A Thing About Camps

The month of February has come to a close and it's been a very busy month for me personally, but also for the surrounding community of media and tech enthusiasts. As we go into the month of March, there seems to be no end in sight as I prepare for more local conferences, SXSW, regional presentations and more.

Recently I attended MobiCampSA, the company I work for (Sweb Development) also sponsored the event, and came out with some interesting perspectives in an industry that I thought I knew so well. I love the serendipitous nature of "camps" and always look forward to connecting with familiar faces and meeting new ones.

The most powerful presentation was done by Randy Bear who discussed the nature of mobile technology become our identity. In our hands we have more and more smartphones, Apple, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, to name some of the major ones. We've become so dependent on them to store data, manage our schedules, make payments for us, create digital content, and in some cases interface with our cars to create a unique personal driving experience. In some cases our phones might know us better than our real world friends.

I had never really thought that deep into how dependent I am on my mobile, and the reality struck me, I recovered, and started some very interesting conversations in the hallways post the presentation.

Afterwords I attended sessions on being a mobile journalist, social causes using mobile technology, and mobile marketing. All in all the event was well done, and just in the short time I was able to attend walked away with some thoughts that I hope to turn into posts or videos in the near future.

The community is alive where I am, and while attending MobiCampSA, there was already talk about hosting another PodCamp. The community is mobilizing that quickly. There's a hunger of sharing and learning that I love fueling myself on and I encourage you to take a look at the BarCamp model of unconferences and perhaps a passion of yours will inspire you to host one in your area.