Geekfests!

Summer's winding down which means less camping camping, and more indoor camping, on the agenda.

Next up to add to your geek fest calendar are two free-form, inter-disciplinary meetups in Vancouver:

MobileCampVancouver2 at WorkSpace on Saturday, Sept.6th.

BarCampVancouver2008 at locations Granville Island on Saturday/Sunday, Sept. 27th-28th.

Both are participatory events with presentations selected by vox populi at the beginning of the session. Check out the the Rules of Bar Camp to learn what to expect.

MobileCamp Vancouver 2

Alas, MCV2 runs concurrently with Drupal Camp Victoria but there are enough enthusiasts around to make both events a success. MCV2 is sponsored by Mobile Muse - an applied research and developmet project funded by the Canadian government to conduct projects in the emerging mobile space.

Blurb:

MobileCampVancouver is bringing together iPhone junkies, Crackberry addicts, couch surfers, coffee shop hackers, vagabonds and mobile nomads to share the current state and their visions for the future direction of mobility.

Here's the crib notes of the first 1.5 days of VIDfest. {Links coming at some point ...}

Wednesday night

Kick off party at the Vancouver art Gallery with the Krazy exhibit. This will take another look to digest the walls of graphic art and manga mania but the free drink ticket and VIP pass helped kick start the conversations on the busy night of Vancouver techie-related events (Launch Party 4 sounds like another noteworthy fest of interconnectivity). Krug and I represented at the party and chilled with presenters Darren Barefoot and Rebecca Bollwitt among other social media super-heros.

Thursday morning

In continuing coverage (otherwise known as "staying up with the Raincity crews' activities"), here's a recap of Bridging Media at the Great Northern Way campus (AKA The Hangar). The event was wrangled up by Megan Cole and Erica Hargreave with able assistance by RCS's KK and Bmann and the speaker roster included many of our Van-groovy eco-system.

As you've likely noticed, the Raincity Studios squad are out n' about, presenting and representing at plenty of events around Vangroovy.

Most gigs get a recap of their own but, in the interest of convenience, here are a few other posts and blurbs popping up here and there.

Drupal Themeing

Great reviews so far for Mark and Steve's themeing spiel at Vancouver Drupal Users' Group - January 2008: Drupal Theming, From Design Draft to Theme there's even rumours of an impending follow-up.

Their Drupal themeing presentation slides are available web-licly via the Google.

Web Directions North

Boris Mann wraps up his presentation at WDN08 Web Directions North 2008: 3 stages of dynamic systems, wrap up (preview at: Speaking: Web Directions North 08 - Three Stages of Content Management)

Boris' 3 Stages of CMS Slides are Slideshared for your recapping pleasure (audio coming soon perhaps).

At the risk of missing on a few details and publishing an incomplete list of conversations, anecdotes and contacts ... suffice to say that Launch Party 3 was a raging success full of new faces and the best and brightest Vangroovy hopes as listed in Techvibes Techies to Watch list and Raincity's Tech Women to Watch lists.

A contingent of Vancouver Tech Women to Watch 2008 gather round the pool table

Part of my job is to outreach to communities - both local and international - and I regularly stroll through Gastown to visit other tech hives and attend (too) many events, yet I still meet new people with great startups here in Vancouver which I had no idea about.