People have been reading about my trip to Geekend last weekend, and I’ve received a couple of “wish I were there” comments. Well, there’s an event coming up this Saturday which will have some of the same flavor and content. There won’t be bands playing Wii instruments or huge after-parties like I experienced, but there will be a lot of discussion of social media and web 2.0 topics.
That event will be BarCamp Memphis, which will happen this Saturday, November 13 at EmergeMemphis on Tennessee Street. BarCamp is a little different from the event that I attended in that topics are not determined in advance. Rather, it’s an un-conference where a list of topics are proposed at the beginning of the day – topics that may be of interest and which have someone ready to present. All the attendees then vote on which presentations they’d most like to hear. After that, the group breaks up into smaller groups for 30-minute presentations. Usually several of these run simultaneously, so for each period you can pick the presentation that appeals to you most. A list of possible topics can be found here.
There’s also time built in for networking and breaks. Last year they did “PowerPoint Karaoke” at lunch.
Here’s a link to a MemphisConnect post with more info about BarCamp.