Lessons from the three BarCamps
The third BarCampWaterloo is over and even though we didn’t get over 30 people attending (I think we hit 30), half the people were new and came because they heard it was a lot of fun. So after organizing three BarCamps here is what I have learned:
- food is good, it can make the day, but people still enjoy themselves if there isn’t any
- getting the word out is hard, takes some time and effort
- the people that attend are all open minded and a lot of fun
- the space makes the event
- six hours goes by really fast
- sometimes powerpoint/s5/keynote is a good thing
- ad-hoc speaker organization works
Will there be a fourth? I certainly hope so. I think Simon and I have learned a lot about it and community interest outside of campus is really starting to build. The next one will certainly let us know what kind of traction BarCampWaterloo will have.
We have already starting planning the next one and it looks like early May is the target. Our goal should be to get 50 people attending/participating.
