TechCrunch (an awesome new web2.0 weblog) is having a meetup/barbeque this thursday. RSVP is via their wiki.
Will these kinds of semi-spontanious, rapidly organized (via internet), very low cost mini-conferences (think of scoble or joels geek dinners, or the excellent bar camp last month) eventually make “real” conferences obsolete? I’m going to the web 2.0 conference in sf next month, but if enough free events like this start happening, it would be much more cost effective and fun to go to barbeques and dinners and campouts instead!
You never learn much from the speakers at conferences anyway, it’s always the conversations in the hallway that you really learn from. And spontaneously organizing a group of people has never been easier, now that we have blogs and wikis.
{ 4 comments }
Jon, We agree, and I think we are going to start doing these monthly. The conversations that sprang up last week around the firepit and the demo computers were just awesome. See you there!
Looking forward to it.
The wierd thing about this new paradigm is that since it’s more spontaneous, it tends to be more geographically localized. Not many people flew in from out of town for barcamp, for example..
The internet hasn’t changed the importance of geography, even as it has opened up potential for distrubuted teams. Living and working near the geek meccas remains critical!
Hey Jon,
Unfortunately I cannot make it this Thursday, but I feel I need to start showing up to some of these and getting into the conversation. There’s just so much happening these days that’s really fascinating!
I said something to Milly last night very similar to what you note above… there’s really no place like the Silicon Valley area to be engaged in these sorts of discussions.
Later,
Brian
Hey Brian!
Actually that was last thursday (sheesh, I’m falling behind on the blogging!). I will send you an email next time I’m going to something cool though. Shouldn’t be long…the valley is really percolating right now!!!
-J
Comments on this entry are closed.