Dirty Weekend in Brighton

Having previously blogged about unconference events, the excitement is building as we prepare to make our way down to Brighton for this weekend's barcamp event. For the uninitiated (hey, that includes me), barcamp events have the unusual characteristic of having no set agenda. From the event wiki:

BarCamp is free and all content is provided by the attendees. There are no spectators, only participants. Attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one, or otherwise volunteer / contribute in some way to support the event. BarCamp is 100% non-commercial, non-profit and community driven. No one is paid for their time, no one is charged to come and no profits are made.

Osmosoft is providing food and, ahem, other refreshments. But this won't get me off the hook, and I've got a touch of the jitters as I think about standing up in front of strangers and talking about my chosen subject. I've almost decided what to talk about, so watch this space. I've also perfected my rotten tomato dodging skillz, just in case.

It takes place over two days in facilities very kindly provided by Magdex. And I feel sorry for the office cleaners, because the 100 participants will be dossing down in sleeping bags, and there are limited shower facilities. I'm bringing my "shower-in-a-can". And I expect the place will be positively humming after 30 hours of hardcore coding. Hey, it's hard work!

Barcamps often take place at the same time as popular conferences (seeing as loads of people are in town anyway), and Brighton Barcamp is no exception. Beforehand, we'll be attending the dConstruct conference, which is all about designing online user experiences, and the line-up is very promising. Watch this space for what may be a veritable orgy of blog postings.