BarCamp Calgary

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!

Patrick and I went to Critical Mass on Friday to see how they run their BeerCamp. I was really impressed with the turnout! Super happy to see that many people on a Friday afternoon (they run a BeerCamp on the first Friday of every month).

They ran three tracks, with a schedule posted on each door. I started my afternoon off by listening/watching a Critical Mass group of Rock Band. They rocked a couple of tunes on HARD, which was pretty impressive. I gotta say though, that was the tamest Rock Band Session I’ve ever seen…

Second session, I went to an overview on Amazon Web Services given by Devlin Dunsmore and Mike Tighe. We’re so Web2.0 focused in my office, it was interesting to hear an explanation on EC2 and S3 for people who don’t sleep with their laptops. Devlin and Mike did a great job.

I then went to listen to Christian Idicula, a regular DemoCamp/BarCamp attendee. He talked about the website he made for Don Iveson. He explained the thought process behind creating the website and the different tools they used during Don Iveson’s campaign.

The last session I attended was Mike Tighe, again, talking about Keywords (yay!), while Patrick gave a talk about his experiences in another session.

One thing I really liked about about the set up at Critical Mass was the wide variety of topics. I would love for all of us to keep that in mind for the next BarCamp. Anything you want to give a talk on, throw it out there! I’d way rather hear something new and interesting over yet-another-talk on How to Network. BeerCamp has definitely inspired me to invite anyone interesting that I know and not just limit myself to the Tech community.

Thanks again to Critical Mass for inviting us to join you!

On the weekend Alison Bracegirdle from CBC radio was reporting for the Calgary Eyeopener. If you didn’t get the chance to hear the report checkout the mp3 of the broadcast.

December 17: Calgary has finally proved itself “tech-worthy” enough to get a Silicon Valley-inspired tradition.
We’ll find out more about Bar Camp - as this tech entrepreneur event made its debut in Calgary this weekend.

MP3 of the broadcast

After many weeks of planning it was great to see so many people out to the very first BarCamp! We’d like to extend a huge thanks to everyone that came and helped make version one such a success. It was great to meet new people as well as be a part of some amazing conversations.

We’re currently putting together some pictures and video from the day, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out some of the pictures being tagged in flickr, as well as other commentary from the day on technorati.

We’d love to hear your feedback as we start to organize BarCampCalgary V.2!

Sorry to reiterate the address again, but we just wanted everyone to know exactly where to go on Saturday.

IBM building north east corner (see photo):

Larger photo on flickr

If you get lost we recommend just screaming at the top of your lungs, or look for a poster with the BarCampCalgary Logo.

Only a few days left until BarCamp and we’d like to take a moment to thank our awesome sponsors. Cambrian House, IBM, Material Insight and Microsoft Canada are all committed to making BarCampCalgary a success. Steam Whistle Brewery is committed to making sure we don’t go thirsty during the day!

We’re working hard to make sure everything goes smoothly on the day, but of course, we’ll need some help. Be prepared to speak when you arrive at BarCamp. If you don’t end up speaking on anything, please lend a hand with setting up or taking down.

David thinks it is a good idea to include a map to the event. IBM kindly donated space for us and their office is at 227-11th Ave SW

If anyone has any lingering questions or concerns about the day, please let us know!

Welcome to the new home of BarCamp Calgary! Things are hastily being put together in preparations for our very first BarCamp. Expect a few changes here and there to the site over the next little while, but in the meantime checkout our past Wiki page: http://barcamp.org/BarCampCalgary1

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

PS. If you haven’t made the cut off for BarCamp, make sure to checkout DemoCamp!