Barcamp Nonprofits London write up

The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, Voice and The Phone Room, UK Fundraising, JustGiving, Moo, Rapidata Services, Eventbrite, Blackbaud and The Browser. 

When I said to my boyfriend that I am a bit worried about this event he wondered why – as a geek why would you worry about a barcamp? There is nothing that can go wrong during a crowd-sourced conference. However running an event for an audience new to the format is not something that one can predict or assume as a success. I was trying to stress that the success of this one depends on each and every person but really – you have to attend a barcamp to understand its rules.  So today I need to sum up my feelings and initial thoughts about the day somehow. Luckily I am not the first one to do it. We have Laila, Louise and James posting about it already, so I can base my point on their words too. My take is obviously more focused on the organising and goal of the event than sessions themselves though I have promised myself that during the next barcamp I will attend more sessions and stay in those longer.

What I did like this time content-wise was:

1. The session on how kids use Internet run by @phazoneverload – we will follow it up with collaboration, maybe on our Barcamp Kids in Tech in Oxford this fall. The fact that we had a 14-year-old attendee standing up in front of us making the point on young people currently being on-line and really not respected for it speaks for itself. I have been recently highly disappointed in my work with primary schools on safe Internet practice so this session was the answer to my prayers. This feeling when you start giving up and you see the spar of inspirations. Additionally, I would like to point out that the idea of naming the session in a way which raised everyone’s interest was brilliant!:)

2.  The session on on-line privacy run by Shaun over Skype from Washington D.C. – I still cannot believe how he managed to run through all major areas of on-line privacy with a special focus on the not-for-profit sector within 30 minutes answering our questions in the meantime!

3.  The session on Global Voices Online – I was really happy to see the questions and relevance of this topic to the event – I was not sure if citizen journalism will find its audience, yet it did!

4. Google+ Hangout (recording here) – I know it generated various responses (some people felt that the excitement of speakers and strong love for G+ was a bit overwhelming and not always relevant) but I am really happy to see that those who wanted to benefit from the session actually did. We see a hangout planned already and I hope that many charities will at least start experimenting with it. I also hope that some of the attendees will make the most of the fact that they were connected with the format’s specialists for future support – they are really nice and will help if needed! 🙂

5. Panel discussion for Social Media Week – raised some really important issues and for me personally was an eye opener. People whom I usually see confident on topics related to social media for the sector seemed a bit inconsistent on the day, people who usually do not speak up much and get on with the work suddenly really made a huge impression on me – I am really inspired by their points. For few of us there it was also a bonding experience, which is a treasure!

Sessions I missed out on AudioBoo, video content creation, fundraising on-line and much more – I so wish I was there! In terms of the event itself, I think we will need to wait for more feedback but I do agree with all the points made already and I am starting to work with the organisers of the next event – bigger, longer and louder one! So if you want to get involved, please let me know!