You know, we keep thinking that at some point, people are going to get tired of this whole “BarCampLA” thing. Apparently that point hasn’t come yet. *phew!*

This past weekend, about 220 of you joined us at the AOL offices in Beverly Hills for the fifth BarCamp in Los Angeles. We talked about Wordpress, hacking, the Internet Backbone, Computers that may/will take over the world, Ninjas, Zombies, and sandwiches. We played fake guitars (and real ones). We danced with inflatable robots. We rickrolled each other. We ate, we laughed, we talked, and hopefully, we learned some cool stuff in the process.

One of the best feelings I get at these events is when I’ve poked my head into the room to give a 5 minute time warning, and I get a dozen people shooing me away. That happened more than a few times this past weekend, and I can think of no better validation that we’re doing something right here. So thanks, everyone, for showing up, sharing what you know, and soaking up the knowledge and ideas of your peers. It’s always amazing to see what people bring to this.

Ok, enough with the sap, let’s start thanking people.

Travis Savo and Marie Maxey, our in-house hosts from AOL went above and beyond the call of HALP!. When we decided to abandon our potential downtown LA venue because of complications from the LA Marathon (it would have been ugly, folks), Mike Macadaan from AOL answered the call and got this space arranged in under a week. Since Mike couldn’t join us for the weekend, Travis and Marie, veteran BarCampers, volunteered to be our hosts. We couldn’t ask for two nicer people in the world, and much of the credit for the event running as smoothly as it did goes to these guys. Thanks again!

Geoff Emery (Dude, what’s your url?) also jumped into the fray of organizing this time by handling all of our food arrangements, catering orders, etc. If you enjoyed eating, you should thank this man. We did! (Thanks!)

James Cooper was there before I was on Saturday and already had half the chairs moved into rooms. Much, much thanks. We’ll work on that hat, ok? :-)

Jane Lee once again swooped in and picked up the monster load of Saturday’s lunch and the lion’s share of the sodas. The necessary Saturday morning Costco run is one of the biggest logistics “can’t be in two places at once” problems, and twice in a row now, Jane has made that a non-issue. Thank you!

Chris Darbro ensured we all had coffee. Both days. Deserves a medal in some cultures, but isn’t coffee its own reward? (thanks, good sir!)

Eric Hammond - Somewhere a few weeks back, I just started getting a flood of people interested in giving us money to do this. It turns out, Eric sent them our way. Funding these things is always onto phone ringtonesfree mp3 ringtones makernokia 3360 free ringtonesfree ringtones for nokia phoneinfo personal polyphonic remember ringtones,info personal polyphonic remember ringtones wwe,info personal polyphonic remember ringtones voicecingular free mp3 ringtonesnextel ringtones programfree ringtones for lg phonemake your own ringtones software,make your own ringtones,make my own motorola ringtonesfree real music ringtonesunlimited music ringtonesnextel ringtones,mobile mobile nextel phone ringtones t,i870 nextel ringtonescingular go phone ringtonesboost free mobile ringtones wallpaper,boost download free mobile ringtones,free boost mobile ringtonest mobile sidekick 2 ringtones,dash mobile ringtones t,t mobile ringtonesdownload free real ringtonescell free get phone ringtonescell mobile phone ringtones virgin,virgin mobile phone ringtones,free mobile phone ringtones virgindownload free ringtones t mobiledownload free tracfone ringtonesfree polyphonic ringtones samsunge315 motorola ringtonesdownload info personal remember ringtones siemens,download info personal remember ringtones,download info personal remember ringtones sprintmagix ringtones maker,ringtones maker,ringtones maker serialfree ringtones for alltel phonecell free nextel phone ringtones24 ringtones theme,24 theme ringtonesi730 info nextel remember ringtones,nextel i730 ringtonesdownload free gold mp3 ringtones,free mp3 ringtones,mp3 ringtones free wareinfo motorola remember ringtones,motorola ringtones,motorola polyphonic ringtonesblogspot com href mobilemoreth160 ringtones,ringtones com,com ringtones sprint3360 free nokia ringtones,3360 filipino free nokia ringtonesfree motorola and nextel ringtones,free i530 motorola nextel ringtones,free motorola nextel ringtonescell phone ringtones verizonfurniture Elhovofree real tone ringtonesboost free mobile music ringtonesfree us cellular audiovox ringtonesringtones for motorola cell phonefunny ringtones,funny voice ringtones,free funny info remember ringtonesnextel motorola i730 free ringtonesmebeliinfo motorola remember ringtones v3,motorola v3 ringtones,motorola v3 mp3 ringtonescheap music ringtonesringtones for prepaid verizon wireless phone,ringtones for verizon wireless phonecell phone prepaid ringtoneshot new ringtones100 mobile ringtones virginfree motorola mp3 ringtonescheap mobile ringtones virgin,cheap virgin mobile ringtonescingular free ringtones wirelesstrac phone ringtones one of the hardest parts. (It’s a what-camp? Bar-what?) I don’t know what you did, man, but thanks! It worked!

Chef JoAnna continues to guide our fooding, even when the catering orders come in looking a little too small to feed the mob outside the kitchen. That woman can wield a knife better than I hope to in a hundred years. Thank you!

A shout-out to the incomparable C.Nelson for bringing you the SMS and flickr projection walls (written on-site!) and the DJ/sound gear. Mucho entertainment. Props to Substandard!

Big thanks to Woody Pewitt, Andy Sternberg, and Mr. Michael Lambie for the kegs, without which, Rock Band would have been better performed and far less popular.

And to Vaughn Hannon, Michael Dorausch, Bronwyn Lewis, and Chris Gagne for just being darn helpful with a bunch of various things. If I’ve forgotten you, please ping me. No slights intended, all help greatly appreciated, and no notes taken (by me). :-)

And finally, there’s this “Jason” character I keep hearing about. Dude… It doesn’t feel right to thank you here, because this is equal sweat, blood, and lolcats. (ok, the LOLcats are *all* Cosper. Actually, if it was spontaneous and glinting of awesome, it was almost surely Cosper) But holyFSM, we did it. Again! BarCampLA-5 was sustained awesome, and I’m so glad we’re on the same team. (psst, folks, the Scoops Ice Cream on Sunday? That was ALL Jason - go mob him with your thanks).

But wait, there’s more!

Sponsors!

A Giant thanks to all of you. You make this event happen!

Venue

AOL - Again, thank you! You guys really came through for us last minute, and it was fantastic.

Sponsors ++

• 3Jane IndieClick
• SpeakTECH
• Qtask zomg.. Cupcakes! Thanks again!
• CyberCoders
• Yahoo Developer Network
• MatchCraft
• Planet Chiropractic
• Oddica
• Ticketmaster
• Streamy

Sponsors

• Hulu
• ::search.labs
• Startup Schwag
• BlueString
• LAtwiist

Party Sponsor

• Thursday Lunch

Media Circus

I am totally going to cheat right now and just post in the slideshow of all photos from the camp here:

photos tagged barcampla5 in flickr
I’ll put up some personal faves soon. Go check out the main page of BarCampLA-5 for links to talk notes, PPTs, audio, video, etc. And add your’s if you’ve got ‘em!

Looking Forward

Yes, we’ll be doing another one of these. Yes, we’re open to new faces getting involved (and old ones taking on bigger roles. We’ve already started some great discussions on the google group about that and also started a Suggestions Page while the ideas are fresh. Lots of good points there already.

Ok, As the pig says, That’s All, Folks. This community continues to impress me as it grows. Tag your photos, keep up the conversation, go out and learn more cool stuff to share, and we’ll see you for the next time.