Let’s begin by deciding what BarCamp is not. BarCamp is not like conference you’ve ever been to. You won’t be served cold coffee or cold speakers, and the topics weren’t previously determined with little or no audience input. NOOOO! BarCamp is a knowledge-sharing event wherein people learn from the presentations, and talk to each other to create the value they personally need from the event. BarCamp is a place for you to participate, learn and share. BarCamp is the un-conference.

BarCamp Memphis is interactive and user-generated. Anyone and everyone who comes to BarCamp is invited to come with a topic in hand and prepared to share. Don’t worry if you’re not a legend, neither are most of our presenters. Rather, these are folks from local or regional companies sharing many of the same challenges. Session formats can be a traditional presentation (with or without slides), a Q&A session, a demonstration, a panel discussion or just about any format of your choosing. Just make sure your topic relates to the web, web technologies, geekery, new devices, etc.

At the beginning of the day, everyone votes on the presentations. The result is the most relevant, informative, and interesting conference possible for all its’ attendees. Said simply, BarCamp Memphis becomes what you want it to be.

BarCamp Memphis will also have rooms set aside for open discussion on the topics that matter to you most (i.e. the ones you create), we call these Core Conversations. There will be panel discussions throughout the day on those subjects where two (or more) knowledgeable folks team up to discuss their chosen topic. Even the traditional presentations are more exciting when you get to pick them yourself.

It’s time for bloggers, techies, marketing profs, entrepreneurs, and geeks to unite again at BarCamp Memphis 2010!

One bright spot in the midst of this gathering, was the serendipitous and spontaneous creation of several unconference-like core conversations.  Dave was lucky enough to be a part of one of these conversation, when several SXSW attendees converged on a session that had reached max capacity.  These 50+ rejects went on to form there own conversation group, “The Rejected Connected”.

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TweetHall – Rejected Connected from LunaWeb on Vimeo.

The discussion became a valuable mindshare of best practices for Twitter.  The group ranged from people brand new to Twitter, to Twitter application developers.  Everyone was able to contribute, and everyone walked away with a headful of new ideas to ponder.  The key takeaways for the session from Dave’s blog were:

- Using a good photo of only your face.
- Share your twitter handle everywhere.
- Don’t use the profile URL to merely link back to your twitter page.
- Multiple users of one org’s twitter account can end tweets in “/fl” that being /(first initial)(last initial) or state the person tweeting in the profile description.
- Be genuine and don’t be uptight about tweeting, just get out there.
- Don’t protect your tweets and still try and seek out people to follow (the analogy of “going to a cocktail party and locking yourself in the bathroom” was shared).

There was great discussion on the best way to manage a corporate identity on Twitter. Deceptively tricky questions like, “How much of myself do I put into my corporate Twitter account?” and “If I choose to have multiple Twitter accounts, what’s the best way to keep up with them?” were debated at length.

Tiffany Winman, one of the attendees, did a great job of nailing down the rationale behind marketers using Twitter. “Awareness/traffic; viral buzz; lead generation; increased customer satisfaction and loyalty via increased community networking, identifying and fostering relationships among employees and customers; generally decreases in costs and resources from traditional marketing methods; research on brand image, public sentiment, hot topics to improve messaging and product/service development.”

Otis Maxwell also had some valuable insight into how a previous session at SXSW provided further illumination on the spontaneous hallway discussion.

If you’d like to see the twitter conversation that resulted from this ad hoc gathering, search for #tweethall on twitter.

blogpost by lunaweb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Come Ready to Present
This is first on the list because it is simultaneously one of the most beneficial and least used BarCamp options. Speaking gets you noticed, helps you network, and lets other people know what your expertise is. Not to mention, sharing helpful info is great for the Karma. In keeping with promoting the sharing spirit of BarCamp, if you come prepared with a topic to present to your fellow Campers, BarCamp Memphis is free for you. Otherwise a small fee will go to help defray the cost of the conference.

What not to do

Don’t turn your presentation into a live infomercial for your company. BarCamp is about learning, networking, and sharing, and people will notice if you’re shamelessly plugging your brand.
Give your presentation a catchy title, but don’t get so focused on it that people can’t figure out what you’re speaking on. Topic clarity helps everyone.

Join the Conversation

BarCamp Memphis is about networking, making connections, and fostering a forward-thinking tech community in Memphis. The presentations will be a great learning experience for everyone, but your biggest benefit for the day will be from the people that you meet. BarCamp will be a focal point for movers and shakers in the tech community and will be a great place where people with ideas can meet people with talent. Don’t let that opportunity go! Bring your business card, shake hands, speak up, share your ideas, and brainstorm for new ones. Whatever you do, you’ll get more out of your BarCamp experience if you avoid being a wallflower.

Vote

BarCamp Memphis is happening right after election day, so the importance of voting should not be lost on anyone. Be sure you arrive early enough to vote on the topics for the day. Voting makes sure that topics of the day are relevant to you, which is, after all, what makes BarCamp different from everything else.

BarCamp Memphis is on November 8! In the meantime, here are some other great blogs about BarCamp to check out!

What is BarCamp?
LunaWeb

Launch Memphis Rocks Social Media in September
LunaWeb

BarCamp Tips
LaLunaBlanca

Attn Entrepreneurs and Would-Be Entrepreneurs: BarCamp Memphis is Coming
Paul Ryburn

BarCamp Memphis Planning Underway
LunaWeb

BarCamp Evolution
LaLunaBlanca

BarCamp Fee Discussion on Twitter
LaLunaBlanca

BarCamp Memphis – Calling All Thought Leaders
One Half Amazing

BarCamp Memphis: November 2008
Conmergence

BarCamp Memphis 2008 – Be There, Share, Learn
LaunchMemphis