Social Media Camp London: 97% awesome
Monday, April 27th, 2009I was part of Social Media Camp London this past saturday. I was there for a few reasons: Very cool Vero was running it, and since she lives in Cambridge, it was a great opportunity to hang out with her and her husband. She asked if my company would sponsor it, and so we did. Vero was fantastic giving the sponsors some really good visibility as well.
The Fantastic event
The whole event was at Wallace Space, a fantastic venue, and the people I spoke to at the conference were incredibly bright, interesting people. It was especially nice to finally meet hereinthehive (aka Dan), who I’ve been following for a while on twitter, and also miss geeky (aka Melinda), cbeta (aka Cristiano), afternoon (aka Ben) the rest of the participants of the photo scavenger hunt (where EVERY SINGLE ONE of them were enthusiastic and hilarious) and a whole bunch more. It was fantastic to meet so many interesting people. Overall, it was a fantastic day.
The interesting talks
The best talk I went to by far, was Terrence Eden’s talk about Porn in Social Media. He managed to clearly balance the talk from the serious issues behind it (is porn abuse?) to the funny (the problems from shrinking down an image of a girl in a bikini with hearts on it to mobile makes the hearts look like nipples). He is a very articulate guy, who engaged his audience very well.
My other favourite (which I only caught the end of, unfortunately) was a hilarious game of counting to 21 run by… [I can't seem to remember this guy's name...help me out kids in the comments] William Morland, aka @dolphonia *thanks @bash!, which had us barking like dogs and more ridiculous activities.
The slightly disappointing
The whole event was, I thought, meant to be the social media equivalent to a barcamp where everyone presents or volunteers. When I got there, the first 15 people I spoke to said they weren’t presenting. The sheet for volunteering to present started off VERY empty. A lot of people then said, “Oh, okay, I’ll present since no one else is” (including me, who thought just volunteering would be enough, but used a blog post I’ve been working on for the basis for a talk). Over the whole day, it was definitely less than half the people there presenting. During the talks we had great discussions, but presenters seemed few and far between.
I had a bit of a debate about it post-scavenger hunt with a guy who said he wouldn’t have come if he was told he had to present. He said he contributed to the talks and debates a lot.
My issue is, tickets for this event sold out VERY quickly, and a lot of people that wanted to go, couldn’t because they sold out so quickly. And maybe a LOT of people that would have presented couldn’t come because they couldn’t get a ticket.
I really think that a lot of people think that they can get something for no effort in this world, which is fine, but this was “SOCIAL MEDIA CAMP” where the people going are the ones trying to get the rest of the world to contribute.
I feel very strongly that there’s something wrong with the social media industry if those who are supposedly building it don’t even bother to make an effort, to step up and to do something new and scary, how can they expect the rest of the world to join in?
So stop talking about doing things people and actually do something. Put a bit of action into all this talk and actually stop just going to these events to be an observer and start engaging. It’s going to give you valuable skills and experience and enrich the rest of us. Isn’t that the whole point of social media at the end of the day?
That’s a shame there wasn’t much presenting going on. I’ve never been to any of these Social Media things. I would quite like to go to one but they’re normally a bit far away from where I am.
I wouldn’t know what I would talk about though, probably just ramble on about some nonsense and get booed off
I’m thinking the reason that a lot of people didn’t participate was because of nerves, you can’t really blame them though. Maybe they had every intention of speaking but when push came to shove they crumbled. Public speaking can be truly nerve racking.
Of course people are nervous about presenting, but I think the whole spirit of the day was so supportive, I don’t think anyone would have gotten boo’d off
Hi Kat – it was good to meet you this weekend.
I couldn’t agree more about the fact that everyone should present at a *camp, especially those who’ve never been before. In fact, http://barcamp.org/TheRulesOfBarCamp used to simply say “If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present”. It still does say this, but there’s now a whole big caveat of “Ok, you don’t really HAVE to”, but that’s a rant for another day.
That said, I wimped out of the first three BarCamps I had a ticket for (I did give the tickets back so others could go instead though). I was scared to present in front of a whole bunch of people who I assumed knew far more about everything than I did. I finally went to BarCamp London 4 (the one at Google), presented, and loved it. But it was scary.
One thing that organisers can do to help alleviate that is to give a few examples of the sorts of things that people have presented on previously in the run up to the event. Likewise, the last few camps I’ve been to have all run lightning talk slots – if these are promoted before the event it gives the scared people a smaller slot that they can fill whilst still contributing.
I think that in order to get more people presenting, there needs to be more poking them before the event to say “by the way, you d need to present something”, but also to say “it isn’t scary – you can do it”.
The rules for Barcamp (and hence related camps) changed a while back so now, officially, if it’s your first time you no longer *have* to present. I think this is a bad rule-change, to be honest. Yes, it’s daunting the first time you do it, but one of the great things about these kinds of event is that you get a friendly audience, many of whom also have little to no experience of presenting. A lot of people won’t present unless pushed into it, either.
However the Barcamp rules are still very clear: NO SPECTATORS, ONLY PARTICIPANTS (from http://barcamp.org/TheRulesOfBarCamp): “Attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one, or otherwise volunteer / contribute in some way to support the event”. One way of doing that is to speak up in sessions, which a fair number of people did, and I’d say there was only a minority at SMCL09 who only engaged in hallway conversations, which is a shame. You learn much more, and get much more out of things like this, by putting your opinions and ideas out there for people to shoot down, reinforce or evolve.
Hello,
I agree with you about the presenting. I think it may have been worthwhile giving people a bit more time to put their thoughts on the board before kick-off.
The other issue is that there are *so* many great talks, it can be intimidating to go up against them (what if no one comes to mine?) and you don’t want to miss something potentially life changing.
Perhaps future ‘camps should have a designated videographer in each room. That way you know that the sessions you miss will be captured for posterity.
Of course, all your cock-ups will be online forever…
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a “Newbie Room” which was only available to people who haven’t presented before. A safe environment where the participants know to give a slightly more gentle reception.
The best session I attended (which I’ll blog about later) was by Max (http://twitter.com/hawkida). She said that she wasn’t presenting so I finagled her into talking about LARP – Live Action Role Play.
Her talk wasn’t that well attended – but it was so utterly different from everything else that it felt like a breath of fresh air. If she had nerves, they really didn’t show.
Sorry I couldn’t make the scavenger hunt – can’t wait to see the photos. And thanks for your questions during my talk.
Terence
I’m sad I missed Max’s talk (but I’m glad I guilted her into doing it at the beginning of the day… she is such an interesting lady!), and I completely agree that more should be done to relieve the anxiety people have. I think you’re right: a newbie room, or maybe some examples of all the different types of presentations people do, would be really helpful. If someone knew that @vero’s discussion on PR was fantastic BECAUSE she allowed people to just have a discussion, or that a session with cake, or with a game is just as great, I think people would be less likely to be so intimidated.
The ‘Something Silly’ talk was by William Morland, aka @dolphonia – one of the young’uns.
Hi Kat,
I have to say, as a newbie who did not present, I totally agree with you! When I read the rules and saw that it wasn’t obligatory to present I definitely breathed a big sigh of relief – how would I know what people would find interesting? what if everyone is really expert in this stuff and I look silly? what if the room is full of people? or even worse, no people? or even worse, people who throw things? Without having been to a barcamp before it’s really difficult to know what to do, or have confidence it would be ok!
However, I actually wish I’d been forced to do it! I reckon I would have gotten a lot more out of what was already an amazing day, and everyone I met was so supportive that I think it would actually have been a huge confidence boost. Sure, I would have been terrified, but knowing that I wasn’t the only newbie presenting as everyone had to do it would have made it a lot easier
Still, it was a fantastic day, and I definitely promise to present next time!
Kim
Ha – as the person you had the debate with about non-presenting, I feel I should reiterate that I do see your point, but I think we’re coming from different perspectives on what it means to make a contribution. Certainly, I don’t think it’s fair to say that if you didn’t do a presentation (or volunteer in some other way) then you necessarily didn’t contribute to the day.
And my lack of presenting had nothing to do with fear; it was that I didn’t want to do a half-assed job of it, because I didn’t think that would add anything terribly valuable to the event. My feeling is that the day actually gained a lot from having a smaller number of well-thought through presentations than having a larger number of hastily-assembled ones (that could siphon off potentially useful contributors from other sessions.) As it happens, I was quite willing to do a fun, on-the-spot session when the board was looking thin at the beginning of the day; but by lunchtime, there were several interesting sounding talks in each slot, and I didn’t think it would be terribly helpful to add something that, in all honesty, would have tended towards the shambolic and jokey to it.
Would I have been put off coming to the event if it had had strictly enforced “you must present” rules? There’s a good chance – not a certainty, but I’d have been disinclined to come, both because that kind of “but it’s the RULES” attitude is a little alienating, but also for the exact reason you mention… I wouldn’t want to deprive someone else of a ticket if I didn’t think I could get a useful and original talk together in time.
I thought it was a fascinating and fun day, and that the level of participation in discussions was high (and of a high quality) – which is a tribute to the fantastic people organising and volunteering for it, yourself included. I get why you think that it should have had a stronger emphasis on presenting, but I’m really not sure it would have actually made the event any better.
Thanks for your comment Tom, I wasn’t sure your exact name, and didn’t want to get it wrong in my post. Just because I’ve been to barcamps that have been a bit more stringent, I know that the quantity and prep at this conference was less than at others, and I think it would have been fantastic to get more presenters. Vero says she’s going to write about this a bit more, but I think she was disappointed as well that so many people didn’t show up AT ALL that had tickets (even though there was a long waiting list). I guess the whole idea is a new one, and definitely needs to be tweaked.
I wish you had been forced to do a presentation personally because you are such an opinionated articulate guy, and we would have got a lot from what you’d have to say
Hi – I really enjoyed all the sessions i went to and would be more than happyto present next time. I think discussion forums such as @vero PR one were really useful because everyone got to put their opinion forward and there was a sense of unity.
I agree about the ticketing though and it’s a shame – perhaps people need to reconfirm 48 hours before and if they don’t the ticket goes to the waiting list.
Please let me know who won the scavenger hunt so I can sort out the theatre tickets.
I thought the whole day was fab and had a great time, lots of brilliant people around…
Thanks for the nice things people are saying about me!
This was my first event of this kind and it was made for me largely by the friendliness of everyone, but in particular Kat and Terence. I am not an extrovert, the idea of having a bunch of people listen to me is a bit intimidating, and I had no idea what to expect from the day. I had no time to prepare a talk and didn’t know what format they would take and the very expectation of me standing up was really off putting. I just felt too guilty to not go having been lucky in getting a ticket by chancing upon a Twitter comment about the event.
I ended up talking about larp because I wasn’t doing too well on the volunteering side, and I’d watched a couple of people by the time I put my name up. When I first arrived I was given a badge to write my name on and told to go downstairs. Once down there I saw a bunch of people mingling and didn’t know how to join in so I sat down by myself, actually considering doing a runner even at that point. But friendly people found me and so in the end I didn’t, and I had a great time in the end.
I am passionate enough about larp that it’s easy for me to talk about it, although I knew it wasn’t strictly speaking on topic, it’s a geeky thing so I figured it might get an audience, and those who did come to listen seemed really interested.
The thing is, I am a newbie to this scene, and I don’t feel like I can talk with authority on a huge range of things. It makes it a bit hard to come up with a topic I can confidently present, and so the whole *camp idea remains that bit intimidating and guilt inducing. They don’t really seem like a place for shy people, and I am kinda shy of new faces, although in the end I was having a blast running around supermarkets for the photo scavenger hunt.
How can camps cater to the less informed and shy demographic? Or do we just not want those people around?
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I personally think that anyone should present, every time they come, not just the first time. I think you need to have a bloody good excuse to not do so. Why do I think this? Because there is NO *Camp without people participating.
Do I think more talks on more diverse topics will make the thing more mediocre? That’s like asking if the idea of the Long Tail makes the world more mediocre. The answer is no, everyone has different tastes, and everyone wants to go to different kind of talks. I personally love the small, weird, and inspiring talks that some people hold sometimes.
I think that setting harder guidelines makes sure that everyone understands the basic spirit of *Camps, removes the discussion and doubt from people who are shy to present. It will probably push them over that hurdle that is stopping them, and I bet it will make them love it afterwards.
To finally respond to one little thing that Tom said: I would have loved for him to have given a presentation, even a half baked one. I don’t think participating in a lot of discussions equals giving a presentation, even a mediocre one. That’s like saying that you don’t write blog articles, but if people want to learn from you/know about you they should go out on the web and read all your comments that you leave out there.
I agree with Kate “that there’s something wrong with the social media industry if those who are supposedly building it don’t even bother to make an effort, to step up and to do something new and scary, how can they expect the rest of the world to join in”.
Hello,
It was my first Social Media Camp and I really enjoyed it! Everything was great: the venue, the atmosphere, the talks…
Personally, the level of participation in discussions I attended was high and, as a newbie, I learned a lot.
I didn’t feel really confident about presenting something and think I wouldn’t come if I had to do it. But now, I am not afraid anymore and really look forward to the next Camp!!!
PS: it is indeed a shame that so many people booked and didn’t come!
To correct it, @vero could perhaps ask people to pay like £30 and they will be reimbursed when they arrive at the event? Perhaps it’s difficult to organise as @Vero and volunteers had already much to do (and did it extremely well) but it is an idea…
Barcamps are the opposite of conferences. Conferences you get rock stars who talk in front of a passive audience. And the audience normally pays for the right to sit there all day and say nothing, just listen.
The wonderful thing about Barcamps is that people can talk about anything they like. You don’t have to be an expert – being interested in something is sufficient grounds to talk about something. You be yourself. That’s the key. You share what you know, and in return everyone else shares what they know. This is how we grow as a community.
Yes, some people will know more on your chosen interest – that’s great, it creates the opportunity to share in that group. You are not expected to be the world class expert – you are expected to be just yourself.
One Barcamp I did a talk on the future of search. Three people turned up. But the discussion was actually very interesting. I’d rather that, than an audience of hundreds just staring unblinkingly and passively at me. And I’m not a people person.
BarCamps are not for rock-stars, or celebrities. They are for normal people like you and me to come together and share interesting stuff together. There is no such thing as a bad BarCamp talk. No-one gets booed, no-one throws things at the current speaker — that’s all conferences, with their overfluffed celebrities.
I know talking in front of an audience is difficult. I have problems too. But, remember, BarCamps are free events. No £400 tickets. It is unreasonable to expect a speaker to deliver a suitable £400 per person talk at a Barcamp. And it’s unreasonable to expect that of yourself, or use it as a reason not to talk.
People congregate at Barcamps to be with other people, to mingle with interesting people. How am I going to figure out if you are interesting if you don’t talk about anything? There is one thing worse than presenting in front of an unknown audience, and that’s approaching a stranger and introducing yourself and hoping they are interesting.
The one cool thing about BarCamps is that you get to meet some wonderful people. One of my good friends today I met at the very first London Barcamp in 2006, and only because we both gave talks on things that interested us.
BarCamps are what you make of it. If you treat it as a conference, where only celebrities talk, then it’s going to be no better than a paid conference – just with crap speakers. If you treat it as a gathering of friendly like-minded people, and contribute knowing that everyone else is as scared and nervous as you, you will have an amazing time. And make some excelllent friends.
There are no experts at Barcamp. Just interesting people who you want to talk to, and they want to talk to you. And have a conversation with you. The life-changing moments at Barcamp happen when you are actively involved, not when you are a passive observer in the audience.
Come and join in. And be yourself.
Hey,
It was my first SMC and as I was going alone there was a lot of thought of backing out and giving my ticket back. What would have been really helpful to me and perhaps reduced my fear if I could have seen the previous talks/slides and then it would have given me an idea of what topic are covered and that you could run a game session.
I did e-mail Vero and she did send me a list of topics from the last camp but without the content it was still a little hard to know what level it was pitched at.
Also when I got there every session had something I wanted to attend so perhaps having a place for slides, or recordings of the discussions would be great so you don’t feel like you’re missing out. Also if you couldn’t get a ticket you can still have an idea of what happened.
Thanks Vero for organising it and I’m looking forward to the next one where I know that I have much more of an idea of what I’d like to do in a session
I was also lucky enough to come to this thanks to a Twitter mention of it (h/t @qwghlm) but I didn’t know that I was going to get to come until a day or so before, because I was on the waiting list. Perhaps this means that I missed out on important encouraging emails and information about having to do a session – so bear that in mind with this comment.
Yes – I see that these things are only as good as what people contribute and I know that it is important for people to present, but I’m not sure I would have had the guts to come along if I was forced to present on my first time.
Firstly, I wasn’t sure what level things were going to be pitched at. Secondly I didn’t know that didn’t matter, and thirdly I didn’t want to feel like a fraud, spouting something for the sake of it when there were probably lots more knowledgeable and articulate people there.
I guess you could just say that I was scaredy – and that certainly was the case when I arrived, but as I spoke to people, listened (and commented) in sessions and got used to the set up I saw that it wasn’t as scary as I thought. I really enjoyed the day, met some fabulous people and took a lot from it and will certainly come up with something for the next one. I agree with Tom though that by the time I was sort of getting the confidence to put something on the board there were a lot of interesting sessions there and I probably would have just watered the quality down by adding something for the sake of it. I wasn’t arrogant enought to go head-to-head with them and nor did I think that it would be fair to. People who had obviously put some effort into their interesting sessions deserved to have an audience to appreciate that.
I think that there is a balance between strongly encouraging and *forcing* people to present. I understood that I didn’t *have* to present (I might not have felt qualified to come otherwise), and I don’t think that using guilt is a good way to encourage future presentations. I mean fine if people are there taking the piss, not getting involved at all, but some people are shy, some people like to get an idea of what’s out there and work out if they really have something to add, and they should be given a little lea-way at their first camp I reckon. Go ahead and make them present next time – when they know how it works and see that it is a friendly thing. If there were a second day I would have put something together and presented – for sure.
I totally get your point, and having experienced the day would definitely come again, would definitely present and would definitely get more involved. BUT, that is because it was interesting, I know what to expect and I enjoyed it, and NOT so much because of the whole guilt thing -which I think would scare me off a bit frankly.
Perhaps you could have a limit on the number of non-presenting 1st-timers to solve this? That way some people who are a bit shy, but have something to bring to the table can come along and you still have a board full of presentations. Just a thought.
@Julie The trouble with asking for a deposit is that not everyone has a credit card or, indeed, can spare £30 or even £5. Name & shame doesn’t work because sometimes people have genuine reasons for not attending.
@Tom “I didn’t want to do a half-assed job of it” – well, the solution to that is to spend a few hours the week before assembling your thoughts on a subject. You don’t have to present alone, either.
In fact, the least interesting presentations that I saw are the ones which are obviously over rehearsed and have been trotted out at every conference.
BarCampLondon6 had a quickfire presentation session where, I think, participants were limited to 5 minutes. Perhaps a session like that & a newbie friendly room would help. Although all the sessions I was in were very friendly to newcomers.
Ultimately, no one can be forced to present. But it’s such an important skill to have that it’s worth pushing yourself in to doing it.
The day was great – no doubt about that – but it would have been even better if *you* had presented. Whoever you are.
Hey guys,
I rocked up (late) at the *Camp on Saturday with the full intention of doing some kind of presentation of some sort.
I had a rough idea in my head but knew it would only take on any kind of shape once I’d seen a few others.
I did, they rocked.
Hand on heart, I had no idea of the presenting ‘rules’ but knew I’d participating/contributing in *some* way. Be it by presenting or simply by taking part in a discussion group.
Echoing some of what has already been said, when it came to putting my session up on the wall I stood there for *AGES* trying to work out where to put it and whom to go up against. The stuff already up looked so darn awesome I just didn’t want to miss anything.
I really enjoyed my (first ever) BarCamp and well, I think being a stickler for the rules is all well and good if you think the day suffered for it.
Me? I don’t think it did.
J.
P.S. Thanks to all those that came to my Corporate Monkey session. I really enjoyed it!
I think the comments here are pretty equally split: those that have gone to a barcamp before (even just one, like me, for example) think that everyone should present, and those that haven’t don’t think that people should have to present.
I can understand why shy people don’t want to do it, but one guy I know (my boyfriend) hates presenting in front of people with a passion, but him and I went to a barcamp and did a presentation together. Sure, he was nervous, but afterwards he was very pleased with the whole thing, and was proud that he contributed.
I think doing a joint presentation or a half session (which was also allowed at the barcamp I went to) takes a lot of pressure off people.
If we don’t do scary things, how are we expected to grow? A great example here was Max, who did a small presentation, even though she was shy, and she was told it was amongst the most interesting talks of the day.
My names Gemma and I was a non-presenter.
Ok, with that over with I have to say I do regret not presenting and can see both sides of this discussion. My reason (read excuse if you like) was that I wasn’t fully aware of the format (I know I know, I’m the only one to blame).
I actually didn’t have a ticket and happened to send a tweet the day before asking if anyone had dropped out. Thankfully the lovely @vero popped me straight on as there was space. This did mean that I hadn’t done any research about the events (it was my first too) and didn’t get the chance as I had to get a project out the door. I could’ve jumped on board once I was more aware of things on the day, but in all honesty I had no idea what to present. I did, however, get very involved in all discussions and got loads out of it. Next time I will definitely prepare something as I’m itching to get up there and get more involved. That said, there are some pretty impressive experts presenting which can be a bit of a worry, as others have already mentioned.
I think the concept is a fantastic one and everyone should be encouraged to present. But perhaps the word ‘presentation’ is the problem. As these are more discussion groups perhaps it could be called ‘hosting’ a session. Feels much less scary to me and might help everyone get more involved.
My two penneth for what it’s worth.
Oh and finally, a big thank you to all who did ‘host’ a session … everyone I saw was brilliant.
All great comments and I also wanted to echo thanking Vero for putting on such a good event.
With an “unconference” like BarCamp there are no expectations about what to expect with sessions & I think that’s something that could be put across for newbies.
It was my 5th BarCamp and my 2nd Social Media Camp. I presented at the first two BarCamps I went to – mainly because people were so insistent that I should give it a try & I was really glad I did (although I had no idea about “rules” of newbies having to present – which personally I don’t think is a great idea and no one should be forced to present if they don’t want to)
The sessions on Saturday clearly filled up & I most people I know contributed something – some of the sessions themselves were so workshop based that everyone who went ended up contributing.
BTW Kasssy – great to join your team for the photographic Scavenger Hunt a the end which was a fab, funny & kinda energetic way to end the day. I’m sorry more people didn’t turn up for that – but it meant all the more booze for us
[...] not being there. As the reviews flooded in after of the day, I kicked myself further. Then I read this, which offered a different perspective and I’m really glad it wasn’t just me that felt [...]
If everyone is made to present at BarCamps, then only presenters turn up. And that’s wrong because it means they eventually become echo chambers and new or curious people feel alienated and won’t turn up.
Without wishing to upset Kassy’s distinction, I’m someone who has presented at both SocialMediaCamps I’ve attended, including last weekend’s. And had I got tickets to one of the recent BarCampsLondon I’d have presented there too. But I don’t think that everyone should present. Talking with people at SMC on Saturday that plenty were there to learn, and ‘learning by doing’ is pointless if you’re not sure where to start. Learning by listening is most important.
Making people who want to learn go up and talk is not fair, doubly so if they are not confident public speakers. It makes them worry so much about their own presentation that they will shut off from what else is going around them.
Furthermore, implying that people are freeloaders for wanting to come to something and not ‘contributing’ by presenting is especially mean. Out of the 30 or so people at my talk, I think 6 contributed to the discussion afterwards, but I don’t resent the remaing 24 or so who didn’t contribute – I don’t lose anything from those extra people coming to listen. And to be honest, if nobody after my talk at SMC had wished to contribute to the discussion afterwards, that would have been a sign I was boring, rather than they were tagging along for the ride.
It’s ironic that for self-styled ‘unconferences’ there are a lot of hangups about the ‘rules’ and ‘obligations’ that attendees are meant to follow. For me, the benefits of unconferences are not just the interesting conversations and things we learn on the day itself, but what we take away and use after it’s all over. I’d much rather an attendee not contribute a thing at a Barcamp but take away what they learn to do something awesome in the following weeks, rather than them feeling obliged to talk at the expense of what they might learn listening.
[...] admin added an interesting post on Safetygoat » Social Media Camp London: 97% awesomeHere’s a small excerptI finally went to BarCamp London 4 (the one at Google), presented, and loved it. But it was scary. One thing that organisers can do to help alleviate that is to give a few examples of the sorts of things that people have presented on … [...]
[...] show up. Besides that only half (!!) the session slots were filled. Kat has got a great blog post (with lots of different views in the comments) about whether or not everyone should present. I do [...]
[...] but there are some extra things that could have been done to help combat this (Kat has written a post about this already, and the excellent comments are well worth reading [...]
I think perhaps the ‘rule’ should be that first time attendees do NOT have to present but if you’ve been before then you should.
Personally speaking, I’m not generally one to hide my light under any kind of bushel but I would be cautious about getting up there first time around. I would much prefer to get a feel for what the whole thing is about first.
I agree with what Chris said in the previous comment. If the fact one has to present puts people off then eventually you will whittle the audience down to the same faces again and again. This is ultimately self defeating as the whole point of barcamp is to “spread the word” and give people an opportunity to both learn and listen.
Perhaps a solution is to restrict tickets to a 50/50 split between those that have presented at a barcamp in the past and the newcomers who have never attended? The first group should be “obliged” to present while the latter have an option – although they also should be encouraged to do so.
[...] some have lamented the low attendance rate and the fact not everyone seemed keen to present (Kat Neville and Michael Litman provide arguments for each side, and Neil Crosby has a good suggestion on [...]
[...] my former involvement with the porn industry, you will be unsurprised that I didn’t agree with all the sentiments presented. However, [...]