BarCamp RDU Recap
By all accounts, BarCampRDU was a huge success, and we couldn't agree more.
First, thanks to the organizers (Fred Stutzman and company) for the outstanding job. Second, thanks to all the sponsors (including Red Hat for the space). We are proud to be part of the group that helped make the event possible.
We gave several presentations including product demonstrations, "Ajaxifying web development with Dojo"; and "The shape of things to come in Scalable Vector Graphics". All sessions were well-attended and were a lot of fun to lead.
A couple of reflections as we look back at the event:
- Wow. Where did all these people come from? The Triangle is filled with some pretty impressive people. My confidence in the area increased significantly after this event.
- The role of preparing for conference talks is evolving. Originally my focus was on educating the audience. Now, my focus will be setting the context to facilitate a lively discussion with the audience. This came out loud-and-clear at BarCamp.
- BarCamps work because they better accentuate the value of networks (aka the participants). It dawned on me while sitting in Fred's talk on social networks. BarCamp's loose organization and participation model more effectively utilizes the collective skill sets of the participants. The model is simply more efficient and optimized than traditional conferences.
- Passion permeated the conference. From the OneBigMix.com demo to the lively debate on Agile Product Management, the attendees were a passionate bunch. Witnessing this passion on a Saturday no less makes me feel quite good about the future of technology and software development.
Now that the area has successfully held one event, we look forward to helping make this a regular event.
Previous Post:
More Organizational Change Patterns
