Barcamp Blackpool
A little late, but this is the first chance I've had to write it up. A few weeks ago, I spent the weekend at the seaside for Barcamp Blackpool, Lancashire's first barcamp. It was the first time it had been attempted, and it went fairly well. Around 100 people registered for the weekend, but only 40ish turned up. I thought that there would be a lack of sessions due to the turnout, but there was a a choice of at least 2 sessions all day long.
Sunset over the sea
In my usual fashion, I decided I'd learn something and demo it the same day - this time I decided to take a look at Adobe Air. Inkeeping with my usual barcamp sessions, I decided to use jQuery to build my app - a twitter client. I only had 20 minutes to explain it, and I intended to re-build it live, so it was only basic. It would show friend's updates and post your own updates - nothing else. More on this later, but first, back to the beginning.
I got to Blackpool at around 6:30pm, and wandered up the promenade to the B+B that I was booked into. It also reminded me why I love going to places that are on the coast.
I checked into the B+B - which cost me £12 a night - and headed off to Funny Girls, the Friday night entertainment. Everyone was meeting at 8 and I got there about half past, so I went straight in. Unfortunately, there was no-one else there. I wandered round, got myself a drink and kept an eye on twitter. Eventually I spotted Jason, who looked just as lost as I felt. We had a chat and stayed there for a few hours before heading to meet the others, who had decided not to come in as they were running very late.
We met Gem, Liam, Phil, Cristian and Dave in the Flying handbag, but soon moved onto O'Neills as it was quieter. I'd never met anyone before, but it was pretty easy to get involved. Of course, as soon as we'd started chatting the live act in O'Neills started - but he wasn't too loud and was singing Irish Folk songs, so I'll let it slide. 
We called it a night shortly after midnight ready for BCBlackpool the following day.
In the morning, I met Dave for some breakfast then we wandered down to the venue. Venues for Barcamps are always pretty good, but this was something else. Three huge rooms, PA system in the main room and collapsible (yet still soundproof!) walls. There were also blue fairy lights everywhere, which people seemed to like.
I started off the day with Ian Pouncey's crowdsourced review of the W3C redesign. It was quite interesting hearing people critique the website of the guys who are supposed to be internet technology pioneers. I think my favourite bit was when someone spotted the use of the class "h4" on a h3 tag on the homepage.
Next up was Jordan Hatch's talk on Subversion. It was a nice introduction to SVN, and had I seen it about 18 months ago it would have saved me loads of time.
There were some other sessions in the morning, but I was absorbed in the code that I needed to write for my session, so I didn't make it to any others 
Lunch next! As only around half of the people that signed up actually turned up, there was plenty to go round. Chips, sausage rolls, the usual buffet food. The bar was also open, and people had a pint or two with lunch.
After lunch, I did a bit more work on my session then presented it. Of course, as soon as I started the twitter API died, and I couldn't actually rebuild the app as I wanted to do. It turned into a Q&A session about the code, and we did get a little demo at the end of how it worked. There were only 5-10 people there, but 3 of them all said to me that the session either made them want to try jQuery, or helped them get their head round how to use it. Success!
And finally, "How to improve Barcamp Blackpool" with Gemma in the main room. Pretty much everyone was in there, and there were some good ideas thrown out there, including leaving time between sessions for people that need to move room, and for sessions that overrun a little. Someone also suggested having some longer sessions, as 20 minutes just wasn't long enough for the really interactive sessions.
Once the day had been wrapped up, we went on a mission for some proper Blackpool fish+chips. I ended up sat with Tim, Jason and Ian. While we were chatting, I noticed that Jason was wearing a CTIGroup t-shirt. I knew that I'd seen the company before, but really couldn't place it. Eventually it clicked, I'd done some work on their website when I was at Versatilia over the summer. Small world 
If there's one thing out of the entire weekend that made it worth it, it was the giant disco ball on the promenade that we ran into on the walk home. It was mesmerising. It was however, also very disorientating - it was impossible to walk in a straight line. I'd love to see a cat or a dog chasing the lights
Once we were back, the drinking began! Again, only half of the people turned up, so the drinks budget was very generous indeed. We also had a stage show from Paul Sylvester, magician extrordinaire. In short, he was amazing. If I'm ever throwing a party, I'm having him there.
After a few more drinks and some socialising, it was time to leave the venue. Tim, Jason, Martin, Tom and some others were heading into town, and invited us to join them. However, as soon as we left the venue everyone disappeared and I ended up walking back to the B+B with Kian and Cat. You know what it's like, you intend to drop off your bags and head back out, but as soon as you see the bed you're out like a light.
And there we have it, Barcamp Blackpool. It was only a one day event, which will hopefully be coming back again next year as a two day event. Cracking job Gem, and her army of little helpers. Especially to Alistair who was running the interwebs, which stayed fast and responsive all day! I can't wait til next years 
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