I just got back today from a long week in Amsterdam, having attended a grand total of 3 conferences: Euro OSCON, DrupalCon, and BarCamp. I met a huge group of people
I would like to thank Chris Pirillo (check out his new gada.be multi-search service) for supporting BarCamp. Chris: wish you could have been there, buddy...we could have worked on our plans for World Domination, and probably gotten pretty close.
It didn't quite turn out to be the "hackfest" that my preconceptions led me to believe. Or perhaps the hacking was more of the "hack your brain" kind. More on BarCamp and these other conferences later: one big thing I learned is that I am not very good at creating artifacts while attending conferences. I'm very much in the moment, having intense sessions with people and trying to integrate it all internally. Inserting a computer into the mix means I miss what's happening. Paper seems to work OK for notes (maybe a tablet would, too?)...now I just have to transcribe all the bits and pieces, especially what essentially turned into an interview with Ralph and Edwinn of the Jabber Software Foundation.
Did I mention the week ahead was going to be busy? I'll be at the Vancouver Enterprise Forum Web 2.0 event on Tuesday, then Wednesday night is the second meeting for the Innovation Commons, with the various other meetings and activities sprinkled through out the week.