Hi!

I'm writing to you because I think you might be interested in the concept of BarCamp: an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

Organisation for a BarCamp includes finind a few sponsors who will provide a venue, Internet access, food and drink. As most people bring a sleeping bag and stay overnight at BarCamps, the venue provider should be able to cater for this.

I've started the organisation for BarCampMelbourne, while George Dickeson is doing the same for BarCampAdelaide. A BarCampPerth also exists, although I have not contacted the organiser yet.

George and I have been talking about running a BarCampAustralia, where a number of BarCamps around Australia all run the event on the same weekend: the 3rd and 4th of March 2007.

If you're interested in joining in and you live in Melbourne or Adelaide, please check out the wiki pages for the location in question. If you live elsewhere and would like to organise your own, please consider starting your own wiki page and linking to/from it and the BarCampAustralia pages.

I welcome any questions you might have about this, and encourage you to forward this email to anyone you feel might be interested. For further information, please see the BarCamp wiki pages:

http://barcamp.org/

http://barcamp.org/BarCampAustralia

http://barcamp.org/BarCampAdelaide

http://barcamp.org/BarCampMelbourne

Kind regards,

Ben Balbo

Subject: Looking for contacts to help with a conference

Hi _name_,

This is yet another email asking for your help, either as an organisation, or simply in referring me to others that might be able to assist me.

I'm organising a BarCamp - "an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment" - to be held during the first weekend of March 2007.

Essentially, a BarCamp is a free, grass-roots style un-conference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference). All attendees are participants and are required to lead or participate in discussions and presentations. It differs from traditional conferences in that is doesn't concentrate on current and recent innovation, but rather looks to the future, possibly even discovering and defining new opportunities and directions. BarCamps are to traditional conferences, what brainstorming sessions are to seminars.

The hardest and most important issue is that of a venue for up to 100 people; a job that is made more difficult by the requirement that it be available from the Saturday morning until the Sunday evening. Most attendees will be camping on floors over night (hence the Camp in BarCamp). The venue must also have some form of fast Internet access.

Other requirements are food and materials to run the event (wireless network hardware, stationery, name badges). Some of these items, such as networking equipment, would only need to be on a loan basis.

Thanks very much in advance for any assistance or pointers you can offer.

Ben

The event is a free, grass-roots conference that is targeted at IT professionals. The "un-conference", as it's called, is organised by volunteers and all of the costs are covered by them or through sponsorship.

Would you be interested in being a sponsor, or can you offer a discount rate?

Sponsors will receive a number of benefits, including:

* verbal acknowledgement and thanks at the conference

* the option to supply marketing material for dissemination to attendees

* your logo on intermission slides projected between presentations

I'm open to discussion on all aspects of sponsorship.

Thanks for your consideration.

What?

- Free conference

- All attendees are participants

- The agenda is determined by the participants.

When?

- March 3rd/4th 2007

Be prepared to:

- lead or participate in a session

- ask interesting questions

- show off what you're working on

General purpose of BarCamp:

- networking

- share knowledge

- identify new opportunities

- recruit people to help your cause (e.g. open source projects)

Part of BarCampAustralia:

- Melbourne

- Adelaide

- Sydney

- ? Perth

- Canberra

- More (NT and Queensland)

What should you do?

- Pre-register on the wiki. give coordinators an idea as to how many people are coming

- Bring a laptop - show off your program stuff. wireless provided

- Be ready to participate - come with an idea for a session you can lead

-- don't have to be an expert as long as it's not too specific

-- contribute to the conversation during a session (spreads knowledge from everyone, instead of just the leader)

How can you help?

- Add your name to the list of organisers on the wiki

- There will be a mailing list soon

- We need sponsors (food, coffee, venue, networking equipment, prizes such as books, etc)