BarCamp 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!

Check out the smoking hot t-shirts that the first 100 Barcamp San Antonio attendees will get when they show up on Saturday morning. You won’t want to miss out on these, so get here early.

Barcamp San Antonio t-shirt

We’ll see you at September 6th for Registration & Coffee from 9-10am at MediaRich.

Okay, so there was no cost to get in, so it’s not really “sold out,” but we’ve reached the allotted number of registrants on our registration page, so you may have to wait for San Antonio’s next BarCamp!

If you are interested in sponsoring BCSA, however, you can do so by e-mailing me directly at makiten@blackinc-sba.com. If you’re on Twitter, however, you may message @mandileman, who is not only an organizer, but was gracious enough to provide the venue and web space for BCSA. Big thanks to her and the rest of the people at MediaRich for making this possible.

If you’re looking to go to BarCamp San Antonio in September, we’ve only got 13 8 4 tickets left before this event is full!

You can still register for BCSA at http://barcampsanantonio.eventbrite.com. Look forward to seeing all of you!

BarCamp San Antonio is only a few short weeks away! We’re really excited about our upcoming “unconference,” and we’re off to a good start.

If you’re planning on attending, register for BarCamp San Antonio here!

BCSA will be held Saturday September 6, 2008 at the MediaRich Studio on S. Alamo starting at 9 AM. For those of you who need the address, we have it below:

918 S Alamo St
San Antonio, TX 78205

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