BarCamp Miami Memories and Recap

BarCamp Miami came and went but the memories remain excellent.

Before talking about the event, though, a very well deserved round of gratitude is due:

• first and foremost, to Professor Kim Grinfeder and the University of Miami School of Communication. The School programmed BarCamp into its annual Communication Week program and supplied the venue, projectors, and free wi-fi, essential for the live demos. Kim in particular was a driving force behind BarCamp Miami and he secured the sponsorship for the event, which allowed us to order T-shirts and catering. We also appreciate the help of Sanjeev Chatterjee, the School’s Vice-Dean, and Lelen Bourgoignie-Robert, Jim Virga and others at UM who helped make BarCamp a reality.
• to Nick Dominguez and Brian Breslin. Brian created RefreshMiami last April and has done more than anyone to get the web/tech/design community started and going in Miami. We owe him for his vision and his execution. Brian also provided guidance and support when the idea of holding a BarCamp Miami first occurred and helped select the logo. Nick has been a key driver of RefreshMiami and took time out of his busy schedule to help us with the banners and in publicizing BarCamp Miami.
• Finally, to our sponsors Aurora Ventures, Knight Center for International Media, ServerGrove Networks and Scrapblog, where I work, as well as to our suppliers, Gateways Unlimited and Once Upon A Party.

So how did the event go? Douglas Hanks from The Miami Herald wrote about us in the Business section:

So it goes at BarCamp, a sort of viral convention with no schedule, featured speakers, or agenda until the attendees themselves create one. For South Florida’s first BarCamp, organizer Alex de Carvalho posted a notice on blogs he and his friends run, as well as a collaborative ”wiki” Web page dedicated to BarCamps held around the world.

And from this “viral” word of mouth, about 60 people showed up. The format of BarCamp is “open-source” in the sense that anyone can present and indeed everyone is encouraged to participate. We had three areas with projectors and four time slots to present, and of these twelve slots, 11 got filled in:

1. Mike Gibaldi talked about Businesswire.com’s new “social media” and search engine optimized press release offering
2. Michael Froomkin presented the security and privacy challenges of getting municipal wi-fi in Miami-Dade. Now’s the time to get involved to avoid restrictions on your access to wi-fi!
3. Ruben Duque created digital graffiti with a laser pointer!
4. David Hoff drove from Naples to present IMified, which helps you manage everything through your IM client (and then he drove back!)
5. The Calleiro brothers demoed ourscene.com
6. Leonard Boord presented The Gorb reputation manager
7. Nick Dominguez and Ant Bryan spoke about an enhanced download standard for bittorrent, metalink
8. Donald Llopis presented python and pygame for rapid prototyping of video games
9. Caleb Elston spoke about usnacks.com, which helps busy college students buy their snacks
10. Tim Hoyt showed us picturemarketing.com while Cortney Mills took our pictures
11. I gave a live demo of Scrapblog.com. We offer a rich, enhanced photo and video sharing experience and will launch in three weeks

Update: Blaine Zuver presented as well. He spoke about ArcticTropic Blog and Metroblogging Miami

Besides the presenters listed above and people mentioned earlier, I also met and spoke to Benjamin Li, Jason L. Baptiste, Francisco Martin, Maria de los Angeles Lemus, Danay, Jackie Paz, Caleb Elston, Blaine Zuver, Denise R. Jacobs, Jorge Barroso and Eduardo Henriques.

We are also grateful that some venture capitalists showed up, including from Longworth, Aurora Ventures and H.I.G. This is very reassuring and I hope we’ll see you participate in future events.

What’s next? We hope to do another BarCamp soon. How soon? It’s up to you. And who’s “we”? It could be anyone. BarCamps can be run on any theme and anyone can take the initiative. And if anyone would like to do another BarCamp Miami on web/tech/design, please do so. The BarCamp wiki is open to all and the BarCampMiami blog is open to more authors.

We would also like to create a more formal conference, called webpl.us. Why more formal? Because we would like to have speakers from across the US, from Europe and from Latin America present, and when you fly in people and pay for their hotels, you need to ensure attendance, cover your costs and provide your speakers with a forum.

Which brings us back to running a BarCamp. The experience is exhilarating and there is a definite adrenalin rush to organizing one, and it stays in your system. Why? Because after all the preparation, you really don’t know if anyone is going to show up … and BarCamps are all about people.

And everyone that showed up have each other to thank for making the event so enjoyable.

See you soon, I hope!

Here are some links:

• Flickr photos of BarCamp Miami
• The Miami Herald article
• BarCamp Miami wiki page
• BarCamp Miami blog
• RefreshMiami monthly events

Cross-posted to tapio.com, RefreshMiami, BarCamp Miami

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampmiami, barcamp miami, technology, web, web 2.0, internet, startup, south florida, innovation, venture capital, university of miami, alex de carvalho, kim grinfeder, brian breslin, nick dominguez, event, conference, unconference, the miami herald, doug hanks

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Conferences, event. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.