I have just been to BarCampBrighton4, and I have to say I found some aspects of it quite disappointing. I know I’m not the only one, and so that is why I’m sticking my head above the parapet with this post.

Having been on the organising committee for BarCampLondon6 and now 7, I know how much hard work is involved in running a BarCamp. And I can appreciate how dispiriting it can be to have people complaining about things when you have put so much effort into getting the thing off the ground. I do not wish to detract in any way from the achievements of the Brighton organisers, not least because of the necessity for a last-minute change of venue – a BarCamp organiser’s worst nightmare!

But I’m afraid it’s the venue which really did take the shine off things for me this time around. As a daytime session space, I thought it worked pretty well with areas spread across three floors. Some adjacent pitches were a little noisy and hard to hear the speakers, but there’s not a lot you can do about that. Where it really fell down was as an overnight venue. With no permanent lights or toilets, I personally didn’t feel it was a suitable overnight space. And I’m not just being picky, there are plenty of practicalities to take into account.

At one point in the afternoon, I was seriously considering going home early. And that’s never happened to me at a BarCamp before. I really really did not feel comfortable about staying in that building for the night. Fortunately, @vickyjo came to the rescue and very kindly agreed to our late-afternoon appeal to let myself, @tnash and @carolynlyn have some floor space at her flat, even though she was already accommodating @NeilCrosby and @alistair. So huge thanks to her for putting up with us at the last minute!

As a veteran of numerous overnight BarCamps, I’m not averse to sleeping on the floor. But it was very noticeable how many BarCamp regulars did not stay at the venue but made alternative arrangements. I wonder how many of those who I heard saying the venue was “awesome” actually had to stay there overnight themselves? Quite a few did not, but went home to the comfort of their own beds and flushing loos. And some other regulars who did stay over told me the next day that I was very wise to have gone elsewhere!

I think the main point I’m making about the venue is that the lack of basic facilities weren’t made obvious to campers before they arrived. The 3rd Sept blog post certainly made no mention of the situation with lights and portaloos. If it had (or even earlier would have been preferable), it would have been much easier for us to make up our own minds and then make alternative arrangements in good time if we felt so inclined.

Having said all that, there were plenty of good things happening during the event, and I particularly enjoyed sessions by @tobestobs (CSS3 Browser Support), @edent (Star Wars Wedding on a Budget) and the one on High Altitude Balloons – which seemed to give rather a lot of those listening some worrying ideas!!

I liked the idea of using recycled bags as schwagbags – which lead to some rather amusing images of geeks wandering around with the most inappropriate hand luggage! [see Cristiano right] And the technology swaps table also attracted some interest throughout the event. I hope there wasn’t too much old tat left at the end which the organisers had to dispose of!
[Alistair checks out a "Crap Soldering Iron" below].

After last-minute sponsors came forward, the event was also fully catered and the food was plentiful and pretty tasty. I confess I wasn’t around for the pizza on Saturday evening, so I can’t comment on that. There was an urn to make tea and coffee and self-service cold drinks. Even a couple of days before the event it was looking like we might have to buy our own lunches – which actually would not have worried me too much. But it was nice not to have to do that.

There was a good mix of old and new faces in attendance. I hope the newbies enjoyed their first BarCamp experience. And I heard lots of the regulars did enjoy themselves and had a great time. Would I go to another one at this venue? Probably, but I would make sure I had alternative accommodation arranged well in advance!

I’m really looking forward to attending the upcoming Unsheffield event which kicks off next Friday evening. It is brought to you by the same team that organised BarCampSheffieldII last year, but they felt that they wanted to deviate a little from the standard BarCamp format, hence the rebranding of this new event.

I will endeavour to write more about the event during or shortly afterwards.

Arranged by @vero, the event was very well attended with standing room only by the end.

I enjoyed @garethr’s talk on Asynchronous Messaging for Web Apps, it was a great intro taster to the subject. You can view his slides here.

Then we had a lightning talk from @martinkl about his new browser testing software Go Test It, and a lady called Helen from @HoldsworthPR on a startups conference being held soon.

There was also plenty of opportunity to socialise and have a few beers (shame I was driving). Good to see so many locals in attendance as well as a few of us from further afield.

I shall keep my eye out for the next one. Stay informed by reading the Cambridge Geek Nights blog, and come along next time if you are in the area! You can also follow the tweets here.

Another trip up the North for BarCampLeeds this last weekend. I had been to OBH for PhotoCampLeeds in February, so knew the venue would provide us with a great space for a BarCamp.

There was much bribery going on during the sessions this time – some lovely ladies baked us cupcakes to entice us into their discussion, and Alistair brought along his trainset so that a few more folks would attend his session:

[The Cupcake Express hauls its cargo]

The afternoon saw lots of geeks outside on the lawn enjoying an impromptu circus skills workshop:

[Alistair juggles with pepsi cans whilst The Hodge falls off a unicycle]

And if that wasn’t silly enough, after we had all enjoyed the party on Saturday night and arrived back on Sunday morning [not] nursing hangovers, there was also Twister to play with:

[Twisted fools!]

… and the trainset was back, this time with added constructions fashioned out of sponsor’s mugs!

[Tom watches Mr Duck watching the train run round in circles]

A few of the participants also managed to find a cache when the fun was over too, so all in all a grand weekend.

As expected, the northern hospitality was greatly appreciated, and there were some really interesting sessions. I was a relatively small BarCamp, but I do like the smaller ones as they seem more friendly and it’s easier to get to talk to people than at some of the bigger ones.

I particularly enjoyed @ajkavanagh’s session on Procrastination (we talked a lot but didn’t find any solutions!) and @sctv’s Hardward Hacking for under a fiver:

[Cannibalising stuff for spares - things bought from the Pound Shop often contain components you would be hard-pressed to buy cheaper than that]

James Rutherford also did a fantastic tongue-in-cheek (or should that be geek?) look back at 20th Century websites and what we thought was good at the time. A sobering thought – what we do right now will often look equally naff in a few years’ time!

[James Rutherford - so last century!]

There was also the usual evening fun and games, including Werewolf and PowerPoint Karaoke organised by The Hodge:

[Alistair waves his arms about during the PowerPoint Karoake, in true Magnus Pike style]

I decided not to run a technical session, but instead taught a few folks to play Carcassonne on Sunday morning:

[Strategic thinking during a game of Carcassonne]

[Yahoo! boss David Filo welcomes the geeks to Open Hack 2009]

I had a play about with the BOSS search API, but wasn’t in an actual team as such. I also enjoyed an evening bike ride on the Flickr Bikes – which automatically took a photo every minute when the bikes were in motion. Riding round central London on a push bike was a bit of a hairy experience, but we returned unscathed to tell the tale!

[The two Flickr Bikes were available for a ride]

There was, of course, a little problem with the wifi (isn’t there always?) but the team from Yahoo soon sorted it out. And the was, of course, plenty of fuel for hacking geeks:

[Essential supplies for the hacking geek]

It was great to be in the company of such innovative minds (and a little intimidating too!). There were some great ideas put together during the session. Mr Duck was even on the winning team for Best Harware Hack! Clever duck…

After all the excitement and hard work organising BarCampLondon6 last week, quite a few of the London contingent decided to head to sunny Bournemouth for the first ever BarCamp to be held there, organised by Mark Ng.

Alistair and I went down to the coast a few days early to do a spot of caching too. There are hundreds of caches around Bournemouth so we couldn’t resist.

[Sunset over Sandbanks]

I really enjoyed the BarCamp. Another relaxed, friendly get-together and the University setting was great for that sort of event.

Dom and Tim were up to their usual antics and decided to fill a Smart Car with boxes of the Sponsor’s Tea:

[A Smart Car full of tea. Why? Why not!]

It was lots of  hard work, but really rewarding to see everything come together over the weekend. At times, we might have felt a little headless (it happens to the best of us!). I never thought I would spent 2 hours putting together Lego figures for the schwag bag on the Friday evening, but it was fun.

We had some great sessions and loads of people seemed to enjoy themselves. Thanks for all the feedback folks!

Here are some more images I took during the weekend:

[VIP pass for Mr Duck]

[The awesome BarCamp logo made from Lego during the introductory sessions]

So would I do it again? Probably. Just not for a while

A quick reminder about BarCampLondon6 – it will be held on 28th-29th March 2009 at The Guardian’s swanky offices in Kings Cross. The first wave of tickets are due to be released at 3pm on 16th Feb – see the BarCampLondon.org website for more details.

If you miss out on the first wave, don’t worry – there will be other opportunities to sign up.

So, when there was a general call for help to organise the next London BarCamp, I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.

Now we have our venue and major sponsor 99% sewn up, we are ready to announce BarCampLondon6.

When: 28th/29th March 2009
Where: Central London
Who for: Anyone who’s interested!

The first tickets will be released mid-February – please see the website to subscribe to up-to-date information.