I attended Barcamp Conway over the weekend. For those of you who don’t know, a Barcamp is an “unconference” where you go to meet industry peers in an unstructured yet educational setting. The focus is on letting the attendees decide which proposed presentations will be placed onto the day’s schedule. The focus is also to keep things informal, laid back, and accessible.
What I like most about the event is watching local folks who are not professional speakers put themselves out there. They volunteer to stand in front of a room of people for an hour and talk about the topic they love the most. Most of the time the presentations are not very organized or perfected over tens or hundreds of iterations, but that doesn’t detract from the quality or my admiration for the people giving them.
By nature I’m pretty introverted. I’m ok in small groups, but the truth is I’d rather be safely tucked away in my office and share what I know electronically. In short, getting up in front of a room full of people sounds a bit mortifying to me.
Then I attend an event like Barcamp Conway, and I think “What is wrong with me?? I have things to share! I have experience and knowledge that may be helpful!”
So kudos to all the presenters at this year’s Barcamp. Thanks for having the courage to share and foster technical growth and support in the great state of Arkansas.