BarCamp Montreal
Nametags
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
I was one of the people who was supposed to help peaceful_dragon organize BarCamp Montreal. But this came up and that came up, and I was basically not useful. Still, I managed to borrow a digital SLR and got myself appointed Official Photographer. So I don't feel too bad about it.
The day started off slowly, with people arriving in ones and twos. gorbash_dragon, who had been doing tons of grunt work, had managed to lasso a few minions to do her bidding. They were managing the registration desk, where I signed up, and then claimed my nametag.
I entered the venue, which is actually a dance studio by night. Cat's Corner is a swing dancing school that Fred keeps trying to get me to attend, and I keep on meaning to. But the only times I ever show up have been to do lifting. I'm sort of weird that way. But they've got plenty of lighting, a good sound system, and fairly large space.
Hugh McGuire
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
We had a bit of trouble getting the equipment set up, but then we were off to the races. The schedule was rather tight. We had a whirlwind of fifteen-minute talks, ranging across fields of art, technology, and business. Still, I like this format of talk, because there is no time for the talk to get painfully dull. Plus, because there was only one conference room, you have no choice but to attend the current talk, so it exposes you to lots of different ideas that you'd never think about.
We had a reasonably tasty lunch, provided by the various sponsors of BarCamp. Actually, I'm pretty amazed that people would just offer up money so that a bunch of people could socialize, but I suppose there is some value in meeting up to exchange ideas. I certainly learnt a lot from lots of people, and I spent most of my time obsessing about light.
After all the sessions were over, we all pitched in to clean up. Then, some of us took the leftover food to a shelter, donated it and met people at the bar for the after-party. Everyone seemed pretty tired, so there weren't a lot of people who remained.
I think I've volunteered to assist in running the next BarCamp. Which we'd better start planning, since it's only six months away. I'm sort of dreading this, because I saw how tired our fearless leader got. But then he was pretty pleased, so I suppose it balanced out.
Thanks Fred.