BarCampRDU Wrap-Up

(Cross posted from Fred's blog)

This weekend, over 150 geeks of all flavor gathered at Red Hat HQ on NC State's Centennial Campus to have a BarCamp. I'm still recovering, but I think it is safe to say the event was a success, and a great model for future BarCamps in the area. It was just a fantastic, positive experience to bring all sorts of different folks together, from all walks, and to spend the day sharing, collaborating and learning. With help from Paul Jones, here's a roundup of the BarCampRDU coverage.

Media:

• News and Observer: Techies Flock to Red Hat
• WRAL Local Tech Wire: BarCamp, The "Unconference" For Lovers Of Technology, Comes To Triangle
• WRAL Tech Talk: Triangle Techies Heading for a BarCamp
• ZDNet: Live from BarCampRDU
• Fiona Morgan, award-winning reporter from the Independent was also present.
  

Blogs

• Paul Jones: BarCampRDU is great success
• Robbie Allen: BarCampRDU was a success!
• Michael Habib: Notes from BarCampRDU..
• Adam Constabaris: BarCampRDU Wrapup
• Many more at del.icio.us and Technorati

Pics

• Flickr photos tagged with 'barcamprdu'
  

Of course, BarCampRDU wouldn't have happened without its host, sponsors, committee, volunteers and donors. Here's a list of those who helped so generously.

Venue

• Red Hat, and Greg DeKoenigsberg

Sponsors

• Lulu.com
  
• 6th Sense Analytics
• The Aurora Funds
• rPath
• Council for Entrepreneurial Development
• Blogads.com

Donors

• Henry Nguyen - PA
• Larry's Beans, Chuck Messer and the folks at Tackle Design - Coffee
  
• Andy Hunt and the Pragmatic Programmers - Book Donations
• Ryan Cox (coordinator) and Manning Publications - Book Donations
• Ibiblio - Invaluable listservs

Design

• Kelly Marks - Designer of the awesome T-shirts and Banner
• The Merch - Screenprinters of the awesome T-shirts

Organizers

• Paul Jones
• Scott Morningstar
• Robbie Allen
• Ryan Daigle
• Terrell Russell
• Jackson Fox
  

Volunteers

• Lourdes Cueva Chacon
• Wayne Sutton
• Adam Constabaris
• Michael Habib
• Ben Adlard
• Scott Lundgren
• Jerry Waller
• Didier Deshommes
• Katie Jamison
• Erica Tsai
  

Of course, thank you to all of the people who brought routers and power strips, to those who led sessions, to those who helped clean up and leave Red Hat sparkling. Thanks to those who came up to me and introduced themselves and said nice things. Thanks to those who came out and believed that we could pull this off. I hope this list shows that an event like BarCampRDU is only possible with the help of many individuals. This team came together like super bowl champions.

At the beginning of an unconference, it is common to ask for a show of hands to see how many people had attended an unconference before. I did this at the beginning of BarCampRDU, and I'd say about 5% of the room raised their hands. The beauty of the format is that once you do it, you get it - and can see its uses in many different contexts. At the end of the day, many people were talking about doing smaller unconferences, unconferences within their companies, and so on. Of course, there was also a lot of talk about when the next BarCampRDU was going to be. I do believe a hallmark of this event's success will be the fact it lives on. Hopefully, many more will be able to experience triangle-area BarCamps in the future; I have a good feeling this was just the first of many BarCamps will have in the area.

PS - If I've forgotten anyone on my thank you's, please let me know so I can add them to this list. My apologies in advance.