It's BarCampBankBC Eve and I can't wait.
I love how it all came together. Gene, Nala and I went for lunch in April. During the lunch we started talking about the various BarCampBank gatherings that were taking place this year and at about the same time Gene and I both said, "It's time to hold a BarCampBank in Vancouver." We elected William to help and since he wasn't there to disagree, he was unanimously sworn in. That evening, I e-mailed Frederic Baud from France, one of the originators of BarCampBank movement, and asked how to setup the Wiki page. He e-mailed back with some simple instructions, I created the page the following morning and between William, Gene and myself promoting the event on our blogs, we now have approximately 65 people coming from all over North America.
Attendees are flying and driving from every corner of the continent including Alberta, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington! These people found the Wiki, added their names, paid by Paypal, made their own travel arrangements and will magically show up Saturday morning ready to create an agenda that doesn't yet exist.
No elaborate marketing, no speaker line up, no nothing. $35 per person to cover the cost of the facilities and meals. Is that not cool?
I like this quote from William's blog yesterday:
"We are lucky to have a great mix of local BCers and people who have travelled from far and wide to participate. Some of us have been to a BarCampBank before, and many have not. We have all the right people and expertise to create a truly amazing weekend.
We hold this philosophy to be true:
The right people will show up and the right things will be discussed.
Thanks for coming. See you tomorrow.
Tim