Okay, what is this BarCampBank thing about?
With BarCampBank coming up this weekend, we thought it would be good to let you know what we’re all in for.

The first thing we’ll do on Saturday morning is a quick round of introductions, so we know who we have with us. Then, those of us who want to create a session will write it up on a piece of paper and stick it on a grid made up of times and rooms. Once we have the sessions on the grid, the people who wrote them up will give a short pitch to the rest of us.

Then we’ll vote with our feet and join the sessions that interest us. If no one comes to a session, it’s cancelled. If someone wants to take up two time-slots in a row to create an extra long session, that’s cool. If you’re in a session that you’re not interested in, leave it and find one that you like better. The conference will be developed organically by all of us together.

What often works well is to propose sessions around the things you want to discover and learn, not the things you have to teach. Curiousity is the name if the game.

All participation is welcome (well except for pitches for specific commercial products or companies, and long-winded presentations). Participation, however, is not mandatory. If you want to listen more than discuss, that’s up to you.

We are lucky to have a great mix of local BCers and people who have travelled from far and wide to participate. Some of us have been to a BarCampBank before, and many have not. We have all the right people and expertise to create a truly amazing weekend.

We hold this philosophy to be true:
The right people will show up and the right things will be discussed.

Pecha Kucha
At the end of day one, we’ll have a Pecha Kucha, where each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. If you want to do one, come with your presentation on a USB key.

Thinking of live blogging or taking photos?
We welcome all ways to record the sessions. Update the wiki, blog it, upload photos to flickr. Tweet away! We’ll all be using the same tag, which is:
bcbbc08

Anything else?
Oh yes, breakfast will be provided both days, and lunch will be provided on day one. On September 20th, we’ll start at 9am and wrap up at 5pm. On September 21st, we’ll start at 9am and wrap up the whole thing at 1pm. Please come on time, so you can participate in creating the sessions.

We’ll be at the BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street.

We look forward to seeing you here!

PS: Here are two great resources.