What in the world is a Barcamp? Simply put, it's a conference without an agenda until the morning of the event. It's an event created entirely by the attendees. Barcamps are among the most effective uses of conference time I have ever experienced. It's amazing how effective the "uncoference" concept is when it comes to the quality of the information shared. Recently a group of volunteers gathered together to put a Real Estate focus on Barcamps by holding the first ever REBarcamp in San Francisco. It was wildly successful and we're going to do it again, in the Bayou City (Houston) on Oct. 22nd. The best part? It's completely free!
Here's how it works. At the beginning of the day there is a white board or large sheet of butcher paper placed on a wall. The day is sectioned into hour long break out sessions with different room or area assignments. Attendees write down the title of the session they would like to either conduct or attend. Some folks seek out experts in certain areas to moderate their discussions, some decide to moderate their own. All attendees then review the sessions and determine which tracks will be right for them. We plan ot make sure there is something for everyone encouraging basic, intermediae and advanced sessions. So if you don't know what a blog is, don't worry. If you're a long time blogger, there will be something there for you as well.
There is usually a lunch break with a box lunch or catered food provided by the sponsors of the event. There are typically some pretty cool conference swag including a special edition t-shirt for the event, all provided free of charge. Below are the sessions that were finalized at REBarcamp SF - Keep in mind that if you do not see a session here you would be interested in, it doesn't matter, you can create the session you want to particpate in on the day of the event. Pretty cool eh?
time Back Room Front Room 1 Front Room 2 Front Room 3
11 AM BlogSurvey SocialNetworks ForeClosure2 ThreeOutcomes
Noon AltosResearch VideoBasics101 PayForPerformance TrainingCoaching
Noon RetsReso Syndication MyTechBase
1 PM Lunch
2 PM BlogNetworks ProBonoReal Estate? PodCasting
2 PM ForeClosures Beginning Blog Twitter Biz Case
2 PM Web 2 Marketing
3 PM Vicious Gossip Flickr More GuerillaMarketing
4 PM MortgageIndustry SearchDashboard CommentManagement
We're working on a very cool facility that will allow us to have a wide varity of sessions taking place at the same time. If you're a real estate tech vendor, we encourage demos. If you're an exhibitor or sponsor at the HAR show, why not take advantage of REBarcamp to make additional contact with prospects ahead of the event?
The Houston REBarcamp will be held on Oct. 22nd. (the Day before the HAR Realtor Expo). We have some awesome people coming in from around the country, so don't miss it. Visit the site today and add yourself on the event page at Facebook!
The folks at Active Rain will be helping us promote REBarcamp and we hope you will too! Tell your firends about it. If you have questions you can email me or Stephanie Edwards Musa for more details.
interesting concepts - If i were interested in putting one on where would I go to get more information?
Barcamp.org is the place to start, it gives the history of the event, how they are cooridnated and more. I HIGHLY recommend attending a Barcamp before trying to organize one. We added the Real Estate angle to the Barcamp concept and i think it may be the first time a vertical application has been made to the event, I'm not sure. If you can find someone in your area that has attended one, you can get them on your volunteer crew as well. There are REBarcamps being mulled over in probably a dozen markets now, due to the success of SF. So set up some alerts and Google and track everyone's progress. One thing I think we should consider is creating a living document on the process from SF that we can add to from Houston that outlines the process and provides the names and numbers of vendors, the do's, don't s etc. After Oct. look for that document on the main REBarcamp site, hopefully everyone that stages an event will be able to add to it. Good Luck!
Any thing with the word bar in it can't be half bad, jk. No this sounds like a great concept, and it's Free, even better!
Great idea, I bet the barcamps will catch on all over the US, I will keep an eye out and plan on attending if there is one around my area. Maybe they can do it at the annual realtor convention in the Tri State area.
Hi Michael, this was the best part, next to meeting people, at the Inman. Organized chaos, great learned so much from you and others on podcasting.
How fascinating...If you are coming anywhere near Charlotte NC let me know...seriously!
I arrived late to REBARCAMP SF so I ran to Teresa's session (cause I'm a fan of hers :)............... I liked the networking, the casual setting, and the *fun*. I hope this will be an addition to many conferences around the globe!!!
I want to attend another!!! (What about NYC before Inman??? ah HEM?)
Michael, the BARCAMP was definitely a good experience. Worth it for the networking, the learning, and the fun. While chaotic, there were lots of people sharing lots of great ideas.
Ditto to Missy, Kim and Brians comments................... :)
Thanks for your input. To see if any REBC's are being planned in your area, stay tuned to REBarcamp.Com and Barcamp.Org. If you're interested in coordinating one for your area, Go to Barcamp.org and read up on it, look at some of the sites for past events and when we get done with Houston, contact me so we can provide you with some follow up and hopefully a set of guidelines for planning new events.
I had the opportunity to go to the Houston Barcamp yesterday along with a couple of our volunteers, Stephanie Edwards Musa and Matt Kelly. Since this was their 3rd BC in Houston, they had the process down to a science. We got some great ideas from it. Josh Tabin, one of the BarCamp regulars will be attending our event as well. So we think we can keep the chaos down to minimum. We don't want to eliminate it entirely as it's actually a controlled chaos that make these events so unique and effective in the end.
If you know of Houston or surrounding area real estate and mortgage professionals, please forward them to our site at http://www.rebarcamphouston.com We want this event to grow with every location! Keep the comments coming!
Kim, Get with Rudy @Trulia , the NYC Barcamp is pretty much a given. I think he is already starting to cooridnate with some people on it.
MP
Hey Mike, Pretty awesome! Glad I checked out the featured posts today. :)
Everyone, Mike has scouted out some pretty awesome places. :) Anyone who can make it down to Houston, hope to see you there! I can't wait!
This is interesting, and I thought I knew everything :)
Sounds completely different from any conference I have ever attended. Also sounds like it could be a very interesting concept.
It sounds great...a little chaotic...but then so is real estate...If we ever get the AR convention off the ground, it sounds like it would be a super part of it !
thanks for more info on Barcamp, i have signed up but have no real idea type of day it would be other than "very interresting"