Geek Week AZ Recap

As @AbeVigoda would say, “I am alive!”

Somehow, I survived Geek Week AZ. I went to Ignite Phoenix, TEDxPhoenix, Desert Code Camp, SustainaBIL, AZIMA, Developer Ignite, Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference (AZEC), Social Media Club + AZEC Mixer, Phoenix WordCamp, #evfn, and PodCamp AZ. All without taking any time off work. The only events going on during working hours were AZEC & WordCamp, where I co-worked!

The spaghetti is on the wall, and it’s time to see what stuck. The event organizers who banded together to make it happen pulled it off. It was no easy task, because they’ve already got their handful with their own events, but this year, they went above and beyond to create something new. The culmination of 2 years of conversations about making a big splash in the local tech community resulted in a festival of independently organized tech-focused and tech-related events.

Geek Week AZ became what it was because the idea evolved WITH criticism. “You don’t think this will work? Then propose a better way of accomplishing the same goals.” What Geek Week AZ was looks nothing — NOTHING — like what Geek Week AZ initially set out to be.

Now that it has happened, there are new criticisms. It’s very important that this criticism doesn’t fall of deaf or defensive ears.

There are at least a dozen people who have said they are opposed to multi-day events. Perhaps something like Geek Week AZ isn’t for everyone, but the beauty of the model is that most of the events are free and you don’t have to pay for the full event and feel obligated to attend as much as possible. Some people just can’t handle 4 days in a row of learning, networking, and staying out late.

I thought one of the major problems would have been people not knowing what is going on and where to go. That’s why I put together a pocket guide to Geek Week AZ. Either the site solved the problem, or the problem didn’t end up being there to begin with.

There are justifiable concerns about the momentum and energy of attendees who participated in multiple events. It also seems possible that events could have built up more excitement and anticipation if they were standing alone and not a smaller part of a bigger thing.

Does this mean Geek Week AZ shouldn’t exist? No. This means there is valid criticism that should be addressed — not ignored — and addressed in a way that still accomplishes the same goals. What are the goals? I might have posted about them before, but feel free to ask me.

The way you respond to criticism shows your ability to think creatively. You can say, “It doesn’t work like this, so maybe we should go back to the old way of doing it.” Or you can say, “If it doesn’t work like this, what can we do to make it work better so we still go in the same direction: forward.”

Here’s to going forward.

TEDxPhoenix

TEDxPhoenix – Nov 6, 2009 6:00pm-9:00pm

I’m going to this event, and I think you should, too. I’m a fan of TED talks and have even helped organize a TED talk viewing party. TEDx is even better, because it mixes TED talk videos with live presentations from local individuals who have ideas worth spreading.

To explain the event a little more thoroughly, I’m going to re-post some info Tomas Carrillo (lead organizer for TEDxPhoenix and all-around awesome dude) has been sending out to local bloggers:

I’ve been in the trenches for the last few weeks putting the finishing touches on Arizona’s first ever TEDxPhoenix event which is scheduled to take place this Friday, November 6th from 6pm to 9pm at the Mesa Arts Center.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with TEDxPhoenix, it’s been described as a Cirque du Soleil for the mind. Our inaugural event will feature six of Arizona’s leading experts brought together to enlighten, inspire, and entertain via ideas worth spreading. For fans of the environment and sustainability, we are excited to announce that Urban Farm founder and sustainability guru, Greg Peterson, will be speaking at the event.

TEDxPhoenix is also a place where you can meet individuals who are interested in leveraging ideas, technology, education, and design to help create a better future for the Phoenix-metro communities and beyond. For more information about the event, I highly recommend checking out our TEDxPhoenix Beginners Guide.

I really hope you will join us this Friday, and here are all the event details for your viewing pleasure:

Homepage: www.tedxphoenix.com
Event Date & Time: Friday, November 6th, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm
Location: Mesa Arts Center – Google Map
Tickets: $5 – Get your tickets here

Sincerely,
~Tomas

Geek Week AZ: Cross-Promotion

One of the goals of Geek Week AZ was to get event organizers to work together to benefit each others’ events. The result is more exposure and more attendees for everyone!

If you ask someone if they’re willing to cross-promote, they’ll surely say yes. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always translate to action.

I decided to see which event sites were linking to other events going on during Geek Week AZ. I was looking for a score of 7, which would count as all of the “major” GWAZ events. There are at least 10 “extra credit” events (smaller ones that occur monthly or weekly, but occur during GWAZ).

Ignite Phoenix: Nov 3
Events linked: 0
Honorable mention for linking to Social Media Club Phoenix and PodCamp AZ, but the links are buried on the site in 2 blogs posts that are over a year old.

TEDxPhoenix: Nov 6
Events linked: 6 – AZ Entrepreneurship Conference, Desert Code Camp, Ignite Phoenix, PodCamp AZ, SustainaBIL, and WordCamp Phoenix
Disclaimer: I’m an adviser for TEDxPhoenix.

Desert Code Camp: Nov 7
Events linked: 0
(Note: The organizers of this event are doing a great job of putting together another great DCC, and I’ve even talked to Joe about cross-promoting on the site. He’s totally on-board, but he just recently obtained access to the site from its previous webmaster. This is not intended to “shame” DCC, but perhaps serve as a reminder and maybe even a sense of urgency?)

SustainaBIL: Nov 8
Events linked: 9 – AZ Entrepreneurship Conference, AZIMA, Desert Code Camp, Developer Ignite, Ignite Phoenix, WordCamp Phoenix, PodCamp AZ, Social Media Club Phoenix, and TEDxPhoenix
Disclaimer: I’m the lead organizer for this event, so of course I’m going to be cross-promoting!

Developer Ignite: Nov 11
Events linked: 1 – Ignite Phoenix

AZ Entrepreneurship Conference: Nov 12
Events linked: 3 – Ignite Phoenix, Social Media Club Phoenix, and PodCamp AZ
Honorable mention for linking to TiE AZ which has an event the week before GWAZ. Unfortunately, they linked to a broken version of the site that hasn’t been updated since 2006.

WordCamp Phoenix: Nov 13
Events linked: 0
UPDATE 10/28: Honorable mention for linking to AZ Entrepreneurship Conference and PodCamp AZ in a blog post (there are currently only 4 posts, so it’s relatively easy to stumble upon!).

PodCamp AZ: Nov 14-15
Events linked: 2 – AZEC09 and WordCamp Phoenix
UPDATE 10/28: An awesome email went out today, promoting and linking to Ignite Phoenix, TEDxPhoenix, SustainaBIL, Creative Connect, Gangplank Hacknight, AZEC09, Social Media Club Phoenix, and WordCamp Phoenix.
Disclaimer: I’m a helper / committee member.

All of the events listed here are doing a GREAT job putting together their events. I’m confident each one of them is going to rock! However, I think almost all of them could do a better job of supporting each other.

Phoenix BIL Conference: SustainaBIL

SustainaBIL: November 8, 2009 11am-7pm

For some background on this most excellent adventure..

First there was TED. It’s an expensive and exclusive (invite-only) conference that brings together some of the most amazing people with some of the most spectacular stories. While initially TED was about [T]echnology, [E]ntertainment, and [D]esign, it grew to become an event all about Ideas Worth Spreading.

Enter BIL. A group of people around the country (maybe even around the world), made the observation that anyone can have and share big ideas. You don’t NEED a speaker line-up of best-selling authors, world-renowned performers, and the like to have ideas worth spreading. Also, anyone who wants to learn and share should be able to become involved. For people who know the history of BarCamp, BIL is to TED as BarCamp is to Foo Camp. (Also, Keanu Reeves Fans people who have seen Keanu Reeves’ movies might notice another layer of meta humor)

Hit the road, Jack. TED moved and BIL moved with it. But why stop there? Why only have BILs where there are TEDs? Don’t people everywhere have ideas worth spreading? BIL began to spread to the UK, to Santa Cruz (CA), and to San Diego. “Why not have one in Phoenix?” I thought. Turns out, one of the people behind the formation of BIL, Todd Huffman, was based in Phoenix!

Pick a flavor. With TEDMED and BIL:PIL taking on a single theme, healthcare, Todd suggested the Phoenix BIL conference take on a theme. With the amount of alternative energy, biofuel, and sustainable technology around Arizona, we decided on having a sustainability-themed BIL.

And finally, the announcement of SustainaBIL! SustainaBIL is bringing together people who are doing interesting things in the sustainability world to share their big ideas. The event will be a broad stroke at sustainability: energy, recycling, green tech, etc. Ideas will be around what individuals can do as well as small businesses or institutions.

I encourage you to check it out. The event is free (but donations are encouraged) and you can find sign up links at SustainaBIL.com.

CloudCamp is coming to Phoenix!

CloudCamp Phoenix is coming up this Saturday, October 24th! It’s going to feature talks from Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and local start-up Jumpbox. A portion of the event is set up to be an unconference, where the sessions are determined by the attendees!

There aren’t very many seats left, so you’d better hurry up and register!

University of Phoenix Hohokam Campus (map)
4605 E Elwood St
Phoenix, AZ

CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

Via Eventification, the Phoenix tech event site