Wow!

I just returned from MindCamp2.0… and am now just getting mentally back on my feet enough to write a quick story of my adventure.

What is MindCamp?

MindCamp is an “unconference” organized by self-proclaimed geeks… I view it is a great place to learn about cutting edge computer stuff by the people who are most interested in teaching.

The idea is that you bring together 200 people and let them quickly hash out a schedule of sessions with about 6 of them running at any given time. Add plenty of coffee (thank you Starbucks), keep the conference running for 24-hour straight, and it definitely makes for a memorable event. And yes, people did stay up all night attending event, hashing out computer stuff and playing games.

[photopress:social_networking.jpg,thumb,alignright]I attended sessions on SEO, AJAX (these guys are developing some very interesting software for enterprise deployment), Social Networking (led by a co-founder of Biznik, a great Seattle-based business networking tool), Mash-ups, geo-location tools, solving transportation problems, and coffee brewing! I learned all kinds of interesting things.

In addition, Galen and I teamed up to host a session on “Social Networking in Real Estate” which turned out to be a lot of fun and give some great feedback about some interesting uses for social networking tools in developing real estate search sites. Just as Rain City Guide was getting bombarded with the “Bubble Faithful”, our session was temporarily overtaken by someone who wanted to focus the entire conversation on why housing in Seattle is a horrible investment. I did my best to keep us focused on potential users for social technologies in online real estate tools and I hope others who participated learned a little something.

If you’re curious what an “unconference” looks like, there are a bunch of photos available on Flickr, including this classic shot of Galen.

And if you’re wondering what it takes to run an event like this, look no farther than this great group of event volunteers and a lot of caffeine. My thanks goes out to all the great people who put together this fun event. I look forward to attending more of these in the future!