BarCamp DC: New Sponsors, Making a List and Checking It Twice, Ordering Food…

As Jackson mentioned, BarCamp DC is fast approaching. It’s only 10 days away. We’re all really excited about it. We’ve been working hard to make sure it happens as smoothly as possible.

Here are some updates since my last post.

  • We’re up to 16 sponsors. Organizations like Microsoft, the AOL Developers Network, Digital Phenom, Casey Software, and the Sunlight Foundation have recently joined on.
  • While it’s too late to get on the commemorative BarCamp DC t-shirt, it is not too late to be a sponsor. If you’re interested, drop me a line immediately.
  • That’s right the t-shirts have been ordered. They’re going to look great!
  • We’ve reach our capacity with attendance with 110 people. We’re wittiling down the list to make sure that everyone who is signed up is actually coming. We want to squeeze in as many people as possible. In the mean time, there is a growing waiting list to get into the event.
  • We’re currently in the process of arranging breakfast and snacks. Lunch is going to be provided by the AOL Developer’s Network.
  • We’re trying to work out taping many if not all of the sessions and then podcasting them later. If you ‘re interested in helping with this, either by doing the taping or donating equipment, please email me immediately.
  • Also…we’re working on a surprise or two. *evil grin* :-p

I look forward to meeting each and every one of you there! See you in 10 days.

BarCamp DC: Venue, Sponsors, Twitter, T-Shirts

BarCamp Washington, DC Logo

The organizers for BarCamp DC have been quite quite busy. Ever since announcing the date change we have been furiously working to nail down a venue.

Today, we’re proud to announce that Fleishman-Hillard has agreed to host the event. We’re very excited that they’re helping us make this event happen. They have a great location at 1615 L St NW in downtown Washington, DC. It’s very accessible from the Farragut North (red), Farragut West (blue/orange), and McPherson Square (blue/orange) Metro stops.

There are many other sponsors who’ve joined the BarCamp DC team like 200 OK LLC, Clearspring Technologies, Inc., Culture Captioning, Jounce, nclud, SET Consulting LLC, and Viget Labs.

We hope to be able to announce even more sponsors soon.

If you’re looking for an easy way to stay in touch with what’s happening at BarCamp DC (other than the Google Group), we have just launched a Twitter page for the event.

If you want to attend the event, make sure that you sign-up on the wiki. If you have signed up on the wiki, please add your t-shirt size to your name. We are working to have free t-shirts for everyone.

More BarCamp DC announcements coming soon…

BarCampWashingtonDC Tentative Date Change

The hardest part of setting up a conference is getting the right venue and then locking in the date accordingly.

In order to get the best venue possible for BarCampWashingtonDC, we have tentatively changed (98% permanently) the event date to August 10th (opening party) and August 11th (conference sessions).

We hope to announce the venue soon.  *crosses fingers and toes* It’s just tough to find the right spot to house 100 geeks that has free wifi and outlets.

We have also launched an event Web site…. check it out at:
http://barcampdc.org/ 

Thanks to Jason and his crew for their HTML/CSS wizardy in doing the site.

The BarCampWashingtonDC site also has a paypal account.  If you wanna sponsor the event, feel free to drop in some lovin’.  We accept donations up to $250.

Sign-Up for BarCampWashingtonDC

So in 3 weeks, we have been making some pretty good progress on BarCampWashingtonDC.

We’re shooting for 100 campers. If you haven’t already signed up to attend, go to the wiki and do it right now.

We’re also looking for more sponsors. If you or your company want to sponsor BarCampWashingtonDC, drop me a line. We’re looking to give out free food, t-shirts, and prizes for all who participate in the event. Together we can make it happen.

Starting to Plan BarCampWashingtonDC

Jason, Jackson, and I have decided to kick off planning for BarCampWashingtonDC. I had so much fun organizing and attending BarCampRochester. I’m excited to help bring the unconference to the Washington DC metro area.

For those of you unfamiliar with BarCamp, it is a gathering of Web developers, programmers, marketers, managers, designers, social media, and new media professionals to exchange their ideas and thoughts about the projects that they are working on.

Its not like the normal conference. It is the unconference. Everyone who attends participates. It’s not structured.

Are you interested in participating, organizing, sponsoring, or hosting the event?

Sign up on the BarCampWashingtonDC wiki.