BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open sourcetechnologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

Basically it’s a place where people get together to talk about technology with each other in a fun and conversational way.  There’s very few rules or no preset schedule of topics.  If you want to talk, just put your name and topic on the schedule board.  Topics range widely from talking about multi-threading in web applications, business plans, to whiskey tasting for beginners.  Barcamp LA 6 was free and hosted by Mahalo with a pretty good turnout of about 150 people.  Here are my quick thoughts: 

• Twitter, twitter, twitter.  It felt like there was more interaction over twitter than in person.  As soon as I walked in, I saw dozens of laptops setup on a huge conference table with people twittering and blogging.  Even during the sessions, people were twittering on their laptops and cell phones.  I guess this is easier than talking to people face to face.  You can follow me on twitter here. 
• The introductions are fun.  Amazing that we went through over 100 people in about 10 min.  Restricting the talking time to name and 3 tags did wonders. 
• My favorite session was by Francisco Dao over at The Killer Pitch.  He was a great speaker and also gave out autographed copies of his book. 
• Mahalo has a pretty nice office space.  It’s fun yet not over the top like Rubicon Project’s.

I didn’t get to stick around for the whiskey session, but I’m sure that would have been fun.  Next time!  Barcamps happen all over the world so I definitely recommend checking it out.  It’s free and geeks are more friendly and down to earth than most other types of convention attendees.

Justin

• Twiistup 4: $50 ticket.  Some free appetizers.  No free alcohol (in fact, pricey Viceroy Santa Monica prices).  Sponsors that paid alot for bungalows, but still no free admission or drinks.  We ended up going across the street to Cha Cha Chicken to eat dinner since the appetizers were sorta slow.  For the amount of money we spent on the ticket, food and drinks, I think it would have been cheaper to fly to Chicago for the next Tech Cocktail (which I might do).  The coolest thing was the free iPhone etching from Etchstar.
• Digital Drinks LA: This was at Sky Bar in Hollywood, which is apparently a pretty exclusive bar on the hill overlooking LA.  $10 ticket.  Nothing included.  Hotel only has valet parking.  Drinks were priced at $18 a shot!!  Loud club music.  Very little lighting.  

• you know of an event I should check out
• want to grab a coffee or lunch
• know someone I should meet
• have a restaurant recommendation

This is going to be my longest trip back to the area since moving in 2005 so I’m excited to visit my old stomping grounds like Los Alto Taqueria.

- Justin

• A pretty swanky lounge with a DJ spinning tunes
  
• A special rockstar appearance and performance by Bono (well, a pseudo one)
  
• Lots of media and video – 2 projectors constantly playing video clips and a couple different video cameras circling the venue interviewing people
• Free swag everywhere (my favorites were the mousepads from Userplane)
• Valet parking

Of course, there were also tech demos by local web 2.0 companies. Here are the ones I chatted with:

• ThisNext – A very cool social shopping site. As you shop online you can bookmark items at different online stores and add them to the ThisNext community. It’s a great way to find the hot new items on the web.
• CampusBug – Social education where you can earn money for being helpful. Flashcards, test prep, study guides, etc.
• Faqqly – How do you get to know your friends? You ask them personal questions. That’s what you can do on Faqqly.
• ElephantDrive – Online storage where you can go signup and get 1 gb free. Now there’s no excuse for not backing up those critical files.

Pretty good for my first event since moving back to So Cal. Let me know if there are other events I should hit up!

- Justin

According to the website, likemind is “an opportunity to enjoy coffee and conversation.” Friendly, chatty folks have free coffee (hooray for sponsors) and meet other similarly gregarious people in one of 32 different cities across the world. Justin attended a Chicago likemind a few months back and recommended it, and I’d second that opinion. Attendees tend more towards the creative types, which is a refreshing alternative to other meetups I’ve frequented lately, and they aren’t that likeminded – that’d make conversation excruciatingly boring. But they are similar in having the right attitude, which is what makes it work.

Likemind’s been growing rapidly since starting last year, and today is likemind’s first birthday – congrats to founders Piers and Noah. They’ve got a good thing going, and it’s something folks in Seattle should definitely check it out. Hopefully I’ll see you at the next one.

-John

It was started in NY by Piers and Noah and is now in 25 different cities. As someone that works at home, it was a great opportunity to force myself out of the house early (although 8am is a bit early) to talk to people. It sounds similar to the Open Coffee Club, but I don’t think there’s one in Chicago yet and Open Coffee is more focused on startups whereas LikeMind seems to draw more creative types.

Here are a couple videos about it by 1938 Media.

- Justin

The first was due to pure luck – Digital Bootcamp’s demo was right next to ours at Tech Cocktail, so on a whim I entered their raffle, where you guess the number of Digital Bootcamp dogtags in a big mason jar. Who knew that jar could hold over 600 dogtags? I ended up with the closest guess, so over the weekend we visited Mike (while sporting my Menuism tee) to pick up my prize – a nifty iPod nano. Sweet!

If that was all there was to say about Digital Bootcamp, this would’ve been just a “yay-I-won-something” post, but it’s definitely not. Besides being a successful entrepreneur (DB’s going strong after 15 years), Mike hosts a monthly “Circle of Progress” Entrepreneur’s Meetup group, where entrepreneurs of all backgrounds meet to keep each other accountable. Justin and I attended last night and found it helpful. There usually aren’t many people around to keep an entrepreneur on track, so having a support group of some kind, structured or not, is critical to keeping things rolling. The “Circle of Progress” records member’s monthly commitments, so it’s easy to track what’s been accomplished or not, but the most valuable aspect is simply declaring publicly what you intend to do in the coming month and what you did and didn’t accomplish last month – peer pressure and public humiliation works wonders.

Justin and I have tried on and off to do something like this with our networks in Seattle and Chicago, and hopefully seeing what Mike’s done with this group will be the kick in the butt necessary to get something really going. Mike’s doing some neat stuff here in Chicago – if you get a chance drop by the DB offices and have him show you his neat auction purchases.

More on accountability to come!

-John

“Menuism rocked the house at TC4!” exclaimed one attendee who asked to remain unnamed. “It seemed like they were everywhere – I couldn’t resist being lulled by the sweet siren song of Menuism gospel. It was like those Highrise guys weren’t even around at all.”

Well, that’s how I imagine a PR firm would have spun it. We did attend and demo at Tech Cocktail 4 last night at John Barleycorn, and here’s the real breakdown of how it went:

• Tech Cocktail is renowned, and was fantastic last night. The venue in Wrigleyville was perfect, with plenty of space (and drinks) to accommodate the huge crowd.
• Menuism did win the crowd voting last night via Interactive Mediums‘ neat SMS-based voting system, but it wasn’t a blowout victory – the race was pretty tight with the other demoing startups, including the cool guys at ParkWhiz.
• Highrise was scheduled to be demoed last night, but those guys couldn’t make it in the end. There’s little doubt they would’ve been the most popular demo there – the 37 Signals guys are icons of the web world, and Menuism’s built on the framework they created. Highrise itself is a neat product tackling a real tangible market opportunity, so kudos to them.
• Justin and I did snag a great demo location, taking over a small bar on the side of the room but the only thing we had on tap was Menuism propaganda.
• Our booth was eye-catching, but probably because it looked like something from a high school carnival – paper tablecloths, orange helium balloons holding up printed signs, and laptops looping a video slideset about Menuism. And the “valuable giveaways”? Lifesaver mints – avoided by all.
• We did talk about Menuism to lots of people, which I felt was the best part of Tech Cocktail for us. Practice really does help when it comes to networking and talking, and we were better this time around, but still far from totally comfortable or relaxed. Any smoothness was probably due to the free booze.

That pretty much covers how TC went for us last night. We were looking forward to it all week, and as we were looking for supplies and setting up it totally felt like something out of the Apprentice. Here’s a representative picture of our setup, with me posing for the camera while Justin’s in the background, demoing his heart out.

Like many other companies there, we held a raffle to try to get more attendees to talk to us, with our prize being a $50 restaurant gift certificate. Congratulations to Clint from Stone Ward for winning our raffle – we’ll be in touch with you soon. =) We were able to meet a bunch of great new contacts, visible in card form here.

If you were there last night but didn’t win our $50, never fear – you can still win $50 in our monthly Food Fight Contest for April. We’re looking for the best salads around, so just review some salads and you’re automatically entered!

You can read more about TC4 with writeups by hosts Eric, Frank, and on the Tech Cocktail blog. All in all, we had a fantastic time at Tech Cocktail 4, thanks to the grand efforts of Eric and Frank. Thanks guys!

-John

We timed this trip to coincide with one of our favorite networking events – Tech Cocktail 3, which was held at Amira at the base of the NBC tower. Hosts Eric and Frank have perfected the simple formula for bringing together the Midwest tech community – take a swanky lounge, add an open bar, and make the whole thing free. The local community’s definitely taken to the idea, with attendence nearly doubling at each successive event.

Justin and I had lots of fun at the last one, and last night didn’t disappoint. Amira’s a large venue, but even with all that space things got crowded quickly and lots of people were turned away at the door. Previous sponsor Singlehop outdid itself this time, providing complimentary (strong!) martinis poured through glowing frog ice sculptures. Thankfully, this time there weren’t any video interviewers to stumble in front of after one-too-many free drinks. =)

More than the venue and the free drinks, the best part of TC was meeting interesting people and hearing about their projects. It was nice to reconnect with old friends and make new connections, though with so many in attendance it got hard to find everyone we wanted to. For more detailed coverage, check out WindyBits‘ coverage here.

As for actual work, we’ve got a couple things lined up for Menuism in the coming weeks that we’re really excited about and working hard on – stay tuned for more!

-John

The past month we got a couple mentions because of our Yahoo! BBAuth Integration (a way for users to login and join Menuism using their Yahoo username and password). Any news is good news right? Here are the links:

• Nov 7, 2006 – ABC News/PC Magazine – Can you be competitive with an Open API?
• Nov 21, 2006 – CNET/News.com – Yahoo! seeks greek credibility

Let’s not forget to mention that a video interview of us at TechCocktail has been posted on Technology Evangelist (Thanks Ed and Benjamin). It’s 5 minutes long and quite entertaining. A few words in our defense: We were one of the last interviews of the night after free booze (excessive cheeriness, nodding, and slightly irregular speech pattern) and talking loudly over the music all night long (voice cracking). Check it out

Also, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve posted some Menuism widgets on the sidebar of this blog’s front page (scroll down about 1/2-way). Now you can keep up with our eating patterns while reading the blog. Join Menuism to get your own personalized widget or buy some shirts to spread the word!

Happy Holidays!

- Justin