Create the Future

BarCamp Edmonton 1

 

What is BarCamp?

Barcamp is an ad-hoc gathering of people in and interested in the Edmonton tech community.  BarCamp is a series of loosely scheduled 20 minute presentations/discussions about whatever the community is interested in.

 

 

How it works?

Everyone shows up in the morning and people write their name on a block of time with a topic, idea, whatever, that want to present, discuss, learn, etc.  Everyone should have a topic in mind they’d like to lead a discussion on. Each session is only 20 minutes so you don’t have to prepare a big speech or PPT. The sessions should be interactive allowing for the audience to be a part of the discussion.

 

Every 1/2 hr a new session starts and goes for 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of hallway talk and deciding on your next session.

 

When is BarCamp?

Saturday July 19^th,  10:00 am to 4pm with the possibility of an impromptu trip to a local pub should the community desire to continue the discusson.

 

Where is BarCamp?

The EdmontonWorld Trade Center, Floor 6.  You can find a Google map here.

How much does BarCamp cost?

Nothing. Free. Nadda.  BarCamp is a sponsored event.  We have arranged a couple of generous sponsors to cover the room, lunch, beer, etc. A big thank you to our sponsors:

 

Nexopia - http://www.nexopia.com/

Tec Edmonton - http://www.tecedmonton.com/

 

 

Who should come?

You! Everyone!  No matter what you interest in technology we can almost guarantee there will be something that you will find interesting, or someone that you will find interesting to talk to.

 

What are people going to be talking about?

We are planning on having three different presentation rooms, as well as a couple of discussion rooms/areas, a “business” room, a “tech” room, and a “misc” room.  Ultimately the topics will be whatever the community want them to be.

 

What should I bring?

Whatever you want.  We are arranging wifi so that you will be able to bring your laptops if you like.  Also bring whatever other gadgets you want to talk about, show off, etc.  Have a new iPhone, Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, whatever: bring it, play with it, show it off.  Or bring nothing at all.  Whatever you like.

 

Where do I sign up?

Given the space limitations on the venue we have 125 spots open based on first come first serve.  Please sign us ASAP to make sure that you have a spot, you can sign up here.  Rest assured we won’t give your name or email out to anyone, or use it to contact you, without your permission.  Please sign up here: https://www.inviteright.com/E18395DA

For more info, and to get involved, check out:

http://www.barcampedmonton.com

http://www.barcamp.org/BarCampEdmonton1

BarCamp Calgary

I'm heading down to Calgary in the morning for BarCamp Calgary 2.  If you are in Calgary, or have the day free to drive down, check it out.  It should be a great event, and it will be fun to join in the Calgary tech community.  Also it will be great to check things out for the upcoming BarCamp Edmonton, tentatively scheduled for the middle of July, I'll have more details on that soon.

Smibs Goes Into Private Beta

I did my second company profile on Techvibes.  This one was from Smibs, a DemoCamp Edmonton1 presenter, that recently launched into private beta.  You can check out my coverage of them here.  You can sign up for their free private beta on their site as well.

Startup Company Profile

One of the things that I'm doing with TechVibes is profiling local Edmonton startups.  I did my first one today on Zigtag.  You can check out the post here, and sign up for a private beta with them as well.

The Future of our Transit System

This video kills me, the best part is at the end when you see all the people squished against the windows.  While I hope that Edmonton's LRT becomes used a lot more, I hope that it doesn't come to this.

Rick Segal Event Part 2

If you would like to meet the VC from my post last week Rick is going to be in Edmonton on May 29th.  After the morning time slot was filled up in a few days Rick agreed to stick around for the afternoon and run another session.  Soooo, if you missed out on signing up for the morning session. sign up for the afternoon - you don't want to miss it.  You can find out more information and sign up here.

I wonder if he is going to take that deal

If you don't read Rick Segal's blog I would recommend that you check it out for two reasons:
1. If you are an entrepreneur, or involved in the tech ecosystem at all, it will give you a good insight into how VCs/funders think.
2. You get posts like the one he posted today from an entrepreneur that sent in a business plan without removing any of the remarks from the people he had review it.  Way too funny.  My favorite comment that got left in the business plan was: "Scratch this part out ... [reason] ... unless you think the investors won't catch it."

Canadian Startup Index Launched

Jevon, from Startup North, announced the launch of a new Canadian Startup Index.  The goal of this is to build awareness of what is going on in the startup community in Canada.  It will be awesome to have one place that people can go to see some of the cool things that are going on in Canada.
Check out the site and add your startup if its not on there.

More Rad Robots

Thanks Marc Andreessen for posting this.  Way too cool, it's like cutting an earthworm in half, but not only does it keep on living, it pieces itself back together again.

Movie Monday

Great spoof of the movie "The March of the Penguins".  Too funny.