Unofficial User Generated Conference Guide
I’ve been to a few BarCamp.org styled User Generated meetings in my time, and I’m by no means an expert in this field. (I wasn’t at the 1st official BarCamp – nor have I been to any “official” camps). I have been involved in the planning of a few of these camps and hope that this post will serve as your unofficial guide from my observations at past events. At the heart of the issue these are User Generated, yes by attending them you become a user – but semantics aside let’s take a look at these 5 points that will make sure your not “That Guy” at the next camp!
1.) These camps are not about you, they are not about your company!
At some point you need to learn to leave your soap box at home – come to share, but not to preach or pitch! Even if your company is a sponsor of the said camp – no one is there to hear about you! Pitching your company or hard selling your widget is a cardinal sin that will (or should) get you booted from most of these meetings.
These camps are all about the community, if you feel that you can help someone with your widget – you should ask them to talk about that at a later date, get their contact information and tell them you can talk sales later. The important thing is to talk about the topic – and you can do this without selling your product!
2.) These camps are not for you to show off your power point skills.
These camps are about starting public discussions and not a place for you to talk to the back wall as you show your slides. Community is the focus and public conversation is key – you’re not leading a talk, but shaping the conversation as a discussion facilitator. If you have screen shots of what you know is going to be brought up or if you’re talking about a case study and have slides that’s one thing – but please don’t just talk along with your 20 – 30 slides and not involve the room with discussion (especially after lunch – as it will become a snooze fest!)
3.) Tweet, Live Blog & Interact on the meetings Live Stream
(take Photo & Videos too)
Most people show up to these events and they look like they have no clue as to what’s going on outside of that little room they ended up in. I keep saying this but it’s about community – so while at an event, become the live blogger for the rest of the world (who’s not in that room) and tell us all what we’re missing out in. Many of the break out sessions that I’ve been involved in evolved as people would join in via Cover-It-Live or Twitter with other questions an comments. Also if you’re taking photos – don’t just shoot crowd shots, be sure to get in close and make sure that you tag your photos so people can find out who was there.
4.) Bring your business cards
I’m always shocked at the amount of people who come to networking events and don’t bring any means of sharing their contact information with those that they meet. This seems rather old school, but it’s still a necessity! There’s nothing like trying to land a client or make a meaningful contact by writing down your contact information on a scrap piece of paper! Is that really the best way to transmit your brand?!
5.) Stay on topic with the conference
If you are attending a conference that is central to a specific topic you have to remember that everyone else is there to talk and learn about that topic – please don’t focus on tangents that can could lead to you being able to pitch your business. User generated conferences work best when there is a central vision and goal, a singleness of thought and everyone can add their perceptive to – if you come with a hidden agenda to talk about something else (i.e. yourself or your business) you will stick out like a sore thumb and hopefully asked to leave the event.
So there it is, my 5 tips to get the most out of user generated conferences (BarCamps). Follow these tips to make your experience and the experience of those around you a pleasurable and worthwhile! I know that this is a short list and there I must have left something out – please add to the conversation by making a comment here on the post… Please don’t hold anything back (except for profanity – my Mom reads my blog so keep it clean).
Additional Resources
Link to great stuff concerning BarCamp:
BarCamp.org – Find upcoming camps in your area / in your country
The Rules of BarCamp – A must read page – don’t follow these, and you’ll be “That Guy”
The Pocket Guide to “Organize A Local Bar Camp”
I know that I left things out of this list – so what should #6 – #10 be???
Wow, Bar Camps sound interesting. Where do I Find out more.
Sounds like a worthwhile way to spend quality time with the right Marketing attitude
Best place to start is BarCamp.org, if you scroll down you'll see a listing of upcoming camps in US, by location ( or just visit this link — http://barcamp.org/#USAbyLocation )
I believe the next one near you will be – September 26, 2009 – OpenWebCamp – Silicon Valley, CA
http://www.openwebcampsv.org/
There are also resources for hosting these camps on that site too…