So this weekend I attended the third Barcamp Blackpool, held at the Pleasure Beach and I have it say, it was awesome!
The weekend started for me on Friday night, trying to get myself into town where a few of us were meeting up for a bite to eat and a few beers, which turned into a 3am taxi back to the hotel after 3 pitchers in Revolutions on the prom!
Saturday morning was not a good look for me at 9am. I plastered on a tonne of concealer to hide my vampire eyes, arrived at the venue and the first comment I got was “You look like shit”!
I powered through it. Went to a range of talks, from the future of the web and development techniques (hosted by one of my college tutors) to how to make 8 bit hama bead badges. As well as the awesome content being generated, there was food, drink, cake, swag, rock and much more. However, of all the stuff that was going on at this year’s Barcamp Blackpool, what I enjoyed most, was the conversation.
For me this year, I went to a handful of talks, but I talked to so many more people about everything from how I’m getting on at Uni, to what I want to do in the future, and how I can map my path over the next couple of years to get there. I found so many people inspirational to talk to, and what I took away from the weekend as a whole, is how awesome our community is.
This year I tried to encourage some of my classmates from college to come along and unfortunately I failed. However there was one guy from my class who was working at the venue on the day, and I think he was pretty amazed by the sheer number of people coming and going all day long and the range of topics covered. In lieu of turning them into barcampers, I’m definitely going to get them to come down to Gillespie’s for Geek Up on the 24th October, so they can get a little taste of what a barcamp can be.
A massive thanks to Gemma for organising the event this year, and to Les for being her wing man. Thanks to Joe, Caius, Tim, Steve, Catherine and many more for the great conversations and the learning! But the biggest thanks of all to the sponsors, who enabled the guys to put on a great day for all.
Lally.
I won’t repeat what has already been said about the great sponsored bar, the magician (who I think might now be performing at our wedding), and the food, but I will repeat the thanks to Gemma for organising such an awesome day. See you all next year (or maybe at Barcamp London this weekend).