BarCampCHS, et al. – Charleston, I love you.

// October 29th, 2009 // Everything Else

I think it’s safe to say that if you live in Charleston, SC and have a either a twitter account or do something with computers, then you already know about BarCamp Charleston, but what you may not know, unless you attended, is that something magical happened…at least for me. I saw the reality of a community that supports each other, one that wants to learn from one another and relate.

As an outsider to Charleston (only 2 years in), I am truely inspired by how welcoming, intelligent, and sociable everyone has been. With all the new social technologyness, it’s still hard to make ‘real’ connections and actually meet real people behind the monikers and profile pics.

Luckily, here in Charleston, #chs for some, it’s super easy because of all the ways to meet and greet:

Lowcountry Bloggers – an aggregation of local blogs, with weekly, sometimes daily roundups
Social Media Club Charleston – monthly meetups empowering others to use the likes of twitter, facebook, and other ’social’ media tools
#chs hashtag - used regularly on twitter as a hub point to check out happenings in the Charleston, SC area, made popular by the efforts to standardize local hashtags on twitter.

And now, BarCampCHS….an annual ‘unconference’ – for a better explanation, go HERE

Being a planner gave me a unique perspective (a post dedicated to this will be coming), one that also was mixed with high hopes that everyone had a good time, learned a lot, and hopefully got to network and connect with some really cool people. All in all, I think we set the ‘bar’ high as the comments have blown me away with the positivity….generally saying, “Barcamp Charleston has arrived, and is here to stay” For that I am thrilled and anxiously await the next (after some recovery time, of course).

Some of my highlights (I’ll try to use the flickr photo pool to help illustrate)

Team 342 Robotics team and Summer Py-Games Initiative:

(photo:librarylion)