I just read an article today in BusinessWorld about a concept called BarCamp. BarCamps are events for budding entrepreneurs like me (okay, okay those dreaming like me…), where you exchange ideas and business plans. Its a social networking cum business event sans the suits and formal seminars – you just walk into a room after seeing the speakers and topics on a yellow post-it note(yes, cool isn’t it?), pull up a chair and participate and guzzle cups of coffee.
Everyone’s expected to contribute either by way of presentations, demos, ideas or at least discussions – if you are a silent worker, you can help with the arrangements and cleaning up – seriously; since this is a community driven event, everyone’s expected to pitch in by way of cash and/or elbow grease. You need to get your laptop and it should be WiFi enabled too.
Why the name BarCamps?
Programmers sometimes use Foobar as a placeholder name in programs. So when O’Reilly started their FOOCamps (FOO stands for Friends Of O’Reilly), it was meant to be an invite only event. So an event for the rest of us was required, and hence the complementary name BarCamp – its not a competitor…
BarCamp started in India in Mar this year, at New Delhi, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai (not necessarily in that order). The event has started to get attention from VCs (Venture Capitalists) and other companies too – Yahoo sponsored one of the events recently.
Next BarCamp
The next BarCamp is in Dharamshala from 22 Oct to 25 Oct 06. Read more about BarCamps on its wiki page at www.barcamp.org