Jared W. Smith

I went up to Charlotte, NC on Saturday to take part in BarCamp Charlotte 2. I got a great deal of value out of the presentations, and it was really important for me to see a BarCamp in action — important as we prepare for the inaugural BarCamp Charleston on Saturday.

I was only able to attend the afternoon sessions, but fortunately I was able to see how Charlotte’s interpretation of BarCamp works. I even tried to pitch a session talking about what I’ve done with my weather projects, and while there was some interest, it didn’t quite pass muster. But that’s alright — I know I wouldn’t have been able to match the quality of the sessions I attended, which were incredibly well-thought-out and creative. I attended a session called “45 Questions in 45 Minutes,” which aimed for 45 questions about the web answered in a strict one-minute time limit (though people found loopholes later on :) ). I got to see a great demo of HTML5 — and from that, confidence that I can start to use HTML 5 now. Finally, I attended a panel about the future of journalism (a topic near and dear to this journalism major’s heart), during which I got to mention the #CHS Hashtag Summit, which likely sparked a Charlotte news hashtagging movement as well.

It was also great to connect and re-connect with a lot of my Charlotte Twitter friends. I think that’s the part of these events I enjoy most — connecting with all the people in “real life” that I interact with daily on Twitter. I also got to meet a whole lot of new people as well — always a plus.

The event seemed to go very well (at least for the few hours I was there), and I look forward to making the trip for BarCamp Charlotte 3.