Sunday, 10th of August 2008 at 06:12:19 PM
If you did not get a chance to attend the happy hour at Caroline Collective Friday night or BarCamp Houston on Saturday at the Houston Technology Center, you missed out on two fantastic opportunities to socialize, collaborate and gain an education on why Forbes magazine calls Houston a, “bubbling entrepreneurial tech scene.” Here are some things that I walked away with after the event:
- Never underestimate the value of strong sponsor support. Many of the sponsors for the weekend had a strong showing at the event through their financial support (C-TREC, BlogCatalog and BizTools), their attendance (Ryma, DFJ Mercury and TopSpot Internet Marketing) and their presentations (Spur Interactive‘s Business and Social Media Workshop, BeagleBoard.org‘s demo and Clearpoint Technology‘s session). Our biggest debt of gratitude goes out to Marc Nathan (as well as his wife and family) and the Houston Technology Center for letting us take over both buildings for a day.
- Bringing lunch in was the best idea I ever had. Last year, we all broke away for lunch and the event fizzled out after that. This year, we brought in Pappas BBQ and I believe it was a huge hit. Thanks to Ed Schipul for taking charge during feeding time to speed up the process. Most everyone was surprised that lunch was catered and it helped us recharge for the afternoon sessions.
- Houston needs more events like this. Our early survey showed that over half of the early attendees had not been to a BarCamp before and left with a nice buzz. Based on several conversations throughout the day, I have already started coordinating two more BarCamp events for Houston: GreenBarCamp Houston and BioBarCamp Houston. If you are interested in being part of the planning for these events, sign up on the wikis. In addition, REBarCamp Houston is already scheduled.
If you want to read other perspectives of BarCamp Houston III, check out some of these attendees’ posts:
- David Herrold of the Houston Chronicle
- Bill Shirley‘s Guardian of the Non Sequitur
- Steve Evatt (some good pics as well)
- Mike McGuff of KTRK has some nice videos uploaded
- Imelda Bettinger has some great pictures uploaded on Flickr
The photos that Michael Cummings took are available on his Flickr page.
Thanks to everyone for making this a great event.
You guys did an awesome job! Wish I could have stayed for the entire day! Looking forward to having you at REBarcamp. We got some great ideas yesterday and met some great folks that will be joining us attendees and sponsors! Great to finally meet you in person!
FYI, I have a few pics up on Facebook as well.
For those of you who want to see Mike’s photos and are on FaceBook, he has the pictures uploaded here.
[...] yesterday at the Houston Technology Center. It was a superb event. Thanks to Marc Nathan of HTC and Josh Tabin and the other volunteers for putting it together. We learned a great deal from their deep [...]
Glad to know that BarCamp was a success! Great job, Josh and everyone else who helped plan the event!
This was my first barcamp and I was thoroughly impressed by the sense of community, knowledge sharing and fun! You guys did an outstanding job and I can’t wait until the next one!
[...] in a sorority. You see, it was the third annual session of this funny little un-conference called BarCamp Houston that really pulled the proverbial rug out from under me. While I don’t feel like giving you [...]
This was my first barcamp also! Had a great time, met some great people and did I hear Green BarCamp? Oh Yeah! Can’t wait.
First of all, I just want to thank all of the participants of BarCampHouston for making it an incredibly successful event. You are who we do this for and I hope that it exceeded your expectations. Now that that is out of the way, I need to clear something up – Josh Tabin, Kelsey Ruger and Scott Stolz deserve the all the credit for making this years event happen. Yes it was a collaborative effort, but it was Josh who took care of the important things like the shirts from our friend Blake Poutra at http://www.youdesignit.com/ and the BBQ from Pappas. Not to mention the fact that Josh also did all of the heavy lifting when it came to sponsors and collecting the money. Kelsey not only helped plan and promote, but he also gave one of the most well-attended presentations – complete with props. Scott merged his Houston Business Networking Meetup with the Startup Houston Happy Hour to make the kickoff party a huge success.
We must be doing something right since BarCampHouston played host to lots of people from Dallas (Christopher St. John) and Denton (@stormy), a huge group from of San Antonio Podcasters led by Jennifer Navarrete and Michael de Leon (Don’t forget PodCampSA – September 6), a group of folks from Austin, and of course our good friends from Bryan / College Station – the http://www.downtowncartel.com and http://www.thecreativespace.org who came out in force with presentations, a full photo set up (thanks Michael Cummings) and just a ton of energy.
Also, I just wanted to say ‘Great Job’ to the Houston people and Tech press – we had wide support and promotion from Dwight Silverman and Brad Hem from the Chronicle’s Tech Blog, not to mention a very large contingent of Chron.com folks who attended like Steve Evatt, Steve Herrold, and Jason Armstrong; Steve Palkot from the Fort Bend Herald; the TechBytes crew (congratulations on your marriage Barrett, but your timing was a bit off
and Michael Garfield, our very own High Tech Texan.
A very special thanks goes out to the Houston Bloggers and Twitterers who really got behind this event and live posted from it – @gdruckman, @KatherineD, @the_fuzzball, @labanjohnson, @drding, @fayza, @gracerodriguez, @aynbrand and @fave
See you all again real soon – since we are going to keep this momentum up with more tech events that support you and the Houston Tech Startup Scene.
Lastly, to all the people who ‘accidentally’ scheduled events out of town this weekend like Erica O’Grady, Dwight Silverman and Matthew Wettergreen – you were missed and I hope that you can join us next year.
By the way, I’m willing to help out with the Green Barcamp..
Thanks to everyone for a fantastic event and truly unforgettable evening. Please keep watching us for more fun events in the upcoming weeks and months. Cheers!
-Caroline
[...] clipped from http://www.startuphouston.com [...]
[...] clipped from http://www.startuphouston.com [...]
[...] clipped from http://www.startuphouston.com [...]
BarCampHouston 3…
On Saturday, a few of us from The Creative Space made it down to Houston for their 2008 BarCamp. I had not been down to Houston for any community/tech events lately and it was really nice to finally get a chance to see folks I hadn’t seen in a wh…