Many thanks go out to Greg Wilson for finding space for DemoCamp5 which is happening Tuesday, April 25, 2006 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm in Room 1180, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON. Sign up on the wiki to help us figure out how many people will be attending.
Chris and Tara reminded me that BarCamp is an open-space for people to learn from each other and get excited about technology, design, whatever is happening online. All of these events are influenced by the people who come out and participate.
“Upon reflection, I believe what we’re seeing are really just teething problems. As DemoCamp grows in size, rules and mores will develop, not out of any particular desire by organizers and demonstrators to be business-minded, but instead, out of the need to be practical and courteous.” – Jerry King
This is an iterative process. The presenters, the attendees, everyone is learning from our experience. Oshoma offers suggestions on how we can improve the DemoCamp experience. Michael McDerment and Jerry King offer some tips about presenting at the next DemoCamp. All of hte suggestions and tips are reminiscent of creating effective presentations tips including:
- Have a purpose. Presentations need structure. They also need a purpose. You want the audience to come away with the feeling the information presented was inline with the original point of the presentation.
- Plan carefully. You need to understand who is the audience, where are you presenting, and how does the material being presented affect them.
This doesn’t mean that if it’s not commercial it’s not welcome, because that’s just untrue. We need a mix of presenters, topics, demonstrations. So check out the list. Check out previous DemoCamps. Check out what others are saying. But most of all: Bring your passion! Bring your software, hardware, etc. Sign up on the wiki and come out and help make this community better.