Coming soon! ProductCamp London

[Janna Bastow]

I'd like to say 'Hi' to all of the members of this community.  Colin kindly pointed me in this direction to make an announcement about ProductCamp London. 

First, what is ProductCamp?

Not not spiel off the same thing you'd find by Googling it, but it's "a collaborative, user-organized unconference, focused on product development, product marketing and product management."

Typically, these are full day weekend gatherings of about 100-200 professionals involved in product management.  The agenda is left open, with a variety of speakers (NON-sales pitch related) get to present, based on attendees votes.  There's always plenty of time in between for networking, and the events are typically sponsored for coffee, drinks, goodies, and/or wifi.  Plus, these events are free to attendees!  

Read more about it here: http://www.productcamp.org 

I heard about ProductCamp while I was trying to find others in my field to connect with... and was shocked to find out it hadn't been brought to the UK yet.  Just this week, I've started getting the ball rolling on setting up the first ProductCamp London event, and the response so far has been great!

Some of you may have attended the meetup with Colin tonight, where he brought up this initiative with the group.  I was thrilled when he reported that of the 14 or so in attendance 4 people would be interested in helping out, and another 8 or so would be interested in attending.

For those of you who would like to volunteer, feel free to contact me directly.  You can reach me at janna -AT- simplybastow -DOT- com.  Basically, any help at all is appreciated, whether you're looking to help with event planning, sponsoring or searching for sponsors, or even just getting the word out!

For those of you who'll be interested in attending:

Keep an eye on www.ProductCampLondon.com for updates (Sorry, nothing there yet!  I've just registered the name as of this evening).  I'll post forums there to get feedback on what we should include in the agenda, and of course, I'll include details of the first event as soon as it's set.

Thanks in advance for any support or feedback.  Should you have any questions, please feel free to give me a shout.

Janna Bastow

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jannabastow

janna -AT- simplybastow -DOT- com

[Andrew Nicholson]

I have found a lot of useful on Twitter when Product Camps are going on, plus it is a good way to get the word out. I dont think there is a convention for the hashtag to use, but many organisers use #pcamp with city name appended.


Here is a useful article I found when digging around to find out more about these events

http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/topics/09/productcam...

Andrew

[Janna Bastow]

Thanks Andrew!

I've started following the other ProductCamp groups on Twitter, and have already secured @PCampLDN for outgoing tweets. I'll likely be following suit and using #PCampLDN when it comes to promoting.

I've spoken to someone from Pragmatic Marketing about sponsoring, as they're very active in all of the groups - I was actually pointed to this particular group by them :)

Janna

Andrew Nicholson said:

I have found a lot of useful on Twitter when Product Camps are going on, plus it is a good way to get the word out. I dont think there is a convention for the hashtag to use, but many organisers use #pcamp with city name appended.


Here is a useful article I found when digging around to find out more about these events

http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/topics/09/productcam...

Andrew

[Janna Bastow]

Thanks to everyone who has come forward with offers to help out! To follow up on this post, I'm happy to announce that ProductCamp London has its own site up now at http://www.productcamplondon.com/ - There's a 'Feedback' tab on the left, where you can vote on ideas for sessions at the event or add your own.
Also, some of you might have noticed the ProductCamp Drinks event I've posted here - it's an informal get-together for anyone helping (or interested in helping) with the organizing of the event. Everyone's welcome, and just like any other PCamp event, it's going to be free. It's on April 21st, and you can see details here: http://product-management.ning.com/events/productcamp-drinks

That said, we're looking for a venue sponsor and a drink sponsor for the Drinks night (and are still looking for speakers and sponsors for the actual PCamp London event, tentatively set for a weekend in June). Come forth if you have any insight on this!

Thanks again all, and I look forward to meeting some of you in person :)

I can be reached at [e-mail].

Regards,
Janna