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 [...]]]>

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.