I didn’t write much (on my weblog) about why I chose to run BarCamp Phnom Penh (BarCampPP), an open source-inspired concept of all things technology conference. Not that I didn’t want to, but that I had not discovered yet what it really is until some time after the conclusion of the event itself.
About a year ago, I learned about a concept of how tech people, in many other parts of the world, plan and run an impromptu conference, where participants are open to take part in presenting and discussing technology-related topics.
I have a black color T-shirt that bears ‘BarCamp Paris’. I googled the Web, and learned a bit more about how to plan and run the unconference. Actually, I like the concept for one thing: it’s completely a new cultural concept here in Cambodia to have such an open and participatory convention, where everyone has their own privilege to take part in making presentations, discussions, and such. Also, it’s relatively challenging to introduce it to Cambodia tech enthusiasts, not to mention to the people who help in planning and organizing the event.
Just a couple of weeks into September the 20th of this year, the fixed date of this Cambodia’s first BarCamp, people kept asking me: how would things be organized at BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘08. I had my own version of response; I don’t know because I’ve never attended one. Why do you run it, people kept asking me. I told them that I thought it’s fun; and of course it’s born from the so called: desire; or I’d rather call it a brainchild. After all, it’s fun; it’s as if you work on planning for several months to throw a party for your fellow friends (and many self-claimed geeks); or an important event (grand work) you could do for someone so important to you, even though she was not there.
It turned out to be an amazing experience for me for it’s one of my first initiatives I’ve implemented so far. So many new things came to me time after time, and that I was ready to handle every issue, not to say that I had to keep up with pressure. I told my BarCampPP organizer fellows that I do as much as possible to get sponsorship as well as to spread the word, particularly to make it known to people outside the country, so that they might be interested in coming to the Cambodian capital for the unconference. I did learn and remember one phrase (about how to get an important thing done) by heart: I’ll “crawl, beg, and offer to dance on the table”. Thank Eduardo Jezierski (Edjez) for telling me this; even though you couldn’t get (I knew you did your best) that prototype of Google’s Adroid-power cellphone to show off at BarCamp Phnom Penh, you helped me to realize that I’d anything possible to ensure that the BarCamp would really take place and all things necessary would be available. I thought I did it all when I was told, just some days before the BarCamp, that we couldn’t have an Internet connection available for the day-long gathering. What’d it be like for a geeky conference not to have Wi-Fi available. Fortunately, we could shift the situation.
I like telling people who involved in running BarCampPP that we have to run this at low-cost, so that the concept can be easily taken and that it can be easily carried out by other people to run it, especially it can be taken place in other parts of Cambodia. Not anyone convinced.
One more thing I was so pleased: every participant helped making BarCampPP a great event, probably one of the most exciting tech events ever happened in the country. I didn’t expect that a few people who run BarCampPP would have made everything completely done. But it was until this untraditional gathering took place that I realized that it’s the role of the participants, not the organizers, to fill the gap, and to conclude the colorful day.
Financially, we had about US$1000 (sponsored by both corporate and individual) in cash to spend on renting a venue at Cambodian-Japan Center for Cooperation, partially on T-shirts, stationaries, banners, and a few other things. Lunch, refreshment for two sessions (morning and afternoon), Internet, drinking water, and some other give-away stuff were well-covered by BarCampPP’s generous sponsors. My thank to both Ramana and Virak for making it happened.
All in all, BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘08 was featured in the front-page of Cambodia’s oldest English-language newspaper, in its very national news section. Reporter Eleanor Ainge Roy wrote that:
The event was certainly informal. The mostly youthful crowd wandered in and out of the convention hall, dipping into discussion groups in the garden about the best programming language or crowding excitedly around some fine new piece of technology.
