Ignite Orlando is a local event that was held at Wall Street this past Wednesday that brings artists, geeks, academics, entrepreneurs, techies, and others to network with a twist. The event is organized by local volunteers and was a great success this past week. Its much in the same vein as BarCamp but not quite as large and fits quite nicely into a single evening. The thing that sets Ignite apart from other events is the rapid-fire style talks and a hands-on contest that acts as intermission during the night.

If you had five minutes to talk to Orlando on stage, what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers. Combine this with an onsite contest where contestants are grouped together to make things and you have Ignite Orlando.

This being the second Ignite Orlando, the talks overall were better than the first with every one being high-quality and very informative. The standouts for me included Greg Rollett's "How Rock Stars Can Change the World", Jessica Mariko's "How to be a Creative who Actually Completes Projects", Ryan Price's "How to Kick Ass at your Job", and, of course, Cory Collier's "You Love Death Metal, Here's Why". The full list of speakers can be found on the Ignite Orlando website. Overall, a very wide range of very interesting topics were covered; enlightening stuff.

This is one event that definitely has a strong foothold in the Orlando community. I'll keep you posted on Ignite Orlando 3 which I will definitely be talking at.

Photo by markkrupinski

This past week I visited Miami to take in the sites and expand my knowledge a bit by attending BarCamp Miami and the annual FOWA (Future of Web Apps) conference. Both events were absolutely amazing and much fun was had by all. Here's my recap of the week in Miami.

Last Friday evening a few co-workers (Sterling, Elizabeth, and Daniel) and I skipped the usual NFi happy hour and drove down to Miami so we could get an early jump into the weekend where we'd be attending BarCamp Miami and on Tuesday, Carsonified's FOWA. BarCamp, which was Sunday, got off to a great start with a sea of people (500+) flooding the courtyard of the venue at which it was being held. (Oh, and for those who don't know what BarCamp is, read about it here.) I caught a bunch of great talks including one by fellow Orlander (Orlandian?), Greg Rollett and Adaptive Blue's Fraser Kelton, plus I did one of my own. I'm not gonna go too in-depth about it but it was really awesome to get up in front of an audience of your peers and present on a topic that you love and are knowledgeable in (web typography for me). For those who missed my talk or want the slides, you can get them here.

After the day wrapped on BarCamp, it was time for the after-party at the Mayfair Hotel's cabana rooftop bar (sweet!). It was great to meet and hangout with all the great folks who made it out to BarCamp, especially all the Orlando peeps who made it down in mass.

Next I hung out at Miami's co-working space, Brikolodge. That place is really a testament to Miami's tech scene. It was great to finally do the whole "co-working thing." (For more on co-working check out Orlando's Colab and co-working explained.) I also meet the guys from Done21 (thanks again Jim for the adapter) and some of the Grooveshark team.

Photo by alexdesigns

Next up, the big one: FOWA. I attended last year's Future of Web Apps, but this year definitely had better presentations, ideas, speakers and technology. An amazing event. Some highlights included Jason Fried of 37 Signals on Getting Real 2.0, Alex Hunter of Virgin on Brand 2.0, Aza Rankin of Mozilla on Ubiquity (very cool app) and of course Gary Vaynerchuk. The overall theme, which was stated pretty clearly in a few different talks, was how these new technologies aren't made for bringing people and information together, but for bringing people together. As contrasted with past years which were heavy on the side of social media and its importance, it was a fresh idea to bring to the table and ultimately, at least I think so, will have a lasting impact on the industry.

After FOWA wrapped for the day, yet another party was planned at Nikki Beach on South Beach. This is where things get a little fuzzy, but I meet a lot of great folks, including Ryan Carson and Gary Vaynerchuk. We actually stayed until they kicked us out (who says geeks can't party?).

All in all, I meet some fun people, had a few beers, learned a few things and had a great time in Miami. Already stoked for next year.

Well, this year's BarCamp was great, not that I had anything to compare to since this was the first year in Orlando. A good time was had by all. The presentations were great (besides "cow orking"...how lame...). But I really would have liked to see more front end/light coding presentations. SSome stuff was totally over my head.

The venue was great. The place was packed at the peak but no one was uncomfortable. There must have been 10 or more photographers there. Not just people with regular cameras, I'm talking about big dollar SLRs. All the pics can be found at Flickr and on the BarCamp site.

Big thanks to Gregg Pollack and everyone else who helped to make BarCamp Orlando possible. See you next year.

BarCamp is coming to Orlando, Sunday, September 23rd!

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants.

Since its first inception in Palo Alto, California 2 years ago, BarCamp events have sprung up all over the country and have even reached as far as England, Poland, Switzerland and Bulgaria.

Since this will be my first BarCamp, I am especially excited to be attending. At last count the registration was up to 170! It's gonna be a crazy sight to see that many nerds and geeks all in one place at the same time. I hope they have enough alcohol to keep us calm.

To learn more check out the official BarCamp Orlando blog.