A group of Bloggers and Twitterers from UAE met on 27th March 2009, for lunch and shisha and decided to hold BarCamps in UAE, thanks to the optimism and encouragement of Melanie Swan, who proposed the idea to us. I recommend holding the first edition of BarCamp in UAE on May 9, 2009, giving us enough time to round up participants to share their interestingness with the rest of the group.
BarCamp is 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. In true BarCamp spirit, I solicit the help and active participation of volunteers to share the joy of kick-starting this fantastic initiative in UAE.
For the 1st edition, the aim is to keep it simple and encourage participation. So, I recommend concentrating on the basics to keep the costs of organizing to the minimum.
BarCamp UAE is your event, so shoot away with suggestions and recommendations on how you think you can help with any of the below to BarCampUAE at gmail dot com or @BarCampUAE
BarCamp UAE - 1 Event details
When: May 9, 2009
Where: We are looking for a sponsor to give us a space large enough to hold discussions and presentations with seating for lets say approx. 25-30 people. Any space that includes wifi, projection facilities, tables, chairs, and most importantly a toilet should be fine considering the nature of event. So if your firm or workspace is interested in lending us their space on May 9, 2009, Saturday, it will go down in history books as the FIRST host of BarCamp UAE and our appreciation for the sponsor's support will not go unnoticed.
Sponsors
We are looking for sponsor(s) to support us with the basic costs of recording and podcasting the event. Where possible we can do with borrowed/ donated video cameras, tripod stands, tapes, microphones, extension cables, projectors, adapter plugs, etc to setup the basic infrastructure to document and record an intense and oriented discussion among participants.
Additionally, we would like to host a permanent blog which documents, archives and facilitates online participation in the run-up/ during/ after the event. Approx. $90 for a domain + hosting for a year at GoDaddy.com. Any sponsors?
We could also do with support for stationary/ writing material, name tags, white boards, markers, snacks, drinks, and goodies (maybe a t-shirt or a USB key or a hat, etc) for all participants. Can you help us find some money with your network of connections?
Planners & Volunteers
Kedar Iyer
Masarat Daud
Paul Castle
Fouad Masoud
Nikhil Soneja
Add your name here if you would like to help
Participants (aka Campers) and Topics of discussion
Become a participant of BarCamp UAE by signing up at http://bit.ly/EVQ1W
Schedule
To be decided once we get participants signed up with their choice of discussion. See what other participants are talking about.
Tasks
1. Scout for a venue sponsor.
2. Get sponsors/ donors to cover costs of recording, podcasting and goodies for participants.
3. Enroll participants for the event.
4. Organize speakers and topics for discussion.
5. Manage materials for event (stationary, projectors, name tags/ t-shirts, snacks, drinks, etc) 6. Involve local artists to develop a customized logo, other examples here: BarCamp logo gallery
Tags for flickr, delicious, twitter, technorati etc.
#BarCampUAE
Who's helping promote us?
‘Un-conference’ plans emerge for Dubai' by Tom Gara, a technology reporter with The National on 29th March 2009.
Bloggers and reporters rule! So if you are a blogger/ reporter who will blog about the event before/ during/ after. Please do add yourself here with a link to your post, so we know that you are saying nice things about BarCamp UAE - 1.
