Tag Archives: barcampportland

barcampportland

Want to Help with BarCampPortland – May 1 and 2?

BarCampPortland is right around the corner on May 1 & 2, and we need your help to make it successful!

  • Donate! We’re a little short on money to feed people at Barcamp. By donating a few bucks, you can help us buy some food for the event.
  • Sponsor! These events can’t be successful without our sponsors. Contact Todd Kenefsky (kenefsky on gmail) if you would like to sponsor a portion of the event.
  • Volunteer to help. BarCampPortland is an event run entirely by volunteers. Contact  klint at renegadefuturist.com if you can spare a few hours on Friday or Saturday to help.
  • RSVP. Don’t forget to RSVP for the event on Upcoming.
  • Follow us on Twitter: Up to the minute breaking updates about the event as @BarCampPortland

You can learn more about the event by visiting the BarCampPortland wiki.

Related Fast Wonder Blog posts:

barcampportland

Want to Volunteer for BarCampPortland?

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We still have plenty of time before BarCampPortland on May 1 & 2, but it’s never too early to get people thinking about how they can help out with the event! If you love BarCamps as much as I do, please join us next week for our volunteer kickoff meeting. Anyone interested in volunteering for the event is welcome to attend!

BarCampPortland Volunteer Meeting
Monday February 23, 2009 from 5:30pm – 6:30pm
CubeSpace 622 SE Grand Ave
RSVP on Upcoming if you plan to attend

Want to help in some other way?

  • RSVP for the actual event on May 1 and 2 on Upcoming.
  • Sponsor! These events can’t be successful without our sponsors. Contact Todd Kenefsky (kenefsky on gmail) if you would like to sponsor a portion of the event.
  • Join our Mailing List: Sign up for our Google Group to get email announcements about future meetups and events.
  • Follow us on Twitter: Up to the minute breaking updates about the event as @BarCampPortland
  • Tell your friends: Don’t forget to use the BarCampPortland tag when blogging, posting pictures, etc.

Related Fast Wonder Blog posts:

barcampportland

BarCampPortland 2008 Recap aka Geeks, Bubble tea, and Werewolf

The days and weeks leading up to BarCamp can be busy and stressful for the organizers as we work through all of the last minute arrangements, but it is so worth it! I had an amazing time at BarCampPortland, and the majority of the feedback has been positive. I won’t go into the gory details about everything that worked / didn’t work, since you can view the full postmortem document online; however, I will cover a few of my impressions of the event.

I love the BarCamp format

I’ve attended a number of BarCamps, and I am finding that I enjoy attending BarCamps more than traditional conferences, and I think I learn more at BarCamps, too. The people who attend BarCamps are smart and engaged. These are the people giving up a weekend to geek out with others over various technologies, not the corporate types who only attend conferences during working hours. We had people attending from as far away as Chicago, Washington D.C., and Alaska. I had amazing conversations, talked to a bunch of very interesting people, and learned about new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Online Communities

I held a community management roundtable session again this year at BarCamp to a packed room. I’ve done a few of these roundtable discussions where I kick off the conversation and let the group take it in different directions while I act as moderator for the group and contribute actively along with the other participants. I’ve done this at Corvallis and Austin BarCamps, but it never works as well as it does here in Portland. In other places, I’ve had to drag the discussion along or manage people who dominate the conversation while contributing little. In Portland, these just work, and I learn as much from the process as the other participants. I have no idea why it works so well here, maybe we are just more community-oriented than some other locations, but I’m glad that the session went so well. If you want to learn more about the topics discussed, you can view the notes from the session on the Drupal site.

WordCamp

We held a mini WordCamp along with BarCamp on Sunday, and there were more great sessions that I wished I could have attended. I learned a lot about WordPress theming, including how to write your own theme from scratch. I doubt that I’ll try it anytime soon, but it did give me a much better understanding about exactly how themes are constructed in WordPress. Aaron Hockley also led a really good discussion about the underlying infrastructure under WordPress.

Painter’s tape is your friend

Painter’s tape makes a great schedule board and can be used to hang really heavy banners without hurting the walls.

Unique Portland Flair

Here are a few things that make our BarCamp very “Portland”:

  • We have Bubble Tea! For the second year in a row, we’ve had bubble tea made to order at BarCampPortland. A big thank you to Six Apart & David Recordon for making it possible.
  • Werewolf games provided us with hours of amusement in the evenings led by the Portland Werewolf group (yes, we meet up to play monthly here in Portland!) We even had a Chicago attendee introduce us to a new variant that proved to be really interesting and challenging!
  • Twitter was a main attraction during the event. Portland has a very active Twitter population, and most people had a Twitter username on their badge. We used Twitter to make announcements, follow up on sessions, and drive most of the communications during the event.
  • We had lots of other entertainment including a wii station, War Games, and more.

More Information

As always, Rick Turoczy has done a great job on Silicon Florist of rounding up the coverage for the event. You can get links to pictures, session notes, and other blog posts from the Silicon Florist BarCamp Portland: The Weekend that was post.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

A huge thank you to the entire organizing team, all of the volunteers, the always helpful Cubespace staff, the attendees and the sponsors who made this event possible and successful. These events do not happen unless people are willing to pitch in and help where it is needed. People were helpful and patient as we recruited from random passers by to help with various tasks.

Related Fast Wonder Blog posts:

barcampportland

Don't Miss BarCampPortland May 2, 3, & 4

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you might not know that we are holding our second annual BarCampPortland this weekend. Here are a few things you should know:

Logistics

Friday, May 2: 6PM-10PM
Saturday, May 3: 9AM-11PM
Sunday, May 4: 9AM-2PM

Location:
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon

The event is completely free, but it would be great if you could RSVP on Upcoming

What is BarCampPortland, and Why Should I Attend?

I think that I did a reasonably good job of explaining this in a Silicon Florist blog post last week: BarCampPortland: Five reasons to attend

But I’m not technical enough to attend …

Bulls**t! All you need to attend BarCampPortland is a passion for technology in some form: as a user of technologies, as a Twitter addict, as a blogger, as a programmer, as a food geek, as a sys admin, as a …

Last year, we had hardcore programming discussions along with conversations about online communities, science fiction, Lost TV show conspiracies, knitting, and so much more. I don’t want people to self-select out of BarCampPortland because they aren’t programmers. I haven’t written code in years, and I’ve been to a bunch of BarCamps (in Portland and elsewhere), and I always feel welcome. BarCamps use the “law of two feet”; if you get to a session and decide that it isn’t useful for you (too technical / not technical enough), you can just get up to walk out and join another discussion.

Twitter

Portland has a huge Twitter community, and we will be using Twitter for updates during the event. Please follow BarCampPortland on Twitter to get real-time updates during the event. We will also have a space on your badge for your twitter name, so if you haven’t yet joined Twitter, now would be a great time!

WordCamp

Are you a WordPress user? If so, you will want to attend the mini-WordCamp running along with BarCampPortland on Sunday. We will also have plenty of other sessions on Sunday, too if WordPress isn’t your thing.

Bubble Tea and Bacon

Let’s just say that I’ve heard rumors about Bubble Tea and Bacon (separately, because together would be yucky). Nothing confirmed and no promises. I’m just sayin’ that I’ve heard some rumors.

Volunteers

We are still looking for volunteers, so if you would like to volunteer, you should contact Raven Zachary.

Just shut up and go already

I had a blast at the event last year, and I expect this year to be even better! Attending BarCampPortland is highly encouraged (and not just because I’m organizing it!) 🙂

barcampportland

Want a BarCampPortland T-Shirt? Act Now!

BarCampPortland is rapidly approaching. The event will be held on May 2, 3, and 4th at CubeSpace. If you have not yet RSVPed on Upcoming, please do it now. Having an accurate count of attendees really helps us plan the event!

This year we’re asking Portland BarCampers for a small donation if they want an event t-shirt. For a donation of $20, before April 26th, you help support the event (things like the space, food, and supplies) and get an awesome shirt designed by local design group Brash Creative. Please note that with this donation you will have our many thanks for supporting this event; however, you will NOT get a tax deduction, since Legion of Tech does not yet have 501c3 tax exempt status as an organization.

You can select your t-shirt size and make your donation through PayPal on the Legion of Tech website. We will not be taking orders for t-shirts after April 26th, and we will not have extra t-shirts available at the event.

Also, we are still looking for sponsors. If your company is interested in sponsoring, please contact Selena Decklemann (selenamarie on gmail).

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New Legion of Tech Widget and Pipe

I thought it would be cool to track all of the various Legion of Tech activities. I started with a Yahoo Pipe that pulls together blog posts, Twitter conversations, and Flickr images that mention legionoftech, startupalooza, igniteportland, and barcampportland. I also used the rss feed from this pipe in a nice little sidebar widget. You can see a copy of this widget in the sidebar of this blog.

Legion of Tech Pipe Usage:

Use the Widget:

Embed this code in your blog:

<object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0″ width=”240″ height=”421″ id=”sBADltts1AiEEpQ5V”><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /><param name=”align” value=”middle” /><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” /><param name=”quality” value=”high” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/10792/load/BADltts1AiEEpQ5V.swf” /><embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” src=”http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/10792/load/BADltts1AiEEpQ5V.swf” width=”240″ height=”421″ wmode=”transparent” align=”middle” allowFullScreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” quality=”high”></embed></object>

Advanced Tracking Usage:

You can also use this pipe to track any other keywords from blog posts, Twitter, and Flickr with a custom csv file

  • Create a custom csv file with a new line for each keyword you want to track and put it somewhere that can be accessed via a url. Make sure there are no blank lines in your csv.
  • Go to the Legion of Tech tracker
  • Enter the url of your csv file and run the pipe
  • Grab the rss feed output

Feel free to leave me any feedback or suggestions to improve the pipe or the widget.

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BarCampAustin and BarCampPortland Compare & Contrast

This is my second BarCampAustin, and it’s been interesting to notice some of the similarities and differences between Austin and BarCampPortland. For some reason, Austin seems to have more presentations and pitches instead of the informal round table discussions that people seem to favor at BarCampPortland; however, Austin also has more of a party atmosphere. Last year, it was held in a bar with lots of drinks all day, and this year, they had beer on tap all afternoon. They also had a live band, karaoke, and stage diving. Austin throws parties; Portland plays werewolf 🙂

Both BarCamps tend to be full of really smart people with great questions and great conversations both in the sessions and in the hallways. I’ve been running into and meeting people that I only get to see in person at conferences like these. It seems like a lot of my techie friends seem to favor BarCamps, which isn’t surprising since many of them are fellow community managers and community-minded geeks.

On a final note, it wouldn’t be a whurley organized event without something over the top & crazy happening. BarCampAustin had a runaway battlebot that jumped the curb in the parking lot and attacked the air conditioner at a neighboring house. Final score: battlebot 1; AC unit 0.

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Cool Oregon Events This Week

We have several really cool events coming up this week, and I wanted to remind everyone to attend (I’ll be there)!

For those thinking in the long-term, don’t forget about these:

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BarCampPortland: May 2, 3, and 4

OK, I think we’ve settled on a date and location for BarCampPortland 2, Portland’s second annual BarCamp event. It will be held at CubeSpace on May 2, 3, and 4.

At this point, we are in the initial planning stages, so you can expect many more details to trickle out over the next couple of months.

What can you do now?

  • RSVP for the event on Upcoming; edit the BarCampPortland wiki and add yourself to the “Campers” section to help us learn more about you
  • Sponsor! These events can’t be successful without our sponsors. Contact me if you would like to sponsor a portion of the event.
  • Join our Mailing List: Sign up for our Google Group to get email announcements about future meetups and events.
  • Tell your friends: Don’t forget to use the BarCampPortland tag when blogging, posting pictures, etc.

What is BarCampPortland?

BarCampPortland is an unconference for the Portland tech community, produced BY the Portland tech community. Interesting topics, cool people, great networking opportunities, wifi, and more! Building an active tech community in Portland, Oregon.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. You never quite know what to expect at BarCamp. When you arrive on Friday, there will be an agenda framework (times / rooms), but the content for the sessions will be decided by the participants.

Related Fast Wonder Blog posts:

barcamp, barcampportland, community, ignite portland, legion of tech, portland

Legion of Tech

I’ve been hinting about a non profit organization that a few of us have been working on for a while. Today, we received confirmation of our Oregon non profit incorporation status. Keep in mind that we are not (and may never become) a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization (we will file for it, but ultimately the IRS makes this decision).

The organization is called Legion of Tech, and the purpose of this organization is to

  1. Grow and nurture the local Portland technology community through educational, not-for-profit, community-run events.
  2. Make it easier for community members to organize technology events.
  3. Provide resources and assistance for technology community events.

Ignite Portland, BarCamp Portland, and Startupalooza will all fall under this organization. You can read our complete bylaws and see who is on the board of directors on our website.

Note: we are still in the early stages of designing a logo. If you have some mad design skills and want to design a logo for a good cause … in other words for free 🙂 … just let us know!