BarCamp San Antonio

Donald Wilcox, Jennifer Navarrete, Dean McCall & Mandi Leman photo by Laura Lorek

A cool event like Barcamp San Antonio happens because organizers like Dean McCall, Mandi Leman, Donald Wilcox and myself can rely on the help of sponsors to keep camps a true, “Learn, Share, Grow” experience. Sponsors like Microsoft, InnoTech, Ryma, CampusWire, MediaRich, Blog Catalog and Firecat Studio were generous with not only their donations but with their time. Their good will makes these events happen and our goodwill can do the same. Let these folks know you appreciated their contribution to bringing barcamp to the Alamo City.

You can usually find Microsoft’s Philip Wheat at Tech and Community Events around Central and South Texas. Microsoft has been supportive of our efforts here in San Antonio. Sponsoring both Startup Weekend and Barcamp.

Ian Warshak of CampusWire has a nifty service which makes it easy to quickly notify lots of people and let them know what’s going on in an easy breezy manner. Mosey on over to CampusWire and give their service a go with their free trial.

The fine folks at Ryma have some great free online tools for production management. Let Chelsea Woodhead know you heard about their cool tools through Barcamp San Antonio.

Sean Lowery of InnoTech Conferences is looking forward to their annual Spring event here in the San Antonio. Last years conference’s keynote speaker was none other than Guy Kawasaki. Keep an eye out for this years lineup.

The hosts for Barcamp San Antonio was none other than Mandi Leman’s own MediaRich. The Interactive Design Company is in the process of launching a sister company called CampaignStream. We appreciate the generous use of their company headquarters. It was the perfect creative space for Barcamp San Antonio.

BlogCatalog, the premier bloggers social network recently launched a mobile version of their popular site. Tony, Angie, Oscar and Daniel are ongoing supporters of UnConference events as well as sponsors of several live streaming shows.

No Barcamp would be complete without a host of volunteers to make things run smoothly. Starting with Todd O’Neill who set up and manned both live streaming video feeds. The Registration Table was manned by Leslie Baldwin, The morning and evening brew were acquired by Veronica Jorden,. Pictures and video were captured by Rich Harrell. Of course, it’s a barcamp so at some point everyone lends a hand.

Last but certainly not least was the presenters and attendees of Barcamp San Antonio. Thank you for not only coming but for participating. A Barcamp’s success is measured by your interaction. Thanks!

Stay tuned for future camp events in San Antonio: Social Media Club San Antonio monthly gatherings, GreenCamp on April 18, 2009, Podcamp San Antonio on May 16, 2009 or Startup Weekend during the weekend of May 30, 2009.

photo: Rich Harrell of MediaRich

Barcamp San Antonio was an amazing success. We were able to bring together both the experienced Barcamper and the first-timer all under one roof for some amazing conversations. One of the most fascinating things which occurred was when hallway conversations turned into sessions.
One such session was the “Trans-humanism: the path to post-humanism” led by Philip Wheat @pwheat from Microsoft. It related to the augmentism of humanity using technology such as implanted RFID chips and screens implanted beneath the skin which are activated by touch and are Bluetooth enabled. I called it the “Borgification of Man”

George Riley photo: Chuck & Angie of TheThiers.com

Another worth mentioning was the BIL & TED session with Cody Marx Bailey @superphly, Co-Founder of BIL and George Riley of TED. What were the odds that these two gentlemen would be in San Antonio for Barcamp and then decide to lead a session on the well-known and highly  acclaimed, invitation-only $6,000 TED Conference and BIL the free alternative conference that happens across the street from TED? That in and of itself would have been worth attending, but the phenomenal sessions didn’t stop there.
Other topics bringing heated discussion were Joey Lopez’s session titled “Fostering Creative Spaces in San Antonio” and Todd O’Neill’s @doingmedia“ Who Owns Your Online Content” We also saw, videoblogging pioneer and author, Michael Verdi @michaelverdi speak about “Machinima : A tool for creativity” and Sharon Rush of Knowbility was on hand to discuss Accessibility for Web. With AIR San Antonio happening on October 4th it was a great opportunity to sign up to participate on teams for the annual rally. Social Media Maven Connie Reece @conniereece shared her experience with Social Media Club Austin which led to the announcement of Social Media Club San Antonio.

A complete list of the sessions can be found on the wiki.

Laura Marie photo by Jennifer Navarrete

Of course the Barcamp goodness continued on into the evening with some cold brew and hot music by Laura Marie @lauramariemusic.  Another bonus was having Express-News Reporter Laura Lorek on hand to cover the Barcamp San Antonio story. You can read her blog, TechClicks, to find out more.

The overall consensus for the event was that we liked it so much, we’re going to do this again. While that’s all fine and dandy, it is a whole year away! Well, thanks to Social Media Club San Antonio (SMC-SA) we don’t have to wait a whole year to have a gathering that has a camp-like vibe.  SMC-SA will be the 5th SMC Chapter in Texas. Which makes Texas the state with the most chapters. So if you missed Barcamp San Antonio or wish you could recapture energy again, come and join the fun!

Videos are posted!

So San Antonio’s inaugural BarCamp ended Saturday, but the energy is still there. Throughout the entire Saturday, the MediaRich office was bustling with energy coming from college department chairs, students, entrepreneurs, journalists, and just Texans in general. We had great sessions yesterday.

Cody Marx Bailey, organizer of BarCamp Texas in Bryan, came to share his story on Bil & TED, an alternative to the ultra-exclusive TED conference, much like BarCamp itself. Joseph Lopez also talked about ACTLab and impassioned locals in an energetic morning session. Following that upstairs was my presentation on the growth and evolution of San Antonio’s emerging techonlogy industry, complete with Mega Man references, my dry delivery, and determined activists ready to make something out of our town.

The afternoon carried on similarly engaging, if not completely thought-provoking, discussions from trans-/post-humanism to self-branding. Then, BCSA winded down with a great performance by Laura Marie and continued passionate discussions and reflections about our event.

And though it’s over now, BCSA has left a major impression on the community in San Antonio, where SA’s next event will emerge from the enthusiasm of the local community and interacting with link-minded people during BCSA.

Also, since I forgot it originally, I’d like to thank everyone who came to the event for showing their support of BarCamps and San Antonio especially, our sponsors who made this all possible, bloggers and writers who spread the word, and my fellow organizers for putting together such a wonderful event! Let’s continue the momentum!

Woohoo! Barcamp San Antonio is finally here!!!!

The banner is hung, the shirts are folded (only first 100 folks get these smoking hot tees) and the badges are ready.

All we need is you!

Get ready to kick-off the Inaugural Barcamp San Antonio  at 10 am sharp.

Come by early to sign in and get the goods. We’re calling it Registration and Coffee. Remember the Session times are first come first serve……er…um.. I mean first session.

If you want to get your hands on the goodies, enjoy a leisurly cup of coffee while meeting your fellow Barcampers then show up early.

Not only does the early bird get the worm but he also gets a cup of coffee and the first option at Session Topics, Times and Locations. We’ll be there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. <–or at least we will be after we have some of Casa Chiapas coffee.

Our generous sponsors have not only supplied us with the the Barcamp San Antonio goodies, but they’ve also sprung for lunch! We’ll enjoy a taco or two from Tito’s Mexican Restaurant and wash it down with some ice tea from Mad Hatters.

The fun doesn’t stop when the “Official Barcamp Sessions” are over. Not by a long shot. From 6-8pm we will enjoy the musical stylings of Laura Marie http://lauramariemusic.com during the post-Barcamp San Antonio Mixer.

Hang out with your fellow Barcampers in the warm afterglow of what will be a phenominal day of “Learn, Share, Grow” San Antonio Style.

BTW, The entire event will be streamed live on UStream.tv http://www.ustream.tv/channel/barcamp-san-antonio.

So, come on down and join the fun!

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Event: Barcamp San Antonio

Registration & Coffee: 9-10am (CT)

Date: Saturday, September 06, 2008 from 10:00 AM - 06:00 PM (CT)

Lunch: 12:30-1:30pm

Post Barcamp San Antonio Mixer: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Location:
MediaRich
918 South Alamo
San Antonio, TX 78205

If you’re coming from out of town, some choices within walking distance:

Victorian
Beauregard House
Gardenia Inn
King William Manor

Badges?!

We don’t need no stinking badges!

But, thanks to graphic designer, podcaster and MVN NBA Director, Michael De Leon, we will have some rocking badges to go along with our smoking hot t-shirts.

CampusWire is the most recent company to join the fun.

We’re happy to welcome them to what will surely be a spectacular Innaugural Barcamp for San Antonio.

For folks who have missed the whole “Camps are cool” thing.

Camps are meant to foster the “Learn, Share, Grow” of knowledge and ideas around technology and social media both online and within a local community. San Antonio has hosted Podcamp San Antonio 2007 &

2008 and even Startup Weekend what we were missing was a Barcamp. Barcamps have been held in all the major cities in Texas save our own. Well on September 6th that will all change.

Here is a brief explanation of how a Barcamp works and how we expect Barcamp San Antonio will progress:

First of all, Barcamp is an UnConference aka User Generated Conference.

You may be asking yourself, “What is an UnConference?”

The Organizers facilitate the location, goodies, meals, sponsors etc… and on the day of a barcamp we open the doors and whoever shows up is who is presenting topics. Anyone can present or lead a conversation. It’s meant to be conversational and interactive.

Ex.

At a traditional conference you have a predetermined list of speakers and topics. You as the audience are merely attendees. Maybe if you’re lucky there will be a Q&A at the end of a session and you might get to ask one question. At an UnConference, you as a participant have just as much right to speak about a topic being presented as the person who is leading the conversation. Have a question? Ask it right then and there. There is no waiting until the end of a session to ask questions. Have something to add or an alternate view point? Jump in and add your knowledge to the conversation.

Someone who is a presenter of a topic should be prepared for the additional conversation of the folks in the room with you. It is highly interactive and never boring. Thinking on your feet and flying by the seat of your pants are the perfect cliches for a Barcamp session.

So who is presenting?

You are.

After you’ve signed in for Barcamp, you’ll notice several white pieces of paper taped to the wall with times marked off: 10-11am, 11-11:30am, 11:30am-12:30pm, etc… If you have a topic you would like to present, pick a time slot and put it down. Folks will reference these sheets which are for designated rooms when deciding which session they would like to attend.  At the designated time go to the appropriate room and get going. Although sessions can ignite great debate and interaction, be respectful of the next persons time slot and wrap your sessions up in a timely manner. However, we don’t want that great conversation to end so we have several breakout locations to continue the fun.

This sounds cool, where do I sign up?

You can Register Here

You may have heard we were “Sold Out”. While Barcamps are free events and in theory cannot be sold out, we did have limited space at our current venue. We would never turn anyone away. So, we decided to add a couple of additional venues within walking distance of MediaRich. Our first satellite location will be at Casa Chiapas which is one door down from MediaRich. The next one is at Mad Hatters. The third one is at El Sol Studios.

When does all this great Barcamp San Antonio goodness happen?

Barcamp San Antonio is on Saturday, September 6th from 10am-6pm at MediaRich on S. Alamo in Southtown (next to Rosario’s). Here is the preliminary schedule:

9am-10am Coffee & Registration

10am Barcamp kicks off

12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch!

1:30-5:30ish More Barcamp Goodness

6:00pm Barcamp Mixer

Be sure and Register to let us know you’re coming. We’ll see you next week!

We’ve been lucky enough to gather a generous force of sponsors to help make Barcamp San Antonio not only an amazing experience but a free one. While Barcamps much like Podcamps are meant to foster the “Learn, Share, Grow” of a community it does require the investment of time and money to bring it all together.

Mandi, Dean, Donald and I are more than happy to spend the time to create a cool event like Barcamp San Antonio. We’re equally happy that our sponsors are willing to invest in the community by sponsoring Barcamp San Antonio.   Since sponsors are the unsung hero’s of any camp. I’d like to take this time to sing the praises of the folks at the following companies: Philip Wheat at Microsoft, Chelsea Woodhead and John H. Williams at Ryma, Sean Lowery at InnoTech Conference, Mandi Leman and Michael Leman at MediaRich, Tony Berkman, Oscar Tijerina & Daniel Tijerina at BlogCatalog and Susan Price at Firecat Studio. Each and everyone of these companies has made an investment in order to make real the idea of bringing a barcamp to San Antonio. I applaud each and everyone of these folks and their respective companies.

Thanks!