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by James Britt.
Original Post: Enhancing the Scottsdale Tech Culture
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I had a great time presenting at Ignite Phoenix. And I had a great time at the recent Desert Code Camp.
Still, I often wonder why there are not more (or any, perhaps) of these kinds of events happening in Scottsdale.
That’s where I live and work, and while it’s great to see interesting tech events
happening in cities like Phoenix and Tempe, I’d really like to see stuff happening right here.
This post is both a request for help and a rough outline of some ideas.
The help I need: I’d like to find, or compile, a list of tech or tech-related events happening in Scottsdale. For these purposes,
“tech” can mean anything from Web design to chip design, software engineering to chemical engineering. Hardware hacking. Wetware hacking. I’m curious to know what
are the user groups that are meeting in Scottsdale, what are the geek gatherings (again, for broad definitions of “geek”) that
go on. What about conventions? Unconfs? Seminars?
I already know about the Phoenix Ruby User Group, and the Web Design + Development Meetup each month.
There’s also the Cocoa Heads group, and the (tangentially geek) MIT Enterprise Forum Phoenix has monthly events here as well.
Given the number of tech companies in this city, though, I have to believe more are going on. And if not, they should be.
If you know of any, or know of a good reliable resource that lists such things, please let me know: james@neurogami.com
I’ll assemble what I learn and make it available here or someplace suitable, and try to keep it up to date.
To further develop the Scottsdale tech/geek culture I’d like to arrange some local events.
I’m not entirely sure what form they should take, but here are some ideas:
Event Ideas
Naked Conf
No, not naked people, but presentations done without the usual dressing of prepared slides. At MountainWest RubyConf a year
or so ago, David Brady was too sick to give his presentation at the assigned time. He managed to make it to the conference
the next day, right about lunch time. When he offered to give the talk right then and there, the crowd cheered. David, however,
did not bring his slide deck. Hacker that he is he presented it using a terminal shell and Emacs or Textmate or some
other code editor. It was outstanding. And I got the idea that there should be an entire conference of such talks.
The idea is that you show code, or run code, or type some stuff into your editor and make the font big, as needed. Live.
Talks would be kept at under 20 minutes. Show some code, make some points, get off the stage.
A variation on this: whiteboard only. No slides, no machines. You, a microphone, and a whiteboard with lots of colored markers and
erasers.
Lightning Conf
OK, so some people like, or need, slides. That’s cool. But what very few people need is more than 10 minutes.
I’ve done two Ignite talks, and one Pecha Kucha presentation, and while I like the idea of formal constraints,
I’m skeptical about how well it works for tech stuff. I’m really skeptical that you can find many tech people
who can do these formats well. Experience from attending Ignite and Pecha Kucha events tells me most people can
do a passable job, a few are really good, a few are really bad. And the good ones rarely convey anything
complex. This is a topic for another post in the works, but the key point is that, for geek talks, a different
set of constraints would work better. It will attract more potential speakers and allow for better presentation
of technical material.
Lightning Conf (or Camp; for any of these ideas you can replace “conf” with “camp” and see if it makes it sound better)
would be essentially that: a series of lightning talks.
Barcamp Scottsdale
I’ve helped organize a few Phoenix Barcamps (which, like so many things with “Phoenix” in the name did not actually
take place in Phoenix, but in Tempe). Barcamps, and unconfs in general, are tricky. To be true to the format
you need to offer up a blank slate. The specific topics and such are all decided at the time of the event. The
successful unconfs here in the Valley all seem to ignore this point, and instead make sure to promote some list
of promised speakers and sessions. I’m up for a more free-form event, but the evidence says that most people want
to know what to expect, and relatively few people are looking to be both audience and speaker. But I’m willing to
be proven wrong.
No normal conference stuff?
No. They’re boring. Maybe a set of 20-minute talks of the usual format, but none of these endless hour-long monologue snoozefests.
From casual conversation I’ve found there are two types of potential attendees. Those for whom such things are about
the socializing and the random signals and the potential for fun. And those for whom such gatherings are about
business and ROI and will it get me funded. The later group does not interest me, but as luck would have it there
is no near-term shortage of events where you can learn to Be Your Own Brand! or Maximize your Enterprise Social
Media Strategy. Everybody wins.
Really, what I want is something fun and accessible. I don’t want people obsessing over what to talk about for an hour,
or feeling like the fixed-length slide rules are going to be too hard to work with. I’m looking for a small set
of simple constraints that work to keep things moving, keep things simple, but allow for some depth of content.
Something that works to stimulate the hallway track and spawn future gatherings.
Suggestions welcome.
Event Location
I have a few locations in mind where such things could be held, though they would probably work better for shorter
events (e.g. a few hours) than any all-day affair. If you work at or know of a possible Scottsdale location, though,
please let me know.
Likewise, if you have any ideas on how to promote the geek/tech spirit of Scottsdale, please write to me at james@neurogami.com
As with all such things, the devil is in the details, but for now what I really need to know is if there’s interest in this,
if there’s an audience, if there are presenters.
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