Comments on: BarCampLA 8 update – (postponed)

By: Mack Reed

Mack Reed — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:11:19 +0000

As a charter BarCamper (haven’t missed one yet) let me say I think going to once a year is a big mistake.

This community is so prolific and the evolution of its work – and the market space – is so virulent and fast, that we’ll be missing out on a huge amount of innovation that could inform and enrich all of our working knowledge and personal/professional/creative evolution.

Active BCers will have to choose now from among twice as many cool projects/ideas the ones that deserve their one or two presentation slots, and we’ll miss out on many more of the ones they didn’t show.

I hope I speak for more than a few of us in saying let’s shoot to have the biannual schedule continue.

As this excellent community grows, shrinking the window through which we all get to view it is counterproductive, untransparent and, well, sad.

By: Chris "rocknrollgeek" Darbro

Chris "rocknrollgeek" Darbro — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:28:54 +0000

Joe: that part of the post probably came out wrong. As swamped as we were, that didnt really take away from the dedication and devotion to BarCamp, like I mentioned, in the end we had contacted more people than we can count on fingers and toes, and the availability wasnt there, or was only there for an astronomical price that couldnt be afforded. Things like switching to a year, etc, had nothing to do with this, they’ve actually been in the works for quite some time, we did lag there on announcing/talking about that more. But, it’s time for change, and time for improvement. BarCampLA attendees have talked, and we’ve listened. Some big changes that the community has requested for a while will be coming, in the way things happen both days, tracks and scheduling and availability, and more. Not sure how much you know of me personally, but I always make things kickass when my hands get a hold of them, and BarCampLA is no different. We’ve got an awesome team of organizers who I have great faith in and are amazing in their abilities and what they do.

Keep your eyes peeled…you’re gonna like what you’ll see.
Thanks for the Support! :)

Heather: yes, whether on twitter or blog comments, we know you’re disappointed, and as you’ve mentioned many times in the past, know that you know first hand the challenges of organizing ________ event. Regardless, in the past couple years BarCamp has progressed and grown and more, it’s continued to get better, and that’s not changing. Like I mentioned to Joe, we’ve got a rock star team who i couldnt be more proud of, who have all the proper dedication and experience to making this BarCampLA great.

By: Joe Crawford

Joe Crawford — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:03:08 +0000

Chris, you say it’s not an organizational problem, but this post details the ways in which all the primary current leaders were overburdened. Perhaps my comment was seen as nitpicking, but it was not meant so. The few-weeks-ago thread on list call to get help with venues was a start, but I think this indicates there’s a need for a larger core set of primary organizers. Perhaps for the next organizers meeting make a broader call to the community for help.

And here’s where I expose myself as all-talk no action — I can’t take this on right now as I’m moving and traveling for the end of this year. :-(

And thanks for all the hard work: it’s appreciated.

By: heathervescent

heathervescent — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:45:54 +0000

I’m really disappointed in this. I know firsthand the challenges of organizing a barcamp with little support.

Even in today’s economy there is way more support and a significantly larger community. Instead of postponing and deciding that barcamp is going to happen only once a year – I’d let the community decide and get involved to make it happen.

By: Chris "rocknrollgeek" Darbro

Chris "rocknrollgeek" Darbro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:44:02 +0000

Joe, this wasnt an organizational problem, as much as it was a venue sponsor/economy problem, we actually probably contacted at minimum more venue sponsors than we have for any previous barcamp. None the less, we’ll have something kick ass soon and be back rocking better than ever. :-)

By: John Doe

John Doe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:45:39 +0000

Sounds good. I preferred it when it was once a year anyways. Thanks for the update.

By: Aleksey Tsalolikhin

Aleksey Tsalolikhin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:48:09 +0000

That’s great, sounds very sensible.

I hope it’s in the 2nd part of January as I’ll be out of the country for the holidays including beginning of January.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help on the weekend of the conference.

Best,
Aleksey

By: Joe Crawford

Joe Crawford — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:17:35 +0000

Very disappointing.

There are hundreds of BarCampLA-ers. Perhaps it’s time to put out the call for more help organizing.