TN (closed talk)

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Curious as to why we never heard back from you. We were hoping you’d drop by for a visit. (TinkerMill, largest hackerspace/makerspace in Colorado).

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Ben had HUNDREDS of requests for visits, and hasn’t been able to reply to everybody, I’m afraid.

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