Barcamp Nashville 07

So I'm a little late on this post, but I couldn't just ignore this event. For those of you that don't know, I attended a technology "unconference" known as Barcamp. Barcamps have been popping up all over the U.S. and two awesome dudes I work with at emma (Marcus Whitney and Dave Delaney) brainstormed and brought to life Barcamp Nashville which took place last week at Exit/In. I have to say, it was wonderful! So informative and inspiring!

I forget a lot of the speakers (in part because I've waited over a week to post AND I was helping with registration so really didn't pay attention as much as I'd planned) BUT the ones I do remember were phenomenal. The main theme of the event seemed to focus on community, the online community.

Chris Houchens spoke about Marketing and embracing the digital world. Marketing peeps and all folks in the commercial realm really need to take note of the online action and hop on the bandwagon. Blogs and online marketing are more influential than ever. Companies should be getting to know their consumers, using Wikis, creating blogs. Be personable. You can see a slideshow of his presentation here.

Mitch Joel was soon to follow and was quite excellent. He went into great detail about how 'conversation' is changing, our world communicates now on an entirely different level. He was witty and to the point. He had some crazy statistics and basically drove home that as a world, a community, we need to really embrace the changes that are going on. There needs to be more trust in the economy, people need to not be treated as 'products.' Companies need to realize that while they still control the price and production of a product, the Consumer's voice is now just as big as that of the Company, putting the two on equal terms. The online community needs to not just be observers but get in on the action and create. Be a part of the growth. Create a blog, upload a Youtube video.

Some of Mitch's most surprising points:
• 48% of leisure time is pent online.
• youtube's (Canada) growth from april 2006-2007? 616% wow!!
• facebook (Canada.. Mitch is Canadian) growth from 2006-2007? 2424%
• "i really don't know whether we'll be printing the times in five years, and you know what? i don't care either." - arthur sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of ny times

And my other favorite Keynote was Penelope Trunk. She is a "Brazen Careerist" and tells of 10 myths of the job market. It was SO interesting! She basically brought to the point the differences in generations and our views on 'careers.' People aren't staying in the same job for 15, 20, 30 years. It's important to find what you're good at and do it and do it well. If you accomplish that you'll be successful. She blogs full time (and Penelope Trunk was a psuedonym that she had legally changed to be her real name. Crazy). She currently gives career advice, helping people live and enjoy life yet lead a successful career path. She's very much an entrepreneur and VERY inspirational!

Click here for some great points from all the keynotes.

More Pics from Barcamp Nashville!

Overall a fantastic event. I do wish I had gone over to Café Coco to check out some of the PHP stuff. Definitely makes me motivated to really get my PHP skills sharpened and get on my way to blogging from scratch.

p.s. HUGE blog about a way cool printing press in the very near future.