Barcamp Doylestown is a "Sellout"
September 7, 2010
Barcamp Doylestown “sold out” today with attendee registration no. 160. If you have registered already, great, we look forward to seeing you. If you have not yet, you can still put your name on our wait list and we’ll see if we have space. We thought when we got a facility that could handle a potential crowd of 200, we would be lucky to get 40 or so to come out. Maybe 60 if it were a stretch. Well, you’ve responded beyond our wildest imagination. The facility asked us to cap the attendee list at 140, so we listened and took it to 160.
Some of the more veteran organizers are not at all surprised with this fantastic turnout. It’s amazing how calm they are as we make the final preparations to host the event.
We’ve got people coming from all around the area. Here are a few graphics to express where the crowd is coming from. The bigger the word, the more often the city showed up in our registration list.
We also had a little fun putting the same concept to music in this video, destined to be a local viral hit.
Eventbrite let us do it, so we decided to show a picture of the IP address geographic distribution of registrants. I didn't show the one from Africa (not sure he's really going to make it), but the others all came from Doylestown and surrounding areas (with the exception of a few out-of-towners visiting us from Houston)
This event is not just about the topics, but more about the people you will meet. Each one is somehow engaged in social business, ranging from interested beginner to experienced and field hardened professional. They come from all walks of life and all sizes of companies. We have the expected entrepreneurs from growing local firms, looking for a chance to network and learn. We have mid market companies who’s names probably won’t surprise you. And we have representatives from many of the largest companies in the area and outside: Pfizer, Vanguard, Alcatel-Lucent, Merck, NASA, United Business Media, Nutrisystem, Amgen, Kraft Foods, and Johnson & Johnson.
Since it is an unconference, we don’t really want to highlight any individual attendee names. It’s all about each individual who is coming and it is a very level playing field. In fact to have some fun, we collected an interesting fact from each attendee as they registered. I thought it would be fun to list some of them here.
So, here is a sampling of the responses to the request:
“Please give us one interesting fact about yourself”
I have two Rottweiler’s
3 of my original songs are in www.mymoviegirl.com
Helped build Gov of Nevada’s house on Lake Tahoe
Bringing two colleagues from Houston to attend and get pointers
Have been teaching competitive ski racing for 20 years
Training for my first half marathon
Traveled around the world
Played Felix Unger in a high school play
Love to wake board
Postponed college to pursue classical ballet
Grew up on a horse farm
I’m a Clydesdale tri-athlete (men over 200 lbs)
Getting married the week of the event and probably shouldn’t be attending!!!
Practiced Tai Chi for 15 years
Training for a half marathon
Set up a company in China
Currently in fourth career
I have excellent airport karma
I know the last digit of Pi
Toured an active ICBM launch facility
Lived in Spain for two years
Took a motorcycle honeymoon in the Alps!
Recently self-published a comedy book
I wear only one contact lens
Published in Bill Gates’ book, Business as the Speed of Thought
Designed Philadelphia Soul Football Jerseys
Learned to skateboard in my 30s
I make wooden puzzles for children
Grew up in Lausanne, Switzerland and am fluent in French
Never had a broken bone
Play Banjo
I was born on Friday the 13th!!
Was on the Atlanta Braves for one hour
Carve birds out of wood for relaxation
Covered the Grateful Dead in concert in 1977 with a “portable” computer
Played a deranged helicopter pilot in “Wonder of the World” at Town & Country
Korean translator in the US Air Force
One of 11 kids
Born in Japan
I had 57 different jobs before starting my own company
There are many more, but you’ll just have to come out to Barcamp Doylestown to hear the stories. So there you have it. The un-conference is ready to go. The sponsors are lined up, the facility is ready, the presenters are thinking about their presentations, and the crowd is pumped.
We’ll see you on the 20th! Come early.
