Barcamp North East 2 feedback #bcne2

This post is about my experience at the Barcamp held immediately after Thinking Digital, at the Centurion Bar in central Newcastle upon Tyne.

I didn’t know what to expect from the day, but I thought it would be interesting to go along and test-drive the whole experience.

I had a nebulous idea that Barcamps were a technical-person’s meet-up, and how wrong I was. Not that most weren’t technologists of some sort, but more that I became a barcamper myself – because of the atmosphere and approach prevalent throughout the day.

Cloud Computing preso

I thought I should get stuck in quickly, so delivered by Cloud Computing intro from Cloudcamp the other day:

Introduction To Cloud Computing Cloudcamp V0.375 Old Ppt For Slideshare

View more OpenOffice presentations from justingsouter.

I’m glad I was reasonably interactive & open, as my audience were respectful & very willing to give feedback, being knowledgeable about the subject – e.g. Ian Forrester and The Hodge.

Locked-In Syndrome Preso

I also put together the following presentation, on the day, about Locked-In syndrome:

Can We Unlock Locked In Syndrome V0.2

View more OpenOffice presentations from justingsouter.

I was chatting at the beginning of the day to Oli from bgroup, and thought maybe I could pitch my ideas to the audience, who were mainly software developers and / or web designers. fyi more info on the background is available from my personal Blog, Wellbanked.

I got some great feedback. I’m quoting it here pretty much verbatim, as I need to get this post posted! ;-)

Alex & Juliette Lewis – um, not sure about the context of this
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – I think these are folk who could give money to fund some further research
Maybe some better software for the My Tobii?
- What about t9
- What about Dasher?
What about magic glasses – gsma 08 in barcelona. Was this about Mobintech by any chance?
EmmaPersky – “Head Tracking for Virtual Reality without a Wiimote”

Wash up

Thanks to sponsors:
- Hedgehog lab
- BBC Backstage
- Tinwood and
- TwinnedCompanies.info
Thanks to my Audience(s), whom I found to be:

Respectful
Constructive
Supportive
a Breath of fresh air

I left around teatime, with a buzz from the day. So, having not known what to expect, and having spent the day in the illustrious company of some folk I came to like and respect in equal measure.

I see that Herb Kim went along and was also very impressed:

@alistair thank you again for doing a great job of pulling BarCamp NorthEast 2 together. I really enjoyed it! #bcne2

So, on those positive notes, I take me leave for now. :-D

Technorati Tags: experiment,ideas,innovation,web 2.0,thinking digital,north east england,newcastle upon tyne,newbie,interesting,enterprise 2.0,enjoyable,education

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