Big thanks to all for BarCamp RDU 2008!

To the campers, volunteers and sponsors of BarCamp RDU 2008,

Thanks for making BarCamp RDU 2008 a wonderfully successful event! We brought together around 150 of the best and brightest developers, web technologists, designers, scientists, entrepreneurs, social media experts and open source advocates in the Triangle area and surrounding regions. Anybody who wanted could pitch a session and we ended up with 41 sessions on topics of software development, business, social media, science, education and even cross step waltz. We learned a heck of a lot from each other and had a lot of fun in the process. Below is the session grid that the attendees put together.

You can find a list of the sessions, broken down by category and room size here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxWBlx3_nQhOhwUH1jWnfMw

Thanks to our generous host Red Hat, we were able to provide excellent facilities with a variety of rooms, white boards, projectors, a public address system. Thanks to our financial sponsors, we enjoyed a pre-party at Tyler's Tap Room in Durham, NC on the Friday evening before camp. And we enjoyed a breakfast of bagels, fruit and coffee. We had lunch from NeoMonde restaurant and provide plenty of sodas and water throughout the day. Clearwire provided additional wifi for attendees.

We took time to thank our sponsors at the event, on the event page, in our blog post about the event, on the back of the t-shirts and on signs placed prominently around the venue. Below is an example.

Let's thank them one more time! Big thanks to BlueStripe Software, Canonical, Carborro Creative Coworking, Design Hammer, Edge Office, IBM developerWorks, iContact, Lulu.com, Montie Design, OpenNMS.org, Red Hat, rPath and Viget Labs.

In past years, BarCamp RDU was organized by Fred Stutzman. This year it was organized by:

• Dave Johnson (coordination and sponsors)
• Wayne Sutton (t-shirts and technology)
• Andi Johnson (budget and vendors)
• Kipp Bodnar (voluneer coordinator)
• Matt Frye (Coffee and sound)
• Scott Morningstar (Badges)
• Fred Stutzman and others monitored our mailing list to make sure we didn't panic

There were a couple of hiccups and things to be improved next year, but overall we think this was the best BarCamp RDU yet and Fred agrees. We're looking forward do doing it again so, it won't be too long before you are hearing from us about the next BarCamp RDU. Thanks again for your support.

Thanks again for your support!

PS. here are some more links about BarCamp RDU 2008

Pictures at Flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fstutzman/tags/barcamprdu2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snoopdave/tags/barcamprdu2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynesutton/tags/barcamprdu2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photo_td/tags/barcamprdu2008

Blog posts and articles tagged with barcamprdu2008

http://delicious.com/tag/barcamprdu2008

And a lot of folks were Twittering about BarCamp RDU too:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=barcamprdu

BarCampers: come celebrate BarCamp eve with us!

If you are one of the 250 lucky folks registered for BarCamp RDU 2008, then you are invited to a party! BarCamp RDU attendees, please join us at Tyler's Tap Room (map) in Durham's American Tobacco Historic District this Friday night to meet, greet and celebrate BarCamp eve with us. We'll be providing beverages (beer, wine, sodas, etc.) and light snacks (chips and salsa). See you there!

BarCamp RDU Pre-party
Friday August 1, 2008 from 7:30 - 9:00PM
Tyler's Tap Room
324 Blackwell St
Durham, NC 27701

And of course, the party would not be possible without the generous support of our most excellent sponsors: BlueStripe Software, Canonical, Carborro Creative Coworking, Design Hammer, Edge Office, IBM developerWorks, iContact, Lulu.com, Montie Design, OpenNMS.org, Red Hat, rPath and Viget Labs.

4 days 'til BarCampRDU

BarCamp RDU 2008 is one week from today and it's shaping up the be the biggest and I hope the best BarCamp RDU so far.

Here are a couple of notes for attendees:

Check the attendee list! On July 21, we decided we had budget and space to register everybody on the waiting list. If you were on the waiting list you are now registered to attend.

Remove yourself if you can't attend. If you registered but cannot make it, please remove your name from the list. For planning purposes, we need to have as accurate a count as is possible.

Propose sessions in advance. If you are interested in initiating or attending a session on a specific topic, then go right ahead and add your topic to the Proposed Sessions list.

Oh, and if you are interested in helping out with preparations or on the day of the event, then please let us know (dave.johnson at rollerweblogger.org,  wayne at wayne-sutton.com or Kipp Bodnar http://twitter.com/kbodnar32  )

And one final note. BarCamp RDU would not be possible without the very generous financial support of our sponsors and our host. So...

Thanks to the BarCamp RDU 2008 sponsors!

• BlueStripe Software


• Canonical


• Carborro Creative
  Coworking


• Design Hammer


• Edge Office


• IBM developerWorks


• iContact


• Lulu.com


• Montie Design


• OpenNMS.org


• Red Hat (BarCamp RDU 2006,
  2007 and 2008 host)


• rPath


• Viget Labs

See you next Saturday at BarCamp RDU 2008!

BarCamp2008, Introducing Wayne Sutton

As the weather heats up, our thoughts turn to that wonderful summer ritual - BarCampRDU! Following on the success of the 2006 and 2007 BarCamps, this summer's BarCamp stands to be the best yet. After two years at the helm of BarCampRDU, I'm proud to pass along my leadership position to Wayne Sutton. Many of you know Wayne: he was a strategic volunteer in 2006, and was my right-hand aide in 2007. He's agreed to organize BarCampRDU 2008, and I know our summer geekfest is in great hands.

If you'd like to find out more about Wayne, you can check out his webpage, or follow his Twitter. Wayne is also responsible for the incredible community resource SocialCarolina.org, a great repository of meetups and tech events in the Carolinas. Of course, BarCampRDU would never work without the many volunteers and members of the organizing committee that assist in planning and execution, it is truly a group effort. If you're interested in helping out, watch this blog as I know Wayne will be looking for volunteers, organizers and sponsors.

Thanks to everyone who has made BarCampRDU such an awesome event. I'm really looking forward to BarCamp this summer - so watch this space for more info!