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07/22/2007

BarCampBankSeattle = awesome.

By Tim McAlpine

I attended a very cool gathering this past weekend. It was called BarCampBankSeattle organized by Jesse Robbins and Benjamin Black. I caught wind of this two-day event through the credit union blog-o-sphere. I have been to countless design, marketing and credit union conferences, but nothing like this.

A BarCamp is a loosely organized event where the folks that show up tape topics on a white board and have energized discussions about things they know about or are interested in. If you are in a session and you are not contributing to it or do not find it interesting, you are free to get up and move to a concurrent session.

Having never attended something like this, it's a very odd experience to wrap your mind around in advance. It was only three days before the event that Jesse secured a venue large enough to handle the growing list of attendees! It was an amazing remodelled old building in downtown Seattle. We were using the space of a stealth-mode Internet start-up. Here are some photos on Flickr to give you a feel. About 35 people attended from all over the US and Canada.

I joked about it at the conference, but I didn't really know what to tell the border guard. I could have gone the route of saying, "I'm going to an unconference and I don't know if I'm presenting or just attending." As I wasn't looking for a cavity search, I went with, "I'm attending a banking and technology conference."

I set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. and drove down alone to Seattle for the 8 a.m. start. I had physically met only one attendee in advance—Gene Blishen from Mount Lehman Credit Union. However, I had virtually met many of these people through reading and commenting on their blogs. This was fascinating to me. I felt like I knew many of these people personally and could immediately have an informed conversation with them.

It's amazing what happens when like-minded people get together to discuss topics they are passionate about. It was a pleasure to meet and talk with so many people that I "know" through their blog writing. And since I now know them even better, I have taken the liberty to fill in their new middle names and give their blogs a further plug. All essential reading for those that care about the credit union movement.

I was only able to attend the Saturday session since I had family commitments on Sunday. What a day it was. I'm sure Sunday was just as great. After a lively dinner, I hopped in the car and was home by midnight. The drive gave me a chance to listen to 8 of my 300+ unlistened-to-podcast episodes!

Just so this post doesn't get too long, I'll do another to tell you what I learned on my one day in Seattle.

Comments

1) Gene Blishen @ Jul 23, 2007
http://www.tinfoiling.wordpress.com

Tim, yes Sunday was also g-r-e-a-t (imagine Tony the tiger saying that). My brain is still reeling from the overload. I'll say it again Open Source events such as these are the Olympics of seminars. On Sunday I put a topic up for an agenda item and one person came. Sure your ego is crushed (luckily no alcohol was available) but most important was the fact that the topic was not as relevant as the two others in that time slot. A real and working democratic principle was working here and that was something you don't see very often. What you said about this event seems key - you "knew" these people through their blogs. The event had already started on-line at its announcement and this was the result of being part of that social network. More people should have this experience. So when are we going to have an Open Source Marketing event?

2) Robbie Wright @ Jul 23, 2007
http://blog.cuemployee.com

Tim, great analysis of the character involved in the weekend! I got a good laugh. Open Space events are definitely amazing. We had some great conversations and I can't wait to see how all of those ideas unfold.

3) William Azaroff @ Jul 23, 2007
http://www.azaroff.com/blog

Thanks Tim, you summed it up perfectly. So great finally meeting you!

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BarCampBankSeattle = awesome.

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