David Cohen has a great post about the reasons to go to Startup Weekend. There is some friendly comparison to BarCamp. BarCamp has been near-and-dear to me since November 2005. I love seeing the evolution and augmentation of the unconference. David Cohen is correct
“It's obvious to most that you learn by doing. The simple fact that Startup Weekend has a community united by an audacious common goal (however unrealistic) bonds the participants in a way that a BarCamp or any conference for that matter simply cannot match.”
As professionals, we don’t just go to conferences. There are other events and activities that help build our professional community and develop our skills. Professional organizations and associations help support technologists, developers and designers. But what is a career path for a budding tech entrepreneur. There are a few organizations like SVASE, TiE (Toronto Chapter). But nothing like ACM or IEEE.
We should celebrate the efforts of the Startup Weekend crew. This is going to be a fantastic event for entrepreneurs in Toronto. There are other community efforts that we should celebrate:
- GirlGeekDinners
- OpenCoffee
- GeekDinner
- Web Wednesday
- Ignite
- Instructables Show and Tell
- Dorkbot
- FIRST
- ImagineCup
- Microsoft Canada’s DevelopMental Game Camps
- TOJam
- NextNY Events
These are all events that help bring the community together. There has to be more to professional development than conferences. And all of these events are aimed at connecting members of a community. So in my mind, it’s not Startup Weekend or BarCamp, it’s Startup Weekend Toronto AND BarCamp AND DemoCampToronto14 AND Robot Fight League etcetera.