With that said, I would suggest having seperate rooms for the break outs. One group in particular was so noisy that all the other break out sessions were compromised at that time.

Having the ability to suggest topics is nice but it also caused a lot of fragmantation and confusion.

All in all we would reccommend the RE BarCamps to anyone who can attend.

One of, if not the best session, in Philly was probably the least attended. While the discussion morphed a bit, it was kept on track by the facilitator (Craig Barrett). I too would have liked more interaction in some of the other sessions.

As for charging, that may get more people “dedicated” to coming and cause a bit less stress about shirts, etc. and what to do with the “leftovers”. Nice post Bobby.

Thank you for all the great information here.

The Philly Bar Camp was great in a variety of ways as well, in that there were more sessions to pick and choose from, but because it was much larger, it didn’t allow for the closeness of feeling that the VA one had. I found out later that there were people there I wanted to meet that I never saw because of the larger attendance & the number of rooms sessions were in. That doesn’t take away anything from the enjoyment of that bar camp at all.

I like that there are before and after fun events at most of these, those add to the great feelings of being there in person.

I’ve also been able to watch parts of 3 other bar camps on your live streaming, and Monika is right in that the comments on those are quite telling, and would make great feedback for others to learn from – both organizers and speakers/presenters.

I’ll be attending the Boston Bar Camp next week, and I know those organizers have been working hard to put all the good things garnered from a number of bar camps that they’ve attended, in person or via live stream. And they’ve solicited feedback and input from attendees.

I’m a bar camp believer as well, and I hope they don’t ever become routine or run-of-the-mill. There’s so much to gain from attending them, in person or via your great live-streaming that you do.

My thanks to all who work so hard to put these bar camps together – that’s a true yeoman’s job for sure. And many thanks to you and Brad for the contributions you make as well – much appreciated.

The big room is usually not the best room.

Much of the interaction you are talking about happens in those smaller rooms. Here in Chicago, we plan to start the morning with one big room, but then blow that up. We’re going to split that one big room into three almost immediately.

Denver was one of, if not THE biggest RE BarCamp. It was my favorite so far. I don’t think the size of the whole event has much to do with the formula for success.

I also think, if someone is pitching a product in front of me, I would just call them out right then and there. I hope other attendees choose to do the same. Now, if Walt’s Widgets wants to do a session on how to use Walt’s Widgets, don’t expect Walt not to pimp his product. Use the law of two feet, or don’t listen in the first place.

Last, call them speakers, presenters, facilitators or whatever. More than anything though, they are volunteers. It takes time money and effort to volunteer. If a critic doesn’t like the job the volunteers are doing, I guess I don’t care that much unless they want to volunteer to make it better.

The idea of the charge for lunch and shirt isn’t a bad one – it would get a little bit more of a commitment out of people.

BYOChair & park – *ROCK IT* I’m there – I’d even pitch a tent and have campfire convos

We also had some great sessions that were facilitated and interactive, providing a lot of value. It’s great to see big names and vendors come out but we need to stay hand’s on and crunchy rather than getting too commercial.

I like Dale’s idea, bring your own chair and have it out in a park