Last weekend I attended my first barcamp ‘unconference’ in Bath called, unsurprisingly, Bathcamp.

It was absolutely brilliant.

There were around 60 attendees a number of whom are now listed on the bathcamp blog and the split was around 70%/30% web geeks and educational/knowledge management types.

There were three areas at the venue and the talks varied from the more standard technical web development techniques (which I mainly attended) to how to make a good Espresso and my personal favourite which was Frankie Roberto’s dead-pan delve into the world of the serious Lego geek.

Siftware sponsored the booze for the evening at the venue and I put on a ‘tub quiz’ with prizes, amongst others, of a $50,000,000,000 note. The quiz seemed to go down rather well; I know I enjoyed putting it together.

Kudos to the organisers of the event whose forward planning ensured the weekend went very smoothly. A particularly big shout out to Mike Ellis, Tim Beadle, Frankie Roberto, Lisa Price & Steve Pope who I’m sure didn’t sit down for the 2 days.

I made some great new friends, put faces to names I’ve known for 10 years and have not laughed so much in ages (you know who you are!).  Overall I came away on Sunday feeling inspired and with that warm glow you get after putting another good time in the bank.

Go Bathcamp.

A few other attendees have blogged about the day or posted their slides. I’ll add them to this list as and when I get the links:

• Matt Jukes: http://backpass.org/2008/09/16/briliant-bathcamp/
• Keir Whitaker: http://www.fiveandlime.com/journal/2008/09/14/10-reasons-you-should-try-django (annoyed I missed this one)
• Drew Jones: http://andij.com/2008/09/07/sfimagetransform-presentation
• Jack Martin Leith: http://www.jackmartinleith.com/?p=1237
• Sam Downie: http://bristol-sounds.com/dsoundzmedia/?p=99
• Frankie Roberto: http://www.frankieroberto.com/weblog/881
• Mia Ridge: http://openobjects.blogspot.com/2008/09/bathcamp-report.html
• Mike Ellis: http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2008/09/23/that-wasbathcamp-2008/

Addendum:

Here’s the quiz slides with answers, as requested by a few people. Apparently it was too hard?

Here’s the answer sheet.