In general BarCamp (BC) III was slightly less exciting for me than BC
II was. I don't know if it was due to the fact I was now a BC veteran
and it was not as fresh of a concept for me as the first experience
was, or if my feeling that there were fewer compelling sessions was
actually true.
There were definitely fewer sessions for developers this year. Last year we had the Natuba guys discussing Django and Microsoft made an appearance to show off Silverlight. On the whole there was only one dissapointing session that I sat through, but I did end up leaving early (~3 p.m.) and last year I was there until they shut the camp down.
There was an interesting FaceBook application discussion and catching the last 45 minutes or so of a discussion on the case for social media for business was also interesting.
I finally had the opportunity to meet Mark Nathan (twitter: @marc1919), but otherwise there were far fewer connections that I made this year.
One major change that I found disappointing (I know others loved it), was the decision to cater lunch from Papa's BBQ. I remember some great conversations last year as the developers at the Camp went out together and ate lunch, that didn't happen this time. In the end, one can't complain about free food, but I really enjoyed last year's lunch session.
On the whole, I enjoyed myself immensely and I am looking forward to BarCamp (IV, ?). Particularly I enjoyed the happy hour the night before at the Caroline Collective. I met more people in the Houston start-up community in one night than I had in the past year.
There were definitely fewer sessions for developers this year. Last year we had the Natuba guys discussing Django and Microsoft made an appearance to show off Silverlight. On the whole there was only one dissapointing session that I sat through, but I did end up leaving early (~3 p.m.) and last year I was there until they shut the camp down.
There was an interesting FaceBook application discussion and catching the last 45 minutes or so of a discussion on the case for social media for business was also interesting.
I finally had the opportunity to meet Mark Nathan (twitter: @marc1919), but otherwise there were far fewer connections that I made this year.
One major change that I found disappointing (I know others loved it), was the decision to cater lunch from Papa's BBQ. I remember some great conversations last year as the developers at the Camp went out together and ate lunch, that didn't happen this time. In the end, one can't complain about free food, but I really enjoyed last year's lunch session.
On the whole, I enjoyed myself immensely and I am looking forward to BarCamp (IV, ?). Particularly I enjoyed the happy hour the night before at the Caroline Collective. I met more people in the Houston start-up community in one night than I had in the past year.
