Barcamp Orlando 08 Mailing List
Barcamp Orlando 08 Mailing List
I got an email sent out over the Barcamp Orlando 08 mailing list. The title is “Who would you invite to a talk about the state of the industry?” which was sent out Ryan Price. After reading the email I have to admit I felt a little weird about it.
Ryan and I were just talking about our passion for our ideas just recently at his Florida Creative’s event. (See this post “My First Florida Creative’s April 08“.) Little did Ryan know, I wanted to talk with others about the possibility for a Tech Association at BarCamp Orlando 08. At the time this felt like a small slap in the face (but now I see it as just another person with passion for the Central Florida Tech Industry).
So immediately sent this email to the group;
As some of you may know, I have been discussing with some of the local tech leaders on rally behind the possibility of creating a central Florida tech association. An organization centered on the small business & freelance tech community. I have cornered several organizations and have asked them what they have thought on the idea. Everyone has had positive remarks and share the same passion at some level. Many people have concerns as well. For instance ownership, leadership and direction of this organization. For me the answer is simple, we discuss, plan, vote.
I would love to have the rest of the world to see us as the next Silicon Valley. You may have another vision, but together we can accomplish everything we want together.
If anyone is interested or would like to take part in this, then please speak up. Maybe this can be discussed as well.
I received a few emails from people telling me that I should have a presentation at BarCamp Orlando 08. So I sent this email out;
Ryan & Gregg,
I am going to speak about the need for a new tech movement in the Central Florida Area and the idea of creating a tech association. Maybe we should think about grouping all these together?
This seemed to anger Ryan a little; I received that back;
This is not the opportunity for any one person to stand on a podium and give an address to the people. I was not even planning on preparing slides for this discussion. I really wanted it to be an exercise in storytelling and proactive leadership.
I imagine there will be a handful of people who dominate the conversation, but I just want us to get an idea of what’s going on here.
I chose the hour before lunch to hold this discussion because that was the time where the most people would be in the room, and it would be easier to invite any special guests and say “Show up for this talk, then stay for a free lunch”.
Gregg, I think anything you would like to cover in your “rant” would be great for the tail end of this discussion. It fits really well into the “future”, since we’re talking about “past, present, and future”.
This got me mad, so I wrote;
Oh sorry about that, I thought it was an opportunity for anyone to stand on a podium address the people AS WELL as share information, experiences and in courage audience participation.
I was just suggesting that we try to get all similar like presentations together; I apologize for my “proactive leadership”.
This was all stopped by Elliot Murphy with his response;
Please don’t be offended. Your feelings are valid, and Ryan was being perfectly reasonable in clarifying how he wanted to structure his time.
But for me at the time, I felt that there was a war going on and I went to start constructing my presentation! “Do we need a Tech Association in Central Florida?”.
