ArbCamp 2008

A few weeks ago I read about ArbCamp 2008 in the a2geeks.org website. I promptly signed up to attend. Free pizza and geek talk is too good an opportunity to pass.

The sign-up list filled up pretty quickly, so they opened up a waiting list. When they saw that that one was also filled quickly, they changed from SPARK Central to CottageInn Pizza. We took control of the second level, which is pretty big, and it was still crowded. I love the A2 geek community.

After the signup, everyone meeting, getting to know each other and geeking around, the famous Dug Song took the floor and gave the rules: anything goes in a session; if you don't like it, get up and go to the next one. The board was full of great suggestions.

I personally went first to the one about Startups in Ann Arbor. There were so many of us there that Dug split the group into mini-groups. I went to the one about Web-Based Startups. Now, I don't have my own startup or anything like that, but it's something that I want to understand pretty well in case I decide to liberate myself.

The second and the third one I went to were about social networks and monetizing/promoting a website, respectively. These two subjects go very well together, since that's pretty much every geek's wet dream: running their own social networking website and making money off of it.

After those sessions, I decided to leave. I needed my salsa (dancing) fix for the day, so I went dancing to FireFly Club right after.

Even though I left early, I had a great time, learned much, networked a good deal, and decided on some new projects I should be devoting my time to. It was a success.