BioBarCamp has come and gone... what a great time!

Special thanks goes out to Attila Csordas and John Cumbers who were the main instigators that made this event happen.

The format for this "unconference" used the same format that we previously used for SciBarCamp in Toronto. In keeping with the unconference theme, I found out at 10am on the first day that we were going with the SciBarCamp format and that I'd be introducing it to the group. With some skeptical looks from the audience I went over how things would be run over the next day and a half and went directly into introductions... It helped that a good handful of people either attended a BarCamp or SciFoo in the past.

Audience participation for such an event is key. We had great talks proposed for this event and everyone was quite eager to network.

The event was live blogged using the Friend Feed BioBarcamp room. I also was using the SciBarCamp twitter account during the event.

Since I've already read some great overviews of the event online...

BioBarCamp - Meeting Friends Old and New and Virtual - Cameron Neylon

BioBarCamp wrapup - Pedro Beltrão

Building the Data Commons - Cameron Neylon

The vicarious BioBarCamper - Deepak Singh

One difference that I noticed to this event compared to SciBarCamp was the amount of people from industry at BioBarCamp. One of my goals for the next SciBarCamp is to seek out local scientific companies and get them more involved (participation and in sponsoring).

I believe that this type of event is the future of conference/networking events that bring scientists and industry from different fields together. We (Scimatic Software) have been a sponsor and helped out with both SciBarCamp and BioBarCamp. We are also planning some new events shortly that will compliment these events.

This event was a great success. It looks like this event will happen in the Bay Area again next year.