Now, before you descend on me like a swarm of locust for backpeddling… read on!

I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that social media marketing, or trying to make sales through “the social media channel” is a beyond a waste of time… it is driving potential business away, never to return. And for everyone’s sanity, including my own, I still feel that way! This past weekend at BarCamp Memphis, I had the opportunity to have some extended discussions that included this very topic. One blog owner was very concerned about having any advertising on their site saying they had made a huge investment gaining the trust of their readership and didn’t want to risk that by selling ads. At the same time, there has to be a viable revenue model or many sites, including some pretty popular ones, will not be able to continue. Well, maybe there is a way…
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It was my distinct pleasure to get to return to Memphis last weekend, this time to attend and speak at BarCamp Memphis 2. As always the fine folks of Memphis were fun to be with, the sessions were fun and thought provoking, the conversations were top notch (more on that in a sec), and then of course, there was PowerPoint Karaoke!

As with Social Camp back in September, BarCamp was hosted by the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering (MASE), a charter school in Memphis with lots going for it. You should really check out their website!

In what could best be called a lapse in planning on my part, I showed up Saturday morning bright and early, eager to present the two topics that were in the can. As it turned out, a couple of presenters couldn’t be there Saturday morning so I wound up leading a group for all three morning blocks. I’m pretty sure everything turned out ok… nobody got up and left during any of the three, that’s always a good sign.

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If you’ve been following jtrigsby.com for any amount of time, you’ll know that BarCamps are relatively new events for me… and I’m a HUGE fan! November 14th folks will gather from around Memphis, and I guess farther away… because I’m going, for BarCamp Memphis 2. After doing such a great job hosting SocalCamp back in September, the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering has offered their space again for BarCamp!! If you’ve never heard of MASE, check them out.

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences (or unconferences) – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. –wikipedia.org

So with BarCamp Memphis coming up, I thought it would be a great time to cover a few ideas for how to make the most of your time at this or any other BarCamp style meeting.

Decide On A Goal
What’s your goal for BarCamp? Do you want to meet new people and network? Do you want to learn about a new technology, programming language, or paradigm? Do you want to share some of what you have learned with others that may be interested in knowing?

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