Barcamp - Same old Song
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007Damien rails about the same old cliquey gang going to Barcamp Galway. I’m not sure how to fix this one personally, apart from not attending 
As an organiser of a previous Barcamp I can tell you one of the big worries is not having enough speakers to interest and entertain your audience, so I embrace all participants who are willing to post on the blog with an idea for a talk. You take your speakers where you can get ‘em.
Each Barcamp I have been at has been completely different in character feel and style to the others (and thats a good thing) and I rarely felt like I was seeing the same speaker over and over. The most common complaint across all Barcamps is “gee I want to go to all three sessions” that are scheduled for the current slot, so there is a recurring demand for some of the talks. As it is about 20% of those who sign up for a talk fail to attend, and of the audience much less than 10% will be willing to do an impromptu session. I had to practically press gang poor Karlin Lillington on a panel at Barcamp Dublin.
This is Ireland, I think we might be the first country in the world with 0 degrees of separation, so everything will appear a bit cliquey from the outside. My advice to people who are bored with the regulars is, go hustle up to stranger, there were always plenty at the Barcamp’s I attended. For people who are attending Barcamp for the first time, my advice is, do a talk. There is no better way to get to know people.
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