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El Reg works with Byte Night to put techies out on the streets
Join tech luminaries and Jenny Agutter for a night on the tiles
The Register is partnering with Byte Night, the annual tech-heavy sleepout fundraiser for Action for Children, the UK charity which has been caring and sticking up for vulnerable young people for 150 years.
So, why don’t you sign up now if you want to do something for vulnerable young people, think you can rough it with the best of them, and fancy spending a pleasant evening, then a long chilly night, with stars of both tech and entertainment.
This year’s sleepout happens on 5 October, at 12 different locations up and down and right across the UK. And if you’re in tech and in Yorkshire, you can now join in the fun at the newest sleepout location, Leeds.
Here’s the deal. You head over to the Byte Night website, and register, either individually or as a team. You then have until the sleepout to raise as much cash as possible.
Now for the fun part – or the other fun part, as Action for Children have buckets of suggestions for how to go about your fundraising. On the night, you assemble with your sleeping bag and fellow fundraisers at your chosen location. There’ll be a cash bar, and hot food, as you get to mingle with your fellow techies and celebs, before bedding down for the night.
Then it’s an early start for a hot breakfast and swapping war stories with the person in the next sleeping bag, who could be BT’s CIO, a top Microsoft exec, or if you’re really lucky, a bona fide celeb like Logan’s Run and An American Werewolf in London star Jenny Agutter.
In fact, who better than Jenny to remind us exactly what Byte Night is really about.
“Half of all adults who are homeless first become so before the age of 21. One in five young people have had to sofa surf, one in six have slept rough,” she said at the launch of this year’s event earlier this week.
“One night can be uncomfortable, particularly if it’s cold and wet, but I can go home afterwards to a warm and comfortable home. Action for Children do such great work in stepping in early and stopping young people from ending up in these shocking situations. It’s all about us sleeping out so they don’t have too. ”
You can see full details of Byte Night 2018, including all the locations, and register here. ®