I have a comment to pass on from someone named Callum who I ran into at the nanowrimo kick-off. He was rather disappointed by the barcamp because of its billing as an un-conference. He said that there was a woman who specifically told people not to leave their seats for the next session (which kind of defeats the idea that you can move around based on interest), he felt that some of the presentations were rather out of date (he mentioned an HTTP one), something I've forgotten now about the schedule, but maybe that it was prepared in advance, etc. I think, in general, he felt that it was all the things a conference is, and very little of what an un-conference would be. I expressed surprise since I know you are quite passionate about planning the bar and foo camps and making them more awesome. Perhaps there was too much structure and not enough of the mingling/spontaneous time that bar camp is supposed to be about? Anyways, I hope some of this is helpful feedback for the future.
As for the presentations, we have no control over those. They're about as unplanned as they get. Sometimes, so unplanned that the quality is pretty poor.
I'm not sure about the whole not leaving seats thing. That's weird and I'll look into it.
The schedule was certainly not prepared in advance, but rather on a first-come, first-serve basis. By the afternoon, it had solidified, but perhaps Callum had shown up too late to see the frantic early-morning rush.
One of the interesting things about BarCamp is that it's a rather functional self-organized gathering I've seen in Montréal. In places like San Francisco, they do a much better job than we do, but I think little steps are the way to do it. I've tried to be as hands-off as possible about it.
I think I have Callum's contact info somewhere, so I'll send him an e-mail and see what's up.
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No one said there would be cupcakes in the advertising copy!! That would have changed EVERYTHING! One more reason to be pouty.
I will go next time if there are cupcakes.
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Who knows what will happen the next time? It's all up to what people bring to the event.
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I like the little cupcake likeness, labelling the cupcakes, in case you did not know they are MADE OF CAKE.
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As for the presentations, we have no control over those. They're about as unplanned as they get. Sometimes, so unplanned that the quality is pretty poor.
I'm not sure about the whole not leaving seats thing. That's weird and I'll look into it.
The schedule was certainly not prepared in advance, but rather on a first-come, first-serve basis. By the afternoon, it had solidified, but perhaps Callum had shown up too late to see the frantic early-morning rush.
One of the interesting things about BarCamp is that it's a rather functional self-organized gathering I've seen in Montréal. In places like San Francisco, they do a much better job than we do, but I think little steps are the way to do it. I've tried to be as hands-off as possible about it.
I think I have Callum's contact info somewhere, so I'll send him an e-mail and see what's up.
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