If you were there you know it was good.
If you weren’t, you might be wondering what you missed.
- An amazing venue
- gorgeous t-shirts
- refreshments – including pizza and beer
- people who love technology with a giant thirst for information
- people who love technology with the gift of knowledge to share
- old acquaintances reunited and new friends made.
With the investment of our local business community we got a chance to improve and to do a lot things that weren’t possible in the past, including:
- A new website, domain transfer and free professional hosting
- mobile website
- professional t-shirt design and printing/other swag
- professional sign design
- professional blogging and social media
- food/drink
- donation to charity (Movember)
- more focused admin and organization
- chair rental/delivery.
It’s humbling to see the result of the efforts of our organizing committee and supporters and participants. On a shoestring, we put on a damn good event for 200+ people. And we can do this because it takes more than money to have a BarCamp. It takes people who are interested in building something good where there wasn’t anything before. Every contribution, every bit of advice, every topic, speaker and every attendee are what makes BarCamp a success. The takeaways include a fabulous memory, learning and inspiration from our peers, getting to know each other better, and a fun day with people who get you.
As a special bonus this year we had $200 left over to contribute to Movember. With lots of fabulous and fledgling moustaches at the event, this was obviously an appropriate place to put our extra sponsorship funds.
Someone asked about having a BarCamp in Regina and I say, “DO IT #yqr!”. BarCamps in Saskatchewan should be more frequent and they can happen anytime, anywhere. Anyone can do a bit of planning and get the ball rolling. BarCamp is owned by the participants so it’s success or failure never rides on one person, but on everyone involved.
There are a few rules to abide by to ensure that your camp is in-line with the expected framework, but the BarCamp wiki and Wikipedia can help you with that.
BarCamp Saskatoon is a valuable part of our technology and business industry, and after 7 years we’ve built a tighter, friendlier community through it. It’s an event where everyone is welcome to speak and learn in an environment that is not only inspiring, but also has the potential to expand through the initiative of it’s participants.
See you next year… if not before!