Barcamp Orlando 08 Dev Day
I was so excited about Barcamp Orlando 08 that I arrived half an hour early before volunteer show up time. This was fine though because I had to find a place to park, so it all worked out fine.
The volunteers and I got both rooms filled with chairs, the registration tables setup, the white board brought down from NFI and the audio/visual setup. During this time Mark Krupinski was there from Rasmussen College. He asked me if I was going to present on the “Tech Association”. I told him I was and I believe he was the one that told me that he thinks Izea and MindComet was putting together some type of marketing association and that they have had some advisory board meetings. Then I manned the registration table with Lazarus Mitchell while Gregg Pollack handed out t-shirts up until 10:25 at which point I got ready for my presentation “Do we need a Tech Association in Central Florida.”
My presentation was the first one of the day which was in Slingapours. I was very happy at the turn out. The presentation was basically about how we have all these great things that happen in town but not allot of techs in the area know they exist. It was also about the need to tell the world that Central Florida is a happening city in regards to the technology industry.
At the end of my presentation, Ryan Price was standing to my left, I made a statement that some of the Tech Leaders in the area have already expressed their backing in my idea (for instance Mark Krupinski and Robert Dempsey) (others were interested but you can tell they were not really on board unless the other guy was on board, so I never told anyone who really was fully on board yet), Ryan asked the audience who in the room has already expressed their interest in helping (those are not the exact words, I do not remember them, but I felt I was being attacked). Right then and there I was looking around for Robert Dempsey who I feel is respected by fellow Barcamp attendees but I was surprised when other Tech Leaders started to raise their hand that were yet to express their commitment like Gregg Pollack from the Orlando Ruby Users Group. The rest was a blur as I was excited by the hands that were raised; I felt that it was a personal win for some reason. (Although I know now that we were all winning as the day was filled with the same sense of community).
I got off the stage and began to facilitate the rest of the presentations that followed that day.
The nest presentation was by Izea, towards the end I had to give Pete Wright and his group a five minute warning which was 5 minutes to late. Pete seemed a little annoyed at this in which case anyone might. I hated doing it as they were clearly not finished. When Pete came off the stage I apologized about having to do it. He said it was okay and that by the way did I know that Izea, Mind Comet was creating an Interactive Marketing Association. I told him that I had just heard about it right before my presentation. He told me that it was going to be a Global Interactive Marketing Association and that both of our organizations may have room in the other or something like that (please remember I was trying to facilitate the presentations, I had to quickly get to the next guy and ask if they were using Audio or they would create a lot of noise if there volume was turned down, so I do not know if I have the statements right). The conversation was cut short by others waiting to talk to him and my need to make sure the next presenter was set up.
But to me, it did not matter as I was talking about a Tech Association, not a local Marketing Association chapter and the Tech Association wasn’t even set up yet. We can join many organizations if the elected board members wanted. So I forgot about it and moved on.
Later in the day there was an exciting Refresh Orlando courtyard discussion that deserves its own post as well as the IZEA after party.
