BarCampSydney2
Well, I drove up to Sydney today (and back) for BarCampSydney2 - unfortunately I had to be back in Canberra this evening so I couldn’t stay for drinks - but it was a really good day; well worth the 5 hours driving (er yes, somehow Yelena manages to shorten the time needed to travel places; it’s magic! From Canberra to Sydney CBD in 2 hours 25 minutes).
I finally got to meet Nick Hodge and Tangler Mick, plus heaps of other cool people: Rob Sharp etc - people on this list … people not on this list.
I did put my name down for a presentation; unfortunately the session before mine ran half an hour overtime. I rescheduled it for the afternoon … and the session before that session ran overtime 45 minutes. So I didn’t get to give mine. Well it wasn’t really a presentation - just wanted to have a group discussion about freelancing, and talk about people’s challenges with freelancing, scaling down things like usability testing, UCD, persona development and market research to suit small-budget, small-scope projects to maintain good web practice without the overhead of sometimes expensive, time-consuming and resource-consuming activities that books on such topics usually advise on. Also wanted to go into contracts, quoting, project management, billing models, outsourcing/subcontracting etc. Ah well; some of these issues were touched on in other topics such as the one on start-ups. Have to admit … kinda happy I missed out on presenting … felt nervous being around so many smart people! Gosh I feel like I know nothing!
Now we just have to get a BarCamp happening here in Canberra! Ajay, if you find out the names of those two Canberra people that were there today, let me know!
Oh and the parking in the Star City underground car park is not short-term; cost me $17 for less than an hour! Just wanted a quick look around Darling Harbour before heading home. Oh and my Navman GPS doesn’t work too well in Sydney’s many tunnels.
Ok that is all - I must now has my sleep.
August 25th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
You only think they are smart people because they are voicing information an facts that maybe their entire knowledge base. You know just as much as they do, if no more (on some topics).
The difference I’m finding between us and the perceived them is not much at all if any. I bet a good load of people would have loved your discussion. I know I would have.
Anyway it sounded like BarCampSydney2 was a blast. Good to see it had the session time issues that all barcamps do!
August 26th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Maybe they need a giant egg timer to keep discussions (roughly) to schedule!
August 26th, 2007 at 11:48 am
YELENA IS TEH KUTEH. LUV MEGAN
August 26th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
LOL yes, yes she is - her and Megan got along really well together and she can’t stop talking about how much fun she had.
*thinks he needs to clarify who Yelena and Megan are, to the ignorant*
August 26th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Nathanael, it was sooo good that you drove all that way to BCS2! But I am soo sad to hear that after all that travel you got edged out of the chance to speak by people going overtime. A few of us unorganisers had a bit of a debrief over a drink at the pub and spoke about the time probs with the schedule. So, rest assured we’re onto to it for next time. I’ll add the giant egg-timer to the list of possible strategies.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Nathanael I’m sorry to hear you drove all the way up from Canberra and didn’t get to speak. That sucks! I know our session ran overtime a bit so apologies there!
I’ll get on those invites for you double quick
I’ll look forward to BCS3, and we’ll wear badges “Vote for Nathanael” so that it doesn’t happen again eh?
August 26th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
The suggestion isn’t that silly. You could just appoint a person to be the time keeper of each room and say time and you have a few minutes to wrap it up. They have the power to close it all down. After all it effects other people that may have wanted to hear the next talk etc etc.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Shame you didn’t get a chance to get up and speak Nat, I was really interested in your thoughts on freelancing. Massive effort driving all that way! The timing issues were a bit of a problem at BarCamp, let’s hope we can sort it out for next time. See you then!
August 26th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Nat, glad you did turn up for BCS2 and more happy that you enjoyed yourself. I shall definitely see if I can remember the other 2 folks from Canberra and pass on the details.
What I liked about BCS2 was there were new and old faces and coinciding with UTS Open day meant that budding geeks were also keen on about BarCamp.
And as Christy says, we shall see if can have a more semi-organised session, but that’s the beauty of BarCamp, it’s on-the-day schedule and the longer the sessions run, the more the people seem interested. You can probably schedule yourself one of the first session at BCS3 *hint hint nudge nudge*
And hope we can get BarCampCanberra going too
And I missed meeting Yelena too, but maybe I can meet her when I come down.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Oh I didn’t mind the drive at all! Yelena made the trip quite enjoyable!
I’ll see you all again hopefully in a few weeks time for WDS07!
August 26th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
And Yelena I hope. And you can enjoy the Sydney After-Parties
August 27th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
[...] Session times. There were too many people who missed out on giving talks before other ones ran over. In particular, it was fantastic to have some folks from Canberra drive all the way, but terrible to hear Nathanael didn’t get the chance to present. We’ve got a few ideas on how we’ll balance the need to converse for a while about popular topics whilst still allowing everyone who wants to present to get the chance to. [...]
August 31st, 2007 at 10:47 pm
It’s disappointing that you didn’t get to do your talk - it’s certainly one I’d be very interested in!
Anyway, it was awesome to meet up, and hopefully we’ll catch up again soon!