demonick.tv™

In case you didn’t noticed, I’ve been tweeting a lot lately about BarCamp over the past 2 days. I’ve also been asked by my friends (and followers) what exactly is BarCamp. BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees. When you come, be prepared to share with Barcampers. When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

This ISN’T a technology convention, although there are a lot of techies and tech talk sessions. It’s actually more about knowledge sharing. It can be ANYTHING on any topic if you think you have something interesting to share. It’s also a good place to widen your contacts and social circle. BarCamp is also an international movement, as there was also a number of fellow Barcampers from around the world there.

Well, this is my first time at a BarCamp event, but after these 2 days I’ve learned so much and met so many new people it made me want to go for more especially when they have it at Singapore and Bangkok. Now, I don’t have any pictures to show, because I was a bit lazy to carry my camera around, but I’m sure some pictures will surface somewhere on the net or on Facebook, so go search for it.

But what I can share with you are some things that I learned over at BarCamp:

1. There is a new term call “Devigners” which is basically a hybrid of a web developer + web designer.
2. There are lots of cool mobile applications out there. One that I found interesting is an application that allows you to turn your mobile phone into a WiFi access point. It’s might not be new, but it’s new to me…so I learned something new!
3. Ethics on blogging and the importance of Google page ranks on your blogs/website
4. Pecha Kucha is cool! It’s where someone is limited to present 20 slides, with each slide given a maximum of 20 seconds. Can be of any topic. Also dubbed “Lightning Round”
5. Kufi Squares!
6. April 25th is Poetry Slam at Hartamas @ Lepaq
7. Business and SEX share the same rules…seriously!
8. I know how to make Espresso, Mocha and other coffee drinks and thinks Starbucks and Coffee Bean ripped us off all these while
9. 10 deadly sins of advertising – Tip: Don’t use history as a part of advertising…it’s BORING!
10. How to pick up Japanese chicks. – Tip from a Japanese girl: If you want her to be your girlfriend, STOP being her friend…and “Daijobu?” means “Are you OK?” which is important to always ask a Japanese girl :P
11. Powerpoint Karaoke is sort of like a reverse Pecha Kucha. Slides are not prepared by you but by someone else.
12. MLM is MLM no matter how you mask it..as long as there are words like RECRUIT, JOIN and SELL! – Note to all, NEVER preach MLM at BarCamp! You’ll be thrown out!
13. Previewed the new Firefox 3.5 and its new features during a presentation by Gen Kanai from Mozilla
14. Stories of young entrepreneurs in Malaysia
15. How corporate brands like Lenovo use of social media such as Facebook & Twitter to enhance customer experience

As you can see, this is only a summary (or what I can remember off hand at least) of what I learned. I’m sure there are more. That along with the number of new friends I made makes it a really enjoyable and memorable 2 days.

*Click here to view a video snippet from @TheBackpackr