OpenCast : The OpenCamp Podcast Coming Soon

It’s been a while since OpenCamp but things are still stirring behind the scenes. Coming in January, in an effort to keep you better informed and hopefully entertained, we’ll be kicking off the OpenCamp Podcast or “OpenCast.” We’ll start with a monthly update, and discussion that will relate to the monthly meet-up  but we’ll also cover a variety of other topics, interviews and some surprises! So if you’re too far away to enjoy the monthly meet-up’s OpenCast will be a great way to keep in touch!

The show will be a combination of elements, Audio, Video and LiveStreaming.

Now here’s where you come in! We got a ton of great feedback on the post-OpenCamp Survey but we also want your input on the new show.

• What do you want to hear about?
• What do you want to discuss?
• Who would you like us to interview?

This is after all about OpenCampers and OpenCamp…

We’d also love to get your stories, did you learn something at OpenCamp that you’ve applied? Did you start a podcast, new website, or something else we can brag on you about?

Tell us your stories and what you would most like out of the OpenCast in the comments below and we’ll see you on the air in January!

Photo Courtesy Jiazi, Creative Commons, Some rights reserved

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Photos From DFW Unplugged – The One Week OpenCamp Reunion

Here are several photos taken at the DFW Unplugged event hosted by OpenCamp’s very own Gold sponsor EventBrite! Thanks to Damany and the entire team for bringing everyone together at the House of Blues in downtown Dallas for a spectacular evening! We’ll be announcing additional OpenCamp meetups soon, so make sure you are signed up for the OpenCamp Meetup group to receive the announcements!

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Chris Pirillo on How to Blog Successfully: Community, Content, and Commerce

OpenCamp may be over, but that does not mean that there aren’t more goodies awaiting you post-conference. While we mentally process the weekend and prepare for our upcoming reunion this Thursday at the House of Blues, here is a sample of some of the future audio/video coming your way.

Chris Pirillo was one of our featured speakers, visiting OpenCamp all the way from the frontier of America (OK, Seattle). His visit was quite gracious, as we knew he was recovering from putting on his own conference Gnomedex.

We asked Chris to help our audience with tips on becoming a successful blogger. His talk was an entertaining deconstruction of his personal online identity and how he engages with such a large, active community. So, without further ado:

Thanks again for speaking at OpenCamp, Chris — we hope to see you again next year! And for those of you wanting more video, hang tight! When you run a conference spread across half-a-dozen tracks over two days, you have a ton of reel to plow through. :)

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OpenCamp 2010 Survey

OpenCamp is now more than a week behind us but we’re already looking forward to what’s to come. We had an amazing time this year with the US Army Golden Knights, and an incredible array of sponsors, but most of all with the attendees who came from all over to take part in the first ever multi-platform conference. Somewhere between the 600 people in attendance, people jumping out of airplanes, Geoff Smith rocking the house, managing 7 educational tracks and a lot of sleep deprivation we were also keeping an eye on things we could improve upon for 2011.

We were pleased with the excellent speaker lineup, the phenomenal service of the Crowne Plaza and our wonderfully engaged and supportive sponsors. But while we’re very proud of what happened at OpenCamp this year, it wouldn’t be like this team not to want to make things even better next year, and that is why YOUR feedback is so critical.

Please take just a minute to fill out the 7 question survey so OpenCamp 2011 can take things to the next level!

And don’t forget the party next Friday hosted by our friends and Gold sponsor Eventbrite at the House of Blues, we hope to see you there.

P.S. You can also join the OpenCamp MeetUp Group to keep in touch!

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DFW Un-Plugged – The OpenCamp One Week Reunion!

Have you heard about the OpenCamp reunion? Our good friends over at Eventbrite will be hosting DFW Un-Plugged at the House of Blues on Thursday, September 9th and they have some pretty cool things lined up. There will be presentations from notable leaders and entrepreneurs in the DFW community, including OpenCamp speaker Brian Sullivan and OpenCamp’s lead organizer, John P.

Come hang out with your new OpenCamp friends and make new connections, as this meetup is open to everyone involved in the startup and online community. Oh, and everyone in attendance will be entered into a drawing to win a brand new iPad!

Tickets are $10 in advance/$15 at the door and all the proceeds will benefit a local charity. You don’t want to miss this.

Make your way over to Eventbrite and register for DFW Un-Plugged. We look forward to seeing everyone again next week!

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The Image Wizards + OpenCamp Photo Contest Winners!

I’m very pleased to be able to announce the winners of the OpenCamp + Image Wizards photo contest! Our special guest judge, Frederick Van Johnson of This Week in Photography, spent hours and hours sifting through 500+ amazing submissions in order to narrow the field down to the top three winners.

Here is a little slideshow of the submissions to show you just how difficult picking a winner would be!

As a reminder, Image Wizards has graciously offered to print the top three winner’s photos using their amazing Aluminarte process. The prizes are as follows:

• 1st place: A 24″ x 36″ framed AluminArte print
• 2nd place: A 24″ x 36″ frameless float mount AluminArte print
• 3rd place: A 16″ x 24″ framed AluminArte print

The winners must have a US address to receive their printed artwork, so I’m hoping that all of the submissions indeed met those requirements. And now, without further delay, here are the winners!
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OpenCamp Coverage from DFW Reporting

A special thanks to the DFW Reporting team who came out to OpenCamp and put together this very nice video summary of the conference.

OpenCa.mp 2010 [HD] from DFW Reporting on Vimeo.

If you know of other coverage, or create a video review of the conference yourself, please let us know so we can share it on the blog with everyone!

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OpenCamp on your iPhone!

I have been wanting to make this post for a while. However, since we have been at the mercy of Apple, I have waited. Well, wait no more. You can now download the OpenCamp Mobile app from the iTunes App store!

With the OpenCamp app you can view the schedule in full or sort by track. See the list of speakers and drill down for more information. We also have a social feature which includes Twitter feeds of announcements, attendees, sponsors and links from the OpenCamp blog. Thanks to my Hype Anvil crew for putting it together. Eric Lofland coded the app and John Neese did the UI design. Special thanks to Scott Kingsley Clark and Matthew McGarity for all the help with the website integration. Now get over to the app store and put OpenCamp in your pocket!

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Announcing the OpenCamp Food Drive to Support the North Texas Food Bank

Hey there Campers! I know it’s short notice, but please help us support those who are much less fortunate by bringing a bag of groceries for the North Texas Food Bank. Here’s a little video to explain what’s going on.

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OpenCamp Weekend Overview

Hey, happy OpenCampers! It’s the big week, and I hope you are as excited as we on the Core Team are. The first OpenCamp is going to be a memorable event.

Between Twitter, blog posts, Facebook, Meetups, and LinkedIn, there is a lot of information circulating about the weekend’s events. This post will hopefully sum things up for you.

Unless otherwise noted, all conference events listed below will occur at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Addison, TX. It’s a great facility, and we recommend staying there for the weekend, even if you are coming from nearby. And where applicable, be sure to RSVP for the events, so we can get accurate head counts for food and drink.

Thursday, August 26

First thing in the morning, the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team will conduct a skydive with several of our key speakers (see the story here). This is a prelude to the big exhibition jump they will perform the following night. Arrive by 9:00am to see the first jump, and stay through lunch to see the entire event.

Besides our speaking talent hurtling towards the ground at high speed, we have some other treats planned, including the first mid-dive interview ever conducted. Come witness the event, which will be held at Greenhill School (next to the Crowne Plaza Hotel; park at the hotel and walk next door).

RSVP here for this event.

Friday, August 27

No conference sessions are scheduled for Friday, so you are on your own during the day. A good way to pass the time would be looking at our schedule and planning which sessions you want to attend.

And that night, we have a huge opening event: at 7:30pm, the U.S. Army Golden Knights return with their big exhibition jump. You won’t want to miss this: a squadron of our country’s finest, parachuting in formation, complete with smoke and pyrotechnics. They’re excited to show off their skills, and I hope you’re also excited to see them soar. Once again, park at the Crowne Plaza and walk over to the Greenhill School next door. The lead jumper will be on the ground at 8:00pm, and the rest of the formation will land by 8:30pm.

Immediately afterwards, join us at the Crowne Plaza for the Friday Night Mixer, sponsored by Crossvale. This party is free for all registered OpenCampers, and your plus-ones can get in for just $10 each. It’s a great opportunity to loosen up before the weekend, meet some of your fellow participants, mingle with speakers, and even score some swag. Why yes, I did say swag! That evening, we will be giving away a Canon T2i dSLR camera, thanks to Crossvale.

I don’t even need to tell you how kick-ass all this is, so be sure you don’t miss these events.

RSVP here for this event.

Saturday, August 28

Assuming you made it back to your hotel room after the Friday mixer and got some sleep, you’ll wake up bright and early as if it were Christmas. Except replace Christmas with OpenCamp, and presents with sessions!

OpenCamp registration opens up that morning at 7:00am, downstairs in the lobby/bar of the Crowne Plaza. You’ll get your badge, your goodie bag, and your official OpenCamp T-shirt hot off the presses (check out our sweet design here). Be sure to grab breakfast on your own beforehand, then filter upstairs to where the sessions will be held.

OpenCamp kicks off with our Common Track sessions starting at 8:30am. These sessions are for the benefit of everyone, so most people will want to attend these. DrupalCamp starts their day in the morning as well, with two rooms of sessions beginning at 10:00am.

At 12:00pm, we will all break for lunch, which will be served downstairs where registration occurred. During lunch, be sure to take the time to visit the booths of our generous sponsors and thank them for their support. Also, stay tuned for “Strut Your Site”, where attendees can get 5 minutes to showcase their own site and tell everyone about it — what cool customization they’re using, etc

Sessions start back up at 1:30pm. And instead of a big common session, we break out into several smaller tracks: WordPress, DrupalCamp, Joomla!, .NET, and Multi-Media. For those of you who are CMS-specific (like yours truly), this is a great opportunity to cross-pollinate and learn more about other platforms and mediums. In fact, this is the driving philosophy around OpenCamp, so please participate outside of your areas of expertise. Sessions are designed for all ranges, from beginning to advanced.

The afternoon sessions will continue until 6:00pm. After that, we take a break, and you are on your own for dinner. Good thing we are in Addison, which is 95% restaurants when I last checked — there is an incredible array of dining choices, all within short walks or drives of the Crowne Plaza. If you need help finding a good place to eat, inquire with the hotel or OpenCamp staffs.

Don’t take too long grabbing dinner, because you will want to be around for the Saturday Night Party, sponsored by ZOMM. Starting at 8:00pm, Nashville musician and friend of OpenCamp Geoff Smith will be performing his magic on the guitar and piano. Geoff performed for OpenCampers just a couple weeks ago, when he streamed a pre-conference concert. The man is amazing, and I am not exaggerating. For those of you who can’t attend in person, we are likely to stream it here.

As if a night of great music and celebration isn’t enough, we’re also giving away some more prizes Saturday night. Specifically, a Sonos ZonePlayer S5 and ZoneBridge remote speaker system. We blogged about this previously, and we hope the winner immediately takes it back to their hotel room, fires it up, and invites us to the dance party!

RSVP here for this event.

Sunday, August 29

We are pretty sure that 100% of you are going to stay up late Saturday night, but don’t let that keep you from attending the Sunday kickoff session at 8:30am. Registration for those who missed it the day before will begin at 7:30am. Be sure to grab breakfast on your own beforehand!

Sunday is very much like Saturday, in that we gather as one group in the Common Track room with DrupalCamp being held down the hall. Lunch is again at 12:00pm, followed again by breaking out into different tracks at 1:30pm, all of which last until 6:00pm.

Never let it be said that we didn’t make every moment count at OpenCamp.

Anything Else?

All during the conference, we will be running a Hospitality Suite on the second floor of the Crowne Plaza. The suite has access to the hotel pool, so be sure to swing by and check out the fun.

Across the hallway is our Birds of a Feather room, where “unconference” sessions will take place. This room provides our attendees and speakers with additional opportunities to present exciting content to their fellow OpenCampers, so visit the room often to see what last-minute activities are being scheduled. More information about BoF can be found here.

Our own Mark Ramsey is staying at the Crowne Plaza, and he plans to host his The Tech Tards Show podcast from the charging room during lunch. Stay tuned for more details about location and time.

And finally, we will have an army of OpenCamp volunteers roaming the conference, both outside in the hallways and within each session room. If you have any questions, ask one of them and we’ll attempt to point you in the right direction.

Whew! After typing all of that, I’m going to go and ice/elevate my fingers now. See y’all soon!

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