April 17, 2009

SciBarCamp 2009: Registration is open!

Registration is open for this year's edition of SciBarCamp Toronto. Last year was a blast.

This year, it's in collaboration with the Science Rendezvous series of events in and around Toronto.

So what's SciBarCamp?

SciBarCamp is a gathering of scientists, artists, and technologists for a day of talks and discussions. The second SciBarCamp event will take place at Hart House at the University of Toronto on May 9th, 2009, with an opening reception on the evening of May 8th. The goal is to create connections between science, entrepreneurs and local businesses, and arts and culture.

One of the topics we will be exploring this year is "Open Science", but we welcome any suggestions from participants. After all, in the tradition of BarCamps (see BarCamp.org for more information), the program is decided by the participants at the beginning of the meeting, in the opening reception on May 8th. SciBarCamp will require active participation; while not everybody will present or lead a discussion, everybody will be expected to contribute substantially - this will help make it a really creative event.

The participant list is already up and growing and there is some preliminary information on the program. If there's a topic you're interested in, add it here.

One of the organizers, Eva Amsen, has more on her blog. There is also, of course, a Friendfeed room and a Twitter hashtag.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Although I'd like to go, I'm a little scared of the phrase "everybody will be expected to contribute substantially" because I'm a total novice.

Mr. Dupuis, do you think I should just swallow my fears and attempt to register anyway?

Sorry to be a bother, I've just never attended an "unconference".

Thank you.

John Dupuis said...

Hi Brenda,

You should definitely register. It's a small conference and will have plenty of small sessions that will be easy to participate in.

If last year is any indicator, there will be some very popular sessions where most people won't have a chance to contribute but a good chunk will have 10 or so people.