Category: barcamp

barcamp, Microsoft

Had a ball at BarCamp Galway

I went to BarCamp Galway over the weekend.

I arrived a bit late because I drove up from Cork on Saturday morning and then spent around 30 minutes wandering around NUIG looking for the DERI institute before I realised it is off-campus!

I eventually made it at 11 – just in time for coffee and muffins. Just as well, I was starving and needed to satisfy my muffin cravings.

I didn’t make it along to many talks because, although I originally only signed up to give one talk, a mis-communication had me down for two talks and a panel discussion! My first talk was about reducing ITs carbon footprint. I uploaded the slide deck to SlideShare. The second talk was more of a conversation around video blogging so no slides.

I did get to hear Ina‘s great talk on Social Networks and Alastair‘s also excellent talk on Internet Marketing.

I also met loads of interesting people there including Martha Rotter, Microsoft’s replacement for Rob Burke. I’m sure Martha is sick of hearing how great Rob was but, in fairness to Microsoft, it looks like they picked another winner with Martha (and if she allowed people to leave comments on her blog without having to register, I’d tell her that!).

The talks, the wifi, the food all worked perfectly – well done John, Aidan and Conor. Guys, you set the bar high.

barcamp, Blogging, cix, Climate Change, social media

BarCamp Dublin was great

I attended BarCamp Dublin at the weekend and it was a fantastic day – kudos to the organisers (Paul, Elly, Joe, Paul, and Eoghan).

I was waylaid in the corridors several times so I didn’t get to as many talks as I would have liked.

I did get to good friend and TCD law lecturer Eoin O’Dell‘s talk on the law, and how it relates to blogging. It was very sobering (and I hadn’t even had a drink!) and very entertaining at the same time! Eoin told us the only way to ensure we weren’t likely to be sued for something we publish online is not to publish anything online!

I also got to Darren Barefoot‘s presentation on Social Media which was excellent, as you’d expect from Darren, despite the wifi letting him down.

I spent the next couple of hours catching up with people and unfortunately I missed Eoghan‘s talk on usability 🙁

After lunch I listened eagerly to John Ward‘s fascinating story of selling Web 2.0 technologies to financial institutions. Well done John, no mean feat.

Then we had a panel discussion on social media. I was on the panel with Sean, Darren and Karlin. We had a highly interactive and wide-ranging discussion which touched on everything from Cavalier King Charles Spaniel forums (no, really!) to blog comment spam.

After the panel discussion it was time for my presentation on CIX. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people stayed awake during a presentation on data centre energy efficiency strategies and a hair-brained carbon neutrality strategy!

After this, I was interviewed for a podcast by Ina (missing out on Krishna‘s talk – sorry Krishna).

Then we retired to the Lord Edward pub.

Unfortunately I couldn’t stay long as I had to catch the train back to Cork but it was shaping up to be a good night when I left.

barcamp, cix, Climate Change, hosting

BarCamp Dublin on Saturday

BarCamp Dublin is on this Saturday (21st April 2007) in the Digital Hub.

Registration starts at 09:15 with the talks kicking off at 10:00.

There are lots of great speakers lined up to talk on topics as diverse as “Web Usability 101” right through to “Law of Blogs; Blogs of Law”.

I’ll be giving a talk on CIX’s data centre and how we hope to be carbon neutral.

I’m really looking forward to the day. It will be a fantastic opportunity to catch up with lots of old friends, make lots of new ones and hear fantastic talks into the bargain.

Oh, did I mention that entry is free?

See you there.

barcamp

BarCamp Cork 2007 – in September/October?

Since my post yesterday, there has been a lot of discussion about the next Irish BarCamp and that’s great.

I had mentioned the idea of having the next BarCamp in Cork in May with a number of people because I hadn’t heard anything about another one happening soon and I didn’t want the momentum to be lost.

I spoke to Damien, Walter, and Conor as the organisers of the last Cork BarCamp and I spoke to Tom and Keith as the organisers of the most recent BarCamp. I spoke to them before BarCamp SouthEast and they all aagreed it was a good idea. In fact Keith agreed to announce it at the opening of the BarCamp Southeast.

Seemingly there’s talk of a Dublin BarCamp before the summer, great! And John Breslin has set a date of 07/07/07 for a BarCamp in Galway. Personally I’m not sure of the wisdom of having a BarCamp in July when many people will be on holidays but obviously that is up to John.

In light of all the BarCamp’s suddenly springing up and in the interest of having a diversity of venues I propose postponing the BarCamp in Cork until after the summer.

How does that suit people?

barcamp

Sorry I missed BarCamp Ireland – SouthEast

BarCamp Ireland – SouthEast went ahead yesterday and by all accounts was a great success.

I posted recently that I was going to be unable to attend for family reasons. In the comments of that post though, Elly Parker generously offered to conference me in for a period. That was great and I was really looking forward to it.

However, at the last minute, Elly felt obliged to withdraw the offer because her fiancé works for Blacknight (a company with whom I’m having a bit of a dispute currently!).

I’ll just have to be sure I make it to the next one.