When: Tuesday, September 20th, 2011- 6-8 p.m.
Where: E|SPACES Nashville.
RSVP on Facebook: facebook.com/event.php?eid=134102463355669
UStream: Watch Live http://www.ustream.tv/channel/barcamp-nashville
A great variety of sessions have been proposed for this year's BarCamp Nashville and now it's time to see who will gain a spot on the pre-scheduled grid. Unfortunately, no matter how you slice the day, there is a limit to the number of sessions that can be held. This year, there will be 35 pre-scheduled sessions, plus 10 impromptu sessions and an array of discussion tables. We hope everyone finds an opportunity to participate even if space and time constraints prevent us from being able to accommodate everyone's interest in presenting a session.
Remember if you plan on submitting a potential session for the Draw, it must be done by 8pm on September 19th.
If you're wondering about why BCN has switched to using a random draw this year, consider this explanation from a veteran BarCamp Nashville crew member, Chuck Bryant:
In keeping with the BarCamp ideal that anyone can speak, the goal for BarCamp Nashville so far has been to avoid having the planning crew constrain who gets to speak based on anything other than limited space and time. Initially that was with first-come, first-served (like a traditional BarCamp), but when interest in speaking completely overwhelmed the supply of pre-scheduled slots on the grid, the crew elected to try random draw for those spots instead.
Under both models, however, we do have a community-based method for affecting the relevance (and some might say quality) of sessions. After the pre-scheduled sessions are selected, we open them up for sign-ups in the remaining weeks prior to the event. This serves a number of purposes, not the least of which is the opportunity for the community of registered attendees to provide direct feedback about which sessions they'd like to see. (We also use the sign-ups to schedule more popular sessions in the larger rooms.)
Sessions that draw few sign-ups tend to get revised or canceled by the speakers and replaced with alternates. The result has been a grid of sessions with lots of interest as expressed by the people who are most likely to attend rather than a grid full of sessions curated by a small group's ideas about what people want to see or a grid of sessions voted in by a social media campaign-driven popularity contest.
Still, there's lots of room for improvement and that's why each crew has considered, debated, and implemented plenty of changes over the years.
This year the crew is trying random draw for the pre-scheduled grid in order to level the playing field. We're also trying a new format for the day-of scheduled "impromptu" grid to make it a more viable companion to the pre-scheduled grid. There's even a team looking for ways to enhance the viability and use of the discussions tables which have gone mostly unnoticed the past couple of years.
Good luck to our speakers! We’ll see you Tuesday for the Draw. Don't forget to RSVP to the Facebook event.
Erica Cosminsky is a business coach who specializes in small business human resources and un-dehumanizing management. Being BCN11 Marketing Coordinator seemed like the logical next step. Also please don’t give her caffeine. You’ll regret it very quickly. She tweets at @cosminsky and blogs at The Invisible Office when her 4 year old daughter isn’t trying new daredevil stunts.
