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What is a BarCamp? The quick answer: It’s an unconference, an ad hoc gathering born from the desire of people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.

But what does that mean? Well, here’s how we (the hosts) see BarCamp Rochester playing out: The day starts around 9 a.m. with check-in. All participants that have signed up in advance receive a free t-shirt and some swag from the sponsors. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all provided for free. We kick off the event by giving all participants the chance to introduce themselves, say what they’re interested in presenting or demonstrating and what they hope to learn. Then, the fun starts. Everyone makes their way to the hallway where there’s a whiteboard with empty time slots ready to be taken by presenters. Participants work together to determine the schedule for the day, gauging interest and swapping time slots based on what people want to see.

In downtime, when participants aren’t at a presentation, the main room is used as a hangout with snacks, video games and the like. Time is blocked out for both lunch and dinner so that everyone gets a chance to eat. Normally, BarCamp features games such as HalfBaked — where teams are challenged to develop a business model and sell it to a panel of judges — for every session. This year, since we have a lot of giveaways from our sponsors, the winners will likely win a prize. Finally, the day ends with clean up and an unofficial gathering at a house party or bar.

History of Bar Camp Rochester

The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California in August 2005 at the offices of SocialText. Since then, the event has spread to over 350 cities worldwide. Rochester’s first BarCamp was held at RIT in July 2006, and was hosted by Justin Thorp, Zack Gilbert and Erica O’Grady with about 30 participants. The next one (held in May 2007), was hosted by Jason Morrison, Emily Yang and Pat Tribble, and doubled the number of participants to around 70. The third, held in April 2008, was hosted by Braden Allchin, David Brenner, Sela Davis and Michael Dumont. This event saw a slight increase in participation, to around 100 people. This year will mark Rochester’s fourth BarCamp and will likely be the largest yet. The hosts for this year’s event include Matt Behrens, David Brenner, Sela Davis, Michael Dumont, Bob Lawton and Dan Schneiderman.

How to Get Involved and What to Expect

This year’s event will be held in Building 70 on April 18, 2009. In order to attend, you first need to reserve your spot by signing up at http://barcamprochester.org. Then just wait patiently for the day to arrive.

The event is a lot of fun for everyone involved and is by no means just for technical people. Anyone motivated to learn and share in an open environment is encouraged to attend, and presentations can be on any topic whatsoever. We want all attendees to have a good time, so we follow the BarCamp rule: “No spectators, only participants!”

Logo and T-Shirt Design Contest

Because we have been using a slight modification of the same logo since the first BarCamp Rochester, we are holding a logo design contest. The winner will receive a free t-shirt with his or her design printed on it, a gift of their choice from our sponsors’ giveaways, and a great deal of appreciation and publicity from everyone that attends this year’s event. Details are available at the BarCamp Rochester website.

Sponsors

BarCamp could never occur without the generous support from our sponsors. This year’s sponsors currently include O’Reilly Media Inc., the RIT Department of Information Technology, OS Cubed Inc., the RIT Interactive Learning Grant, the RIT Department of Computer Science, RIT Computer Science House, and Microsoft Corporation.