DemoCamp 4.0 The Resurrection!
As one might have gleamed from my write up of DemoCamp 3.0, I was half suspecting that the monthly “uncampference” would take a serious leap over the shark. I’m happy to say I don’t think it has, although it’s certainly not out of the lake (lake sharks?) yet.
I think one change that significantly impacted my feelings was the ability to host the event at MaRS. Being in a large auditorium made the camp feel less “homey”, and while I liked the homey feeling in the past, the large crowd size mandated that those feelings were remnants of now gone era… you know, December?
The way I understand it, TorCamp was started to pull together the tech community. DemoCamp was done to keep some momentum going between TorCamp events. For the late to the game, TorCamp might actually appear to be a spin off of DemoCamp given that the former will likely have a fraction of the participation. In a sense, it might actually will be.
DemoCamp is sort of a representation of the larger tech community. Some participate, some don’t. Some are looking for VC others are just looking for kicks. DemoCamp is made up of a larger cross section of the community than TorCamp could ever be. TorCamp might attract the smartest (or loudest) members of the community, but DemoCamp is the community. By coming together monthly there is a regular affirmation that a community exists. Conversations will happen within the community. I like to think of the various spin offs as the fruits of those conversations.
SlamCamp was a (successful) experiment in spinning off an event to the camp community. Bryce let it drop that he’s crafting some new spin off camps that we should hear about shortly, and there is a constant buzz about a “business camp” that probably just needs a date proposed. The whole camp thing has definitely got some legs, and will no doubt be a tremendous boon for the Toronto tech community. The thing that is now apparent to me, is that while the size of DemoCamp takes away from what DemoCamp could be, it allows it to become an incubator for conversations that can then spawn their own camp spin-off’s. Some of these spin off will be private, other will draw considerable attention but without a regular event like DemoCamp, I think there would be far fewer.
The problem going forward will be to regularly find a venue that can accommodate the current scale and still keep things ad hoc. Oshoma Momoh makes a couple of operational suggestions that would no doubt make for a better experience but would also require a deeper level of planning and coordination. I don’t suspect David wants to lead a group of volunteers every month just to put on this little circus, let alone finding a big enough tent.
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Michael,
Thanks for the post. I welcome continued development of the DemoCamp structure. Extending it is definitely tempting, particularly to do more indepth work, but the agile self-organized nature is a critical element which needs to be protected. I can envision an agile “speed-dating” approach to matching demoers with ad hoc volunteer mentors with the right expertise, who can then self-organize their own workshops to get deeper into current challenges and future directions. Keep on coming out, and lets keep the conversation flowing.