BarCampDC is Fast Approaching

In Austin, Jason and I talked about organizing a conference of one sort or another in DC. Once Justin brought up the idea again, it was the perfect catalyst to actually get down to it. The product of all this is coming in, oh, eleven days, give or take: BarCampDC.

While the whole idea of a BarCamp is that it’s an unconference, trust me when I say that it has involved a lot of work on the part of a great many people to get it going. From organizing venues to pricing paper towels and cups, a lot of hands have touched this, and a lot of hours have been spent. Not to mention a big shout of thanks to my (soon-to-be) new team at Viget Labs for jumping to sponsor the event from the very beginning.

And so far, it really looks like it’s going to pay off. We have a growing waiting list — seriously, a waiting list. Thanks to Brian Batchelder and the folks at Fleishman-Hillard, we’ve got a roomy, downtown venue with projectors, wifi, and maybe even a microphone so you can actually hear Jason talk. Folks who get there on time and signed up will get a spiffy t-shirt (thanks in large part to Microsoft), a nifty unconference badge (I hope), and lunch (thanks to the AOL Developer Network). We’re gonna have some prizes and giveaways, and hopefully we can pull off the equipment and manpower to publish a podcast of the talks once the show is over.

Now, I’ve always imagined a proper BarCamp as being a gathering of 25-40 people, all involved in at least one aspect of the presentations. How this is going to expand to over 100 people is a bit beyond me right now, but I hope that everyone who wants to get involved will be able to. We’ll have three well-sized rooms going, so between being able to present, sit on a panel, or engage in a discussion, there should be a lot of opportunities.

I haven’t figured out what I’m going to talk about yet, at least not enough to say for sure. I did get some great feedback about my Mobile Web talk at Refresh so I may do a level two version of that. Maybe something on how cognitive load affects user experience. Maybe something else entirely, we’ll see. Thoughts?

If you’re in the DC area, I hope I’ll get to see you there. If not, whassa matter with you?