Who You Calling A Jesse?

It has been about two years since the unconferences started in Toronto. Shortly after it started, David Crow coined the community is the framework discussion and helped inspire folks to help build communities. It took me a while but September 29th, 2007 saw the first BarCampWaterloo. We are now six events (plus DemoCampGuelph) into it and I think with StartupCampWaterloo I feel confident saying there is a solid community in Waterloo that finds community driven events useful and are willing to participate.

Why organize these events? Personally I am not an entrepreneur with a few attempts or successes at starting my own business under my belt. I have not experienced the joys and fears of starting a business but I have experienced years of feeling isolated within both the University community and the larger regional community. I have had more web technology contacts in the US than I do in Canada, more of a sense of community when I attend the big Adobe MAX conference.

Starting and continuing a ‘BarCamp’ movement in Waterloo is about the entire tech community: the web developers in big companies, the entrepreneurs, the inventors creating things for fun, the people that are researching the application of technology and/or how people interact with it, the business minded folks that would love to help something grow. However, the desire for topic specific events is there and that is why we (Mic, Simon, Brydon and Ali in Guelph, and myself), with the help of the community, have broken the events into three main forms:

• BarCampWaterloo – something for everyone who attends. We have talked about how to age a good ham, use two keyboards at once, cool coding, and how to build the technology in your business. Its a day long event that strives to include everyone who attends.
• DemoCampGuelph – this event aims to showcase working projects. You demo something that works, no slides, no time to babble.
  
• StartupCampWaterloo – the most recent experiment that borrowed from the spirit of DemoCamp. This event focuses on the start-up experience and aims to give folks a place to get the feedback they need to keep going and succeed.

The events are staggered monthly and all three events offer a place for folks to connect. Through these connections comes a sense of community. Someone other than your dog or the voices in your head that share the same passion as you are out there and they want to help. You may leave an event inspired to try something new at work or in your own business or find something to work with on your next big idea. That is the potential power of the community that I currently see in Waterloo. With the success of the Accelerator Centre and the construction of another Accelerator Centre along with a Research Accelerator Centre it really feels like Waterloo is on the verge of something. Infrastructure (we do need a free community wifi) and the brains are here… a vibrant BarCamping community will certainly help I think.

It is not that I don’t acknowledge the groups that have been organizing events for a while. The first one that comes to mind is WatStart which is an effort led by Gary Will. The launch of the new WatStart site I think offers a great place to organize community resources, I hope people start using it. Then there are some of our now regular BarCampWaterloo sponsors: Communitech and TechCapital, they have done a lot positive things for the entrepreneurs in the community.

No matter where you are I would encourage you to seek out the local community and participate. Every person that contributes enriches the experience for everyone. There are other events in town and groups that meet mingle. DesignCampWaterloo, UX group, a new RailsNite Waterloo, a .NET users group, and others. Get out there and meet people, you never know what could come of it.

Tags: community, BarCampWaterloo, StartupCampWaterloo