Well, actually not in the park but at the third edition of BarCamp Montreal, held at la Société des arts technologiques on Saint-Laurent, which I personally find is a really crappy venue but hey, they have wi-fi and geeks just love their wi-fi, n’est-ce pas ?
I had been once before, I think it was for the first one I have been informed it was actually the second one, and I find the format euh, intriguing (kind of satisfying and kind of not but certainly different from what I am used to in my field where people can just go on and on and on when really, they could make their point in 10, 15 minutes or, more often than not, less).
Also, I am going because I really want to catch Robin Millette’s “Do It Yourself DSL map of Québec” presentation. I can not really get there before noon-ish (unless some adapted transport miracle occurs) so hopefully, I will not miss it.
Update: Ok so, I did not miss Robin’s presentation but just barely as he presented around 16h00 and my return transport was scheduled at 16h30 (and amazingly, they were on time!). Anyway, I am glad I caught his talk because there was one thing I was not getting in his methodology but that his talk helped me to understand.
And although I missed a lot of stuff, there were a couple of presentations that I found interesting. There was a presentation on a new time tracking service called TimmyOnTime that uses instant messaging to help people track time on various projects and tasks. Due to technical difficulties, the guys were not able to show the demo but I got the essential idea and I think it is actually kind of cool (in so much as tracking time can be considered cool… so like, not really but it is a necessary evil so might as well make it easy and familiar).
Also, some guy called Austin Hill gave a great presentation on “angel financing”. Very useful information delivered in a very dynamic and friendly manner (and, since he also seemed to experience technical difficulties which I believe had more to do with him forgetting some sort of equipment at home, he had no slides or other gadgets, just him and a mic). But I think he gave the best talk because it was all very useful. Well, useful for anyone looking for financing that is, so obviously not me unless he wants to invest in some new kitchen appliances ;)
I also got my first taste of “powerpoint karaoke”, did not even know such a thing existed. And although it is not something I will ever be tempted to try out myself, it certainly was euh, different.