Barcamp Mediacity 2011

A new, and potentially one off Barcamp, hosted in a fantastic new venue? Where do I sign up?
Barcamp Mediacity, five years in the planning, was a fantastic experience. Organised by Ian Forrester (@cubicgarden on Twitter), this event oozed high quality. The venue, kindly provided by the BBC, was fantastic, offering space for groups to work, share ideas, and enjoy a few console games.

Blackpool LUG was there, ready and eager to take part in a full day of fantastic talks.

The attendees, and the talks themselves, lent heavily on software development, and general project methodologies. From starting up a business using lean / agile practices to Android and iPhone app development, the technical talks were excellent.

There were some, more interactive talks, a great session where you were encouraged to pick up an instrument, and create music, and an interesting talk about country music.
While there were some Linux powered laptops, it was a generally Mac heavy event. I did see Ubuntu’s unity interface dotted around the screens of a few laptops, but it seems that the Mac still dominates for this particular group.
A welcome addition to the event were the Manchester Girl Geeks in Residence, offering advice, and hosting talks, seeking to interest more women in a heavily male dominated tech industry.

I met up with Alan O’Donohoe AKA @teknoteacher and we discussed RaspberryPi, programming, and ICT education. And from this discussion we hatched an elaborate plan called #codelab.

#codelab was a hoax, but we didn’t tell anyone that it was a hoax, we built up the hype on twitter. Delivered a convincing session, then sat back and watched as the BBC swarmed around Alan, asking for interviews and more details.

And from this hoax, we have a new event, called Hack to the Future where we will be hosting workshops and sessions for 200 children.

Barcamp Mediacity was great, the venue and hospitality were fantastic, and the range of talks provided a real wealth of free information for attendees to tap in to. I hope that it is not a one off, as it provides a lot, but asks for very little .
I would recommend that people try a barcamp near to them. While they are not a true Linux event, you can always host a talk about Linux, and give away a few CDs to interested parties. Barcamps give you the chance to talk about any subject, so go on…find one now.