BarCamp Nashville. Such an unlikely place for my demographic. Heaven knows I had my doubts as I hauled myself out of bed at the crack of dawn on a gorgeous Saturday in October. But I told myself I could leave right away if it didn’t feel right, and ended up staying until close to the end.
For those of you scratching your heads, saying WhatWhat Nashville, I sympathize. Personally, I don’t do bars or camping. That leaves Nashville, and there’s a lot in Nashville I don’t do either. If I hadn’t gotten so much out of its kindred event, PodCamp Nashville, I wouldn’t have even considered it. But it turns out it’s an open source geek fest – somewhere between a formal conference for gear-heads and a happening.
Highlights for me:
- The people. Lots of smiling, friendly techies. The majority young… male… white… etc. But still a good representation of females, plus a modest representation of boomers, and, more significant, a sense of welcome for all.
- Great schwag. Is that how you spell it? My generation once called this stuff freebies. I’d brought my knitting in my backpack, but immediately transferred it to the excellent tote. It’s a keeper.
- Decent coffee, plus unsweet ice tea (my favorite) and yummy muffins.
- Hanging out with my web diva buddies. They came in force.
- Fabulous presentation on Public Relations 2.0 (“The Deer Have Guns Now”). If I don’t see it recapped elsewhere, I’ll do it myself.
Things I hope to see next year:
- More women speakers (not just in a session about women in technology, though that was a great start).
- Same venue. Parking aside, I liked it more than PodCamp’s Cannery Ballroom.
- Sessions on Drupal. If there were any, I couldn’t tell. But the site was done in Drupal and Centre{Source} was one of the main sponsors, so perhaps there were and I missed them.
Speaking of sponsors, egad were they generous. The whole thing was free, and they had wonderful prizes. So while I don’t usually do this, here’s a shout out to the sponsors I remember (in no particular order):
- Griffin Technology (the amazing Dave Delaney’s new gig)
- Centre{Source}
- Dolphini Networks
- Emma
- Zoe Creative Services
And of course a big round of applause for all the people who made this happen. You all don’t just rock. You are movers and shakers. I’m even giving Twitter a second chance, thanks to you.
*For those wondering about #bcn08, it’s a Twitter thing.