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.

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.

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

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.