Derek Bender — design, art direction and illustration

BarCamp and FOWA Miami Recap

This past weekend I attended BarCamp and the Future of Web Apps conference, both in Miami. I had a blast to say the least. Here is a recap of the weekend.

Upon arriving in Miami on Thurday, Sterling, Derek G. and myself quickly checked into our hotel and went to BarCamp Miami which started only a couple hours after we arrived. Some great talks including Kevin Marks Google’s Social Graph and Open Social APIs. As BarCamp wrapped up we went to dinner. Sushi and beer were had by all.

Day two was the main event: Future of Web Apps conference hosted by Carsonified. Well not totally up my alley, the talks did get me thinking and by the end of the day I had a ton of ideas racing through my head. Highlights included talks by Cal Henderson of Flickr, Emily Boyd of Remember the Milk, Leah Culver of Pownce and the panel discussion on brainstorming an app in 40 minutes.

The weekend was topped off by the Scrapblog sponsored after party and it was amazing. I met a bunch of great, interesting people along with Kevin Rose of Digg fame. Elizabeth and I struck up a conversation with him and it turns out he's a cool guy. There was also a certain Subversion joke involved.

Great weekend. Apart from almost being hit while crossing the street a few times (we had the right of way) and almost hitting a couple pedestrians who walked into the street and people who need to learn to drive (what is it with Miami and bad drivers?), it was an amazing weekend. And I also went to South Beach and played golf for the first time too. But that's another post.....

Enjoy my photos from the Miami trip on Flickr.