BarCamp Calgary

We have a saboteur - somebody out to destroy all the good things that DemoCampCalgary is trying to create. When the DemoCamp organizers showed up at Melrose on Tuesday night, the manager told us that someone had called to cancel the event booking. He told us that he didn’t have anyone to staff the room we were booked in, and there was a construction crew in there as well. After much consternation, they managed to get us into the second level, which wasn’t as ideal as the theatre on the lower level.

It was probably just a simple understanding, but wouldn’t life be more exciting if we really did have a mole in the midst? However, rest assured that having lived through that experience once, we don’t ever plan on letting it happen again. We’ll be calling in to confirm our reservations from here on in!

So, apologies to everyone for a less than optimal experience. Then again, there were lots of smiles and some great discussions in the crowd - could it have anything to do with the beverages?

After a late start, the audience of 50 or so attendees saw 4 company presentations and one special project presentation. First, the companies:

• Mob4Hire: Paul Poutanen presented this crowdsourced platform for testing mobile applications. Participants from every region throughout the world are encouraged to register the model of their phone, their location, and their service provider. Developers of mobile applications can tap into the crowd and seek testing on specific phones in specific locales on specific carriers, or test their applications across the entire Mob4Hire network.

• Aviary: I presented Aviary, an outrageously cool set of online design applications. Think Photoshop, Illustrator and 14 other applications, all of them working within your browser - no downloads required. The system tracks every version that is saved, and allows sharing of source files - allowing the community to collaborate on design projects with ease. Drop me a line if you’d like a beta invite.

• Xtreme Technologies: Chris Becker presented the XLink, a cellular phone gateway that allows you to answer cellphone calls on your home phone. The device connects to your cellphone through bluetooth, and has an output jack that you plug your home phone system into. Calls to your cellphone will ring through to your home system whenever your cell is within bluetooth range of the XLink. It allows you to use all those unlimited evenings and weekends minutes while your cellphone is charging. If you’d like to try it out, go to their online store and type “barcamp” into the coupon code field for 20% off.

• Ph03nixNewMedia: Jon Lam presented “Curse of the Pharoah”, a casual game which is currently hosted on Big Fish Games. It was an instant success, and Big Fish promptly ordered up two more titles.

Matt Beck, a student from the University of Calgary presented Alberta’s entry in the Solar Decathlon. Along with students from MRC and SAIT, the team is the first-ever Western Canadian team to gain entry into this international competition. They must compete in 10 separate contests, from designing and building a solar home, to creating enough energy to power an electric vehicle for a day. The competition will be held in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2009.

DCC9 is just around the corner (this Tuesday) and this is your friendly reminder to get down to Melrose for 6:30pm. Where is Melrose you ask? Just off 17th ave (red mile territory) off the corner of 7th St SW. Also if you haven’t registered please do so.

Also for those keeners out there, we’ve started to twitter with the hash tag #DemoCampCalgary so if you want to get on with some craaaaazy twittering regarding DemoCampCalgary go nuts.

Who’s presenting? Will Madonna sing? Is someone having a party? Find out by coming down!

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder to mark DemoCamp on your calendars for May.

Mark your calendars:

May 13th 6:30pm – May 13th 8:30pm, 2008 DemoCampCalgary 9– at Melrose Cafe & Bar - Calgary, AB

Sign up here.

Please let us know if you’d like to Demo anything. April’s DemoCamp was really great, so we’re looking forward to the next one.

Just a small heads up, this is six days before my 30th birthday, so if you feel compelled to bring gifts along, I’ll totally accept them.

Blue + BarCamp Crew

Thanks for coming out to DemoCamp last night - we had an awesome time!

For a great review of the evening, check out Christian Idicula’s blog. There was a great turn out of people, many of them having never been to DemoCamp before. It was awesome chatting with some new people.

We enjoyed having DemoCamp at Melrose - although next time we’ll try and plan the seating a little better.

If anyone has any suggestions or feedback from last night, please let us know. Also, if you are interested in doing a Demo next month, drop us an email. Remember: you don’t need to be giving a pitch, we’re totally easy going. Come out and show us what you are up to!

David and Sarah

Hello everyone,

DemoCamp at Vicious Circle was so enjoyable, we’ve decided to keep up the drinking theme! April’s DemoCamp will be held at Melrose Cafe and Bar on 17th Ave and 7th St SW. The DemoCamp crew went and had a beer there under the guise of “making sure it’ll work” and I’m happy to report that the nachos are tasty. Bring your Demos, bring your questions, bring your appetites!

If anyone is interested in presenting, let us know right away.

——-

Mark your calendars:

April 8th 6:30pm – April 8th 8:30pm, 2008 DemoCampCalgary 8– at Melrose Cafe & Bar - Calgary, AB

Tags: democampcalgary democamp

Sign up here.

It was a packed house last night at Vicious Circle, where four intrepid companies demonstrated their wares on questionable A/V equipment and slow wi-fi while background music was emanating from the other side of the bar. And by all accounts, it was a huge hit. The casual atmosphere gave DemoCampers an opportunity to freely mix while enjoying the beverage of their choice, and we saw a lot of mixing going on. A majority of the attendees stuck around for an hour or two after the event, exchanging ideas, advice and business cards.

There are at least two reasons why you would attend a DemoCamp - the first one is to see the latest and greatest stuff from fellow technology entrepreneurs; the second one is to meet some interesting people with common interests and goals. Last night, we succeeded in both areas for many, if not all attendees. Be sure to give us your feedback, as the organizing committee continues to work on making these events even better!

Here’s a wrap up of the companies that presented last night:

Casey Pechet of IVOXX demonstrated the ultimate iPod accessory - it was a voice-recognition device that attaches to the back of an iPod. Still in prototype form, he first gave the command “play some stones” to the device - and a Rolling Stones song played. He gave it a command to “play some Led Zeppelin”, and it did. Then, he asked it to “play more like this”, and the device played a somewhat similar song. The final production version will also be able to accept commands such as “play something higher energy” or “play something slow”. This has huge implications for those of us who aren’t organized enough to categorize our music libraries. The device is slated for an August release, and will retail at $129 as an official “made for iPod”, Apple approved product.

Lino Ramirez of Aranducorp showed us what appeared to be an early build of a predictive analytics engine for charities. The product, when released, will help charities raise more money by helping them to predict and target those most sympathetic and generous to the cause.

Lorand Szojka of JIT Resources showed a customer site developed on their video streaming platform, which delivers private training and corporate messaging videos to enterprise clients.

To round out the evening, Matt Cox and Sarath Samarasekera demoed Shopster, which was described as a fully-networked retail e-commerce solution. For companies and individuals looking for an alternative to advertising-based revenues, Shopster offers a fully-customizable e-commerce store site template, complete with over 1,000,000 items in inventory.

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Mark your calendars for the next event:

April 8th 6:30pm – April 8th 8:30pm, 2008
DemoCampCalgary 8– at Melrose Cafe & Bar - Calgary, AB

Tags: democampcalgary democamp

Sign up here.

Time flies.. And DemoCampCalgary 7 is quickly rounding the corner. This time around however we’re trying to give everyone a lot more notice. Along with that notice we’re now asking people to register to attend as our venues have limited capacity.

Please take a moment to register for DC7

We’ll be posting more about the presenters here in the near future, so stay tuned.

Microformat calendar for this event:

March 11, 2008 6:30–10pm – DemoCamp 7– at Vicious Circle, Calgary, AB

DemoCampCalgary Round 7, we are going less formal - now the whole thing includes beer!

Tags: democampcalgary demo camp democamp

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Thanks to everyone that partook at DemoCamp 6 at Critical Mass!

For those that may have missed it, there are a few photos of the evening posted on flickr.

See you at DC7!

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you are driving down tonight you will be able to park in the Critical Mass parking lot. It’s gated, but someone should be around to let you in.

Please try and make sure to show up around 6pm; you’ll have to sign in and head up to the 4th floor to catch the Demos.

See you then!

We’ve just got confirmation that DemoCampCalgary will be held at Critical Mass on Feb 12th at 6:30pm at 402 11th Ave SE. As people will need to get buzzed in, please show up in between 6:00pm and 6:30pm. CM was kind enough to offer up a space for us and the more convienient location should be easier for everyone. Having said that, the room holds 50 people, so get there on time!

It should be a great evening with 5 scheduled demos and 2 Ignite presentations. This can be a BYOB event, or we can head down the street after and try and make our way through the martini list at Vicious Circle (does anyone have a preference on going somewhere else? let me know).

Looking forward to seeing you all!