This year saw the Saturday main event move to several venues on Granville Island, with the opening reception Friday night at Workspace. The island setting was magical, especially for the troopers who set out on an afternoon photowalk following Saturday’s festivities. The photos are simply brilliant.

On Saturday morning, Joe Solomon and myself organized a session entitled “Marketers for a Cause,” in which we intended to use social media tools to make a direct impact in just 30 min. We were successful too, as the group of about 60 in attendance grouped off to support three causes; Kevan from Union Gospel Mission familiarized his group with the charity’s mission, the lovely Megan Cole rallied some of the troops for Hands Up for Africa, and Joe, myself and Stewart Marshall started a Kiva.org “lending team” for Vancouver Barcampers, and we’ve already started loaning funds to charities in the third world. I had hoped that this quick session would leave everyone with a feeling of having made a big difference in a very short time, and although time was tight, I’d say it was a success.

As one of the volunteers organizers of Barcamp, the day of the event can get pretty busy, and it’s easy to lose focus on the impact the event has. For me, one of the highlights of the weekend wasn’t a particular session at all, or even the well-attended reception (I do love a tasty free beer) but it was meeting cool people like Gregg Scott, whose enthusiasm all weekend served as a constant reminder of why we work so hard to bring it all together. People love the ad hoc nature of Barcamp, and at $20 for the weekend (includes a t-shirt!) you really can’t go wrong.

My sister came along this year, her first Barcamp experience. Here she is with a few comments about the weekend. After that, you can watch my Barcamp reception walk-through in the same player:

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Once again, another successful volunteer-run event in the best tech city on the planet.

imgs: False Creek by John Bollwitt, Marketers for a Cause by me, and Myself with Gregg by Penmachine.