Potential venue for the next BarCamp
Robert Dempsey
Before asking for your input let me give you the back story.
After the last BarCamp Orlando, Gregg caught a lot of flack on what is
and is not BarCamp. As a result, he decided to not be involved in the
next one (http://groups.google.com/group/barcamporlando/browse_thread/
thread/d0eddadfbc31f617). At that time I said that I would step up and
coordinate the next one, and Dan Kinchen said he would pitch in as
well. In a later post (http://groups.google.com/group/barcamporlando/
browse_thread/thread/9e544b48b594e6c8) Mike Blake said he would
volunteer to have the next planning meeting at his house in order to
facilitate coordination.
In listening to what many of you had to say about what is and is not
BarCamp, I offered the suggestion that if we could find a single
sponsor to provide the venue (and possibly equipment) then BarCamp
could be done without any sponsors required. It would purely be people
getting together to get together - no guaranteed speaking spots, no
commercialization, and no one getting credit (or getting beat up).
We have an opportunity to make this happen.
** The Opportunity ***
Ryan Price had a chance to speak with Katrina, who is coordinating
Create Chaos 2008 (http://www.createchaos.com/08/). Knowing that Dan
and I were interested in helping coordinate another BarCamp, he set up
a meeting with Katrina (along with himself and Eric) and we met over
coffee. I am getting more details on how exactly things would work,
however, what I do know is that they would provide a room and the
required AV equipment. This means that BarCamp would be at Create
Chaos during one night of the conference. As I see it here are the
pros/cons:
Pros
- Venue
- AV equipment
- 2500 creative professionals in attendance
- While we would of course say that Create Chaos provided the room,
they wouldn't require "sponsorship" status
- No complex coordination required - all we would need is a white
board for the schedule, a room moderator, and people to show up
- We wouldn't need to find sponsors to pay for stuff as there would be
nothing to pay for
Cons
- No shwag (including t-shirt)
- No food provided (thought they have multiple restaurants and a
Starbucks in the hotel)
** The Big Question **
So, while I gather more details about how large the room would be, and
what night of the conference BarCamp would be, and more, my questions
for you are:
1. Would you all be interested in this?
2. If we had an unconference during Create Chaos would you come?
3. Knowing how many people feel about what is/is not BarCamp, would
the name "BarCamp Orlando" being attached to it be, in your opinion,
good, bad, or neither?
I look forward to hearing what you all think. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Robert Dempsey
David Sikes
2. Yes, of course.
3. I am indifferent. It's sad what happened, and I'm almost not interested in being involved in anything with so much drama (I like my laid back life) but I'd be willing to give it a go, especially when you're putting it together.
It's a great idea, and I think it would work well.
Tim Rosenblatt
attending. I thought last years conference was fantastic.
--
Tim Rosenblatt
http://www.timrosenblatt.com
Tim Rosenblatt
foo/bar camp to be about an informal series of presentations put on by
whoever put their name on the board. Food and shirts are unrelated --
they can either be present or not.
Chris Scott
On Jul 1, 12:55 am, Robert Dempsey <robertonra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1. Would you all be interested in this?
is BarCamp piggybacking on Create Chaos, I guess I'm just wondering if
it is necessary. While it would be nice to have a venue and equipment
provided, it looks like the crowd for Create Chaos is more focused on
traditional design with some web design. There would likely be some
people there interested in BarCamp, however, it doesn't seem like a
solid fit to me.
I wasn't involved in the planning/sponsorship the past couple years,
but it seems like BarCamp doesn't have a problem working as a stand-
alone event. I think that says a great deal about the community,
BarCamp, and those that spent their time to make it happen. I guess
what it boils down to is do we want to do this because it makes sense
or because it is convenient? I'm not saying there isn't any weight to
the latter, but the way this event unfolds will have an impact on how
we and others view the community.
> 2. If we had an unconference during Create Chaos would you come?
evening. It was nice to have the past couple BarCamps at local
restaurants/bars that were central to downtown. Personally, I'd rather
go on a weekend day than a weeknight.
How much time will we have to do this on a weeknight and what does
that mean for presentation time/volume?
> 3. Knowing how many people feel about what is/is not BarCamp, would
> the name "BarCamp Orlando" being attached to it be, in your opinion,
> good, bad, or neither?
should be called BarCamp.
--
Chris Scott
http://iamzed.com
http://hailtheale.com
t...@timrosenblatt.com
>
> I probably wouldn't due to the location and being on a weekday
> evening. It was nice to have the past couple BarCamps at local
> restaurants/bars that were central to downtown. Personally, I'd rather
> go on a weekend day than a weeknight.
>
conference Oct 13-17 (mon-fri)
expo oct 14-16 (tue-thur)
What day could we get?
Has the possibility of downtown Orlando been taken off of the table?
dgallo
interested however it turns out :)
Robert Dempsey
>
> conference Oct 13-17 (mon-fri)
> expo oct 14-16 (tue-thur)
>
> What day could we get?
perhaps the Thursday as they have a large party at night that everyone
could go to.
> Has the possibility of downtown Orlando been taken off of the table?
about whether they would/would not like to have BarCamp at Create
Chaos as they would provide a venue and AV equipment. It's up to the
community whether they want to have it there or someplace else. If it
was Create we wouldn't need to find sponsors to pay for anything and
it wouldn't require large coordination overhead. More details on the
venue are forthcoming. As soon as I have them I'll post them here.
- Robert
Tim Rosenblatt
Robert Dempsey
Gregg for doing BarCampOrlando in the first place. We have a great and
growing community that I am glad to be a part of. According to the
Orlando Business Journal and Orlando Sentinel, Orlando tech is
growing. Let's keep it that way. BarCamp is a way for all of us to put
aside our differences on things such as programming languages, web
frameworks, text editors, operating systems, and any biases to non-
programmer people we know, and have a great time learning from each
other.
- Rob
Alexander Rudloff
Gregg Pollack
I'm glad people are willing to continue what we all started with
BarCamp. I'll definitely still be involved, but I think I'm going to
let everyone else take a larger role of putting it together. The last
two events I probably didn't delegate as much as I should have, and
what resulted is me taking things a little too personally when people
criticized the event. I'm only human. If you guys will still have
me, I'd be happy to still help out.
If Create Chaos is only giving us one room, for one night, I'm not
sure it's worth it. The main reason being time. At the first
BarCamp, we had talks on the hour, 20, and 40. This felt a little too
rushed and left really no time for questions or time between the
talks. The second barcamp we had talks on the hour and 30. This felt
right, things weren't too rushed, and there were time for more
questions.
If Create Chaos is just giving us A NIGHT, lets say that's 4 hours (6
to 10), this leaves time for 8 talks. At the last BarCamp, with two
rooms we had time for 24 talks (with projectors). If we pulled out
all the stops again to advertise for this event, I have little doubt
we could bring in 200 people. 200 for people for 8 talks... Just
doesn't sound right. Even if we had time for 14 talks.. I'm not sure
this is good. BarCamp kinda feels like an all day event to me. We
have an awesome urban venue (wall street), which we can get for an
awesome price, so why not just take advantage of that?
So then the question is... What to do with Create Chaos?
Here is my suggestion because of the limited time. We use it as an
opportunity to do the first "Ignite Orlando". See
http://ignite.oreilly.com/ for more information. The basic idea is:
If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only
got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?
Check out some of the videos on that O'Reilly site and you'll see what
happens. ;-)
Thoughts?
kpCHAOS
Also wanted to remind you that if you all were doing BarCamp Chaos in
the evening connecting with other attendees we have, we will also
allow attendees of BarCamp to enter into the Expo hall with a special
pass during that day if they wish. Since many locals will be taking a
trip to the expo at some point during that week anyway (Wed. being the
most popular day), they would just stay after for the BarCamp-ness on
Wed evening.
I would need to know ASAP as, as you can imagine with this being a
national "super-conference" connective ten different creative
industries...people are literally bugging me for that space right now.
I also need to know now because we are posting logos/links/info on the
Web site with all our partner conferences and doing a major PR push
this and next week. If you are riding the Chaos wave, need to know
asap. If not, best of luck and I'm sure I'll be seeing many of you at
the Expo anyway. ;-)
Dan Kinchen
We need some type of voting system or something... How do you make decisions
as a community?
We have all these people with different opinions;
- sponsors Vs. no sponsors
- t-shirts Vs. no t-shirts
- leaders Vs. no leaders
How do we create a system where everyone is happy? I am sure if everyone
agreed to make decisions as a community with some type of fair system in
place where the majority rule is the deciding factor we can go a lot
farther.
I am just brainstorming here. On another note;
I have been talking with a few people on putting together an Ignite Orlando.
I actually already purchased the domain a couple of months ago.
Dan Kinchen -President
One Step Solutions, Corp. Internet Consultants
2500 W. Lake Mary Blvd. Suite 220
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
Phone: (407) 322-2555
Website: www.oness.com
Ryan Price
1. Doing this even twice a year is a big deal - I don't know of any
BarCamps that do so, but instead the communities end up supporting
more specific things like iPhoneDevCamp, GeoCamp, PodCamp,
DrupalCamp, RubyCamp, RoboCamp, JellyCamp, TransformerCamp,
CookingCamp, and CampingCamp (not all of those are real, but I bet if
we scheduled them, someone would show up).
2. An unconference does not need to have a set duration, specific
topics or t-shirts. Something like BlogOrlando has all 3, but it is
much less unconference than a cluster-F like BarCamp. If you want to
do an all-weekend, multi-room, "pull out all the stops" type event,
then you are welcome to do so. We have this space for either
Wednesday or Thursday, and whether it's Ignite, BarCamp, Pecha Kucha
Night, Demo, or just WhatevCamp, I don't particularly care, but
Katrina and her crew were nice enough to offer us the space, so let's
grab it before we've missed the opportunity.
3. The original reason for starting Florida Creatives was to get to a
point where we can have a week-long event akin to SXSW or similar
conferences, but I was thinking we could wait until the community was
ready to support such an event... I think the only way to get to that
point is by having several smaller events in between all the big
ones, to have a cast of regulars that help make the connections,
bring the social aspects, celebrities, traditions, and most of all a
reputation within the community.
Looks like a few people believe that hosting a shorter event on a
weeknight will have an effect on the reputation of BarCamp... I'm not
sure I agree, but if that's so, then let's figure out what sort of
event we want to have if it's not BarCamp. Stat.
Peace,
Ryan Price
407-484-8528
Sure sure, I just said that I don't care if it's BarCamp, but I would
like it to be BarCamp. I get it, so please don't reply with that.
Dan Kinchen
Agreed, same here.
Robert Dempsey
Why don't we make this the first spark orlando event and make it a
barcamp style unconference? If people show they show...
Sincerely,
Robert Dempsey, CEO
Atlantic Dominion Solutions, LLC
4210 Beau James Court
Winter Park, FL 32792
http://www.techcfl.com
Phone: 321-274-4684
Fax: 321-214-3352
Robert Dempsey
I grow weary of the debate. This is an opportunity that I don't want
to pass up, as Ryan said. Dan and I have been working on a 'Spark
Orlando' so as to stay away from currently branded un/conferences.
Dan - if you are cool with it, let's make this the first Spark Orlando
event. We can make it a BarCamp-style event with no sponsors, no
shwag, and just focus on getting people in the door and up on stage to
present on whatever they want to present on.
I am sure, as Ryan says, that people will show even if it is for an
evening and not an all day event. Then, if there is to be another
BarCampOrlando, it can be a larger event as Gregg wants. Frankly I
don't care how big it is, if I get a guaranteed speaking time, if I
get credit for doing anything for it, or if there is shwag. I just
want it to be.
- Rob
Ryan Price
Katrina's next deadline? Which is apparently ASAP...?
Maybe Sunday? I heard Mike Blake's house mentioned, but I don't want
to volunteer him without asking... What time is good? Noon? 3pm? 6pm?
If we lack a location, how about Stardust? There is ample space. I'm
sure there are also several folks with access to offices that could
be used - I can get us into the Incubator in the Angebilt Building
(upstairs from Slingapour's), which seats 8-12 people comfortably in
the conference room.
Peace,
Ryan
Robert Dempsey
Dan Kinchen
that actually will help make a decision, then I could make it for a short
period of time. Weekdays are good for me.
Gregg Pollack
BarCamp "light" so to speak. Smaller BarCamp, one room, one
evening... Looks like the evening of Wednesday, October 15th.
If you guys want to run with it, there's no need for a meeting.
Maybe just wait a few hours and see if anyone else voices an opinion?
i.e. you have until midnight or forever hold your peace?
Alex de Carvalho
Spark Orlando is reminiscent of Social Spark, but maybe that's the point?
Good luck on your efforts,
-Alex
On 7/1/08, Robert Dempsey <robert...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
Robert Dempsey
The last question is could we (Dan, Ryan and I) use the BarCampOrlando
site to post announcements and updates?
Alex - Spark Orlando has nothing to do with SocialSpark, at all,
period.
- Rob
Dan Kinchen
an organization that helped to attract additional tech events in or around
Orlando. That is why I have IgniteOrlando.com
I realized that oreily was doing something with "ignite" and I thought the
name can be used in a much better way with more exposure if we used it in
conjunction with oreily's ignite concept.
Dan Kinchen -President
One Step Solutions, Corp. Internet Consultants
2500 W. Lake Mary Blvd. Suite 220
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
Phone: (407) 322-2555
Website: www.oness.com
-----Original Message-----
From: barcamp...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:barcamp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Alex de Carvalho
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 12:10 PM
To: barcamp...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [BarCampO] Re: Potential venue for the next BarCamp
Chad MILLER
Things I think we should have learned:
- weekends are good.
- a concentrated venue is good. (I thought Wall was almost perfect. Rain sucked.)
- we need more than a few hours and less than two days.
- uniform 20 minute rooms is often too short, and often too dauntingly long.
- we don't have enough robots.
Additionally, I think we should have ~two 30-minute rooms and one five-minute central room for lightning topics or for extemporaneous ideas that germinate during the camp.
- chad
Robert Dempsey
How do you feel about the need for sponsors in order to pay for the
venue? Anything large requires money (obviously). Any caps or limits
like Alex proposed? What about the need for shwag and giving larger
paying sponsors guarantee speaking spots as happened last time?
Nothing can be done about the rain (unless the entire thing is
inside), however more people can bring robots.
- Rob
Elliot Murphy
Regarding sponsors, there are some practical suggestions about what
has/hasn't worked in the past here:
http://barcamp.org/Sponsoring
I can bring a projector. I'm not worried about getting a t-shirt or
having wifi, just an event to share ideas with other people.
-elliot
Gene McCulley
so I don't know exactly what all the issues are.
I am happy that StackFrame was allowed the opportunity to sponsor
BarCampOrlando. We sponsored the first BarCampOrlando and the Dev Day
of the second one and we opted not to speak at either event partially
out of fear that it would be misinterpreted. Our intent as a sponsor
is only to help build the local developer community.
We will gladly sponsor the next event (at least if has a developer
focus or a "Dev Day") with any restrictions you want, so please don't
rule out sponsors if they can help.
I think both events were wonderfully executed. We got a lot of value
out of them and look forward to more of them.
I hope Gregg stays involved and I also hope for more robots.
Ryan Price
happens is called Create Chaos, so a logical extension of that
conference in a BarCamp format would be to have a 'Camp or Creativity.
Peace,
Ryan
Gregg Pollack
Calling it CreateCamp would tell people they can expect the same
unconference format, but it would be slightly different then the
typical day long urban BarCamp they've come to expect.
Also, Create Chaos is a media conference... Lots of publishing,
photoshop, video, and media related stuff, so any camp located there
perhaps should be less technical, and more focused to the people there
attending.
Just my thoughts.
Joshua Blount
that the recent Barcamp @ Wall St seemed perfect to me with very minor
downsides of rain / not enough people (including myself) prepared to
give talks. I would also suggest / agree that having more people isn't
necessarily better, so I'm not sure if we should be looking for "more
exposure" for Barcamp.
I also wanted to mention that I really appreciated the after-party put
on by Izea. Having sponsors actually take care of the specific items
rather than donating cash is one of the suggestions on the list that
Elliot sent (http://barcamp.org/Sponsoring)
Also, I'd love to see a ignite event (http://ignite.oreilly.com/) as
previously mentioned by Greg in reference to the create chaos space.
This seems to be a bit more on the geek performance art side of
things, conveying ideas in a very formatted fashion, rather than the
open conversation that seems to stem from a barcamp style event.
Thanks @everyone for being involved.
---
Joshua Blount
Robert Dempsey
1. The venue is good.
2. It shouldn't be called "BarCamp" though an unconference style is
desired - call it CreateCamp
3. Sponsorship is good and people are interested; have people sponsor
individual items
If that is the consensus then let's do that then. Sounds cool. Now to
Joshua's point of participation - if there are many 5 minute slots we
need more speakers. Perhaps more people will talk though if they only
have to fill 5 minutes rather than 20-30.
- Rob
Dan Kinchen
this is okay. We cannot use any part of their name without their permission
even if we are doing in conjunction with them or on their behalf.
Dan Kinchen -President
One Step Solutions, Corp. Internet Consultants
2500 W. Lake Mary Blvd. Suite 220
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
Phone: (407) 322-2555
Website: www.oness.com
-----Original Message-----
From: barcamp...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:barcamp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Dempsey
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 1:38 PM
To: BarCampOrlando - Discussion
Subject: [BarCampO] Re: Potential venue for the next BarCamp
Ryan Price
minute speed-dating style talks, just short) presentations, and we
know the date, and the location, then we can figure out all the
details later and give Katrina the go-ahead to change us from a
penciled-in appointment to something more permanent.
All the hairy details - sponsors, schwag, t-shirts, food, bar tabs,
etc. can be styled and moussed at a future planning meeting, sometime
before the second week of October.
Cool?
Ryan
Alexander Rudloff
If it's called createcamp, will there still be robots?
Best,
Alex
Robert Dempsey
let me know.
- Rob
Dan Kinchen
I guess this would be
CreateCamp, brought to you by the BarcampOrlando community, lol?
Dan Kinchen -President
One Step Solutions, Corp. Internet Consultants
2500 W. Lake Mary Blvd. Suite 220
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
Phone: (407) 322-2555
Website: www.oness.com
-----Original Message-----
From: barcamp...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:barcamp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Dempsey
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 1:51 PM
To: BarCampOrlando - Discussion
Subject: [BarCampO] Re: Potential venue for the next BarCamp
Michael Blake
Everything sounds pretty good. I'll be at the beach this weekend, so
won't be available in the short term, but would love to help out and
attend. CreateCamp is a cool name. We can always do a more
localized BarCamp downtown in the Spring.
Ryan Price
Please PM me rprice@ryanpricemedia about being able to make it on
July 14, 15, or 16 - we don't need to see everyone's replies on the
public list. If you can offer a venue that holds more than 12 people,
please include that in the private email as well.
Peace,
Ryan
Chris W.
be in place.
I liked the all day session on a weekend like the past two barcamps.
While I think two days was a bit overkill for the last barcamp, having
a one day with three rooms(25, 25, 5) would be ideal in my mind.
Finding a location would be tough without sponsors but I hope that the
all day format does not go away.
Also, I think you are going to limit your audience to just the Orlando
area when doing it during the week. I know at barcamp you had some
folks from outside of Orlando (myself included from the space coast) .
Again, I hope the planners don't give up on having a full day event
sometime again in the future (even if it means only once a year)
Thanks!
Chris
Robert Dempsey
I am sure there will be a bigger event at some time - someone
mentioned the spring as a possibility. The more events we have here in
Orlando the better, no matter what they are called.
- Rob
Jason Seifer
I'd have to do a week-end thing as well.
I think it's great to see another Orlando tech event. I also find it
to be very disappointing that the issue of what is and isn't BarCamp
has to be tiptoed around so lightly. It seems counter-productive to
the point that Orlando may never see another BarCamp because of it.
Jason Seifer
Robert Dempsey
detriment of all. How it is handled is another story though.
- Rob