There's been a US and UK election since my last post but it's time to saddle up and ride this ol' blog horse once more. Besides, this event really does deserve a mention.
Q: What do you get when you take several hundred sticks of rock, a wizard, 120 technology people, a pieman, a sprinkling of speakers, a free bar and leave them all in a casino ballroom for a day?
A: Barcamp Blackpool (@bcblackpool)
For anyone who's not attended such an event before it's a free developer and technology unconference.
Unconference!? What's that?
Talks are arranged on the day, simply turn up with one and stick a post-it with your talk name in one of the available slots. Delightfully low tech and the ensuing speaker scrumdown is a marvellous spectacle. Only the strongest survive. If Attenborough made people documentaries ...
Once talks are posted you're then free, after a quick ice-breaker, to browse the line-up and drop in on anything that takes your fancy.
Talk, Talk, Talk
Talks covered a variety of subjects both technical and non-technical subjects from British Sign Language to jQuery to Ferret Keeping although it's fair to say the majority of talks have an IT bias.
Excepting the free pie for lunch notable highlights included sessions on 45 Second Elevator Pitches, IT Recruitment (by a recruiter and nice chap I should say), Sociograms (that's connections between groups to you and me), IT Education and more.
Educational part over it's on to evening entertainment including free food, free bar and magic show before a careless plunge into the murky depths of Blackpool proper. Did I mention there's some free stuff?
A special mention is also deserving of the organiser, and my pink haired ferret-loving @esendex colleague Gemma Cameron (@ruby_gem) whose tireless enthusiasm, merry band of helpers and fondness of wine made the event hugely entertaining.!
The Rollercoaster Of Barcamp Love
- The Big One @ Blackpool Pleasure Beach
- Inspirational Speakers
- My first, and I suspect last ever, game of Werewolf*
- Karaoke Fun Bar - Blackpool's 8-Mile styled rap dungeon complete with MCs
- Pies
- Squirty Gertie
- Exchanging Ideas
* When Barcamp became Band-Camp. Ask @neilkilbride for his cup truly overfloweth.
Barcamp comes to Nottingham
Celebrate! Barcamp is coming to Nottingham. Join the discussion at the Google Group here.
