David Radzialowski, one of the organizers of ProductCamp Chicago reached out to me the other day and said “Hey, if you think that you’re such hot stuff, why don’t you come and speak at the ProductCamp that we’re putting in in Chicago?” I’m always a sucker for taking on a challenge and so I said “You’re on!”
You’re invited to join us for some (free!) product management training that’s going to be happening in Chicago. Here are the details…
The History Of Product Camp
So if you’ve ever been to a technical conference or some sort of product management training in the past, this event is nothing like those events. To understand how this all got started, you need to go back to BarCamp.
BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences: open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. The first one of these was held on August 19-21, 2005 – so you can see that its not really been around for all that long.
ProductCamp is a specific type of BarCamp – this type of conference focuses on Product Management topics.
How Does All Of This Work?
This might seem just a bit chaotic when I describe it to you, but I’ve attended these things and I swear that it works. If you’ve ever been to a big formal conference, then you know that you are handed a pre-printed agenda at the door and you know exactly what’s going to be discussed where and when. ProductCamp works just a bit differently.
The first difference is that everyone who attends ProductCamp is asked to participate either by presenting or facilitating a session – no dozing in the back of the room here. Additionally, the conference doesn’t start with a pre-planned agenda.
Instead, the sessions are proposed and scheduled each day by attendees. You start to get a feel for how dynamic this is. If you’ll trust me that this actually works, you can see that hot topics and issues of great concern to all bubble up to the top. Likewise, there really are no boring sessions – they get voted away.
What’s Going To Happen At ProductCamp Chicago?
First off, the reason for going would be to learn about and discuss the most current topics facing product managers and product marketers today. This is going to be (hey, it’s in Chicago – what do you expect?) an intense ad hoc gathering of product folks to share, present, network, learn, laugh, and discuss.
As we’ve discussed, there is no agenda. Instead, everyone who is interested in leading a session provides a brief (that’s about a minute) pitch in the morning before things start. Attendees then vote and those sessions receiving the highest votes are put on the schedule and groups form for intense learning. This will ensure that the participants get the most out of their experience.
What’s interesting to me is that this is not the first time that this has been done. ProductCamp has been successfully hosted in San Francisco (twice!), Austin, and Boston, NYC and a bunch of other places.
If you’re the kind of person who is swayed by reviews, here are some of the feedback that came out of these previous ProductCamps:
- “This was a great event. I took back more useful ideas than I have gotten at large industry events. The interactive format … made it very valuable.”
- “What a great experience to get together with a (large) group of passionate product managers and have lively discussions about how we can improve.”
- “There was a lot of collective talent assembled all striving for the same goal … let’s make product management the best career opportunity in the next few years.”
I’m Interested, Now What Do I Do?
I can’t remember – did I mention that this is all free (as in beer)? If you are going to be in Chicago on Saturday, June 18th (or if you can get there), then here are the details that you need to know:
ProductCamp Chicago
Saturday, July 19, 2010 9am – 5pm
llinois Technology Association (ITA) – TechNexus
200 S Wacker Dr | 15th Floor | Chicago, IL 60606
Of course, even though it’s free, they’d like you to register. You can get all of the details on this event by visiting their web site at:
http://www.pcampchicago.org/
Final Thoughts
Hey – it’s free, just how much thinking does this take? If you are even half way considering going – DO IT. The info that you get will be great, but the contacts that you can make will be even better.
Have a great time!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Product Management Skills™
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