Feedback on BarCampUAE

What a great day at the UAE’s first BarCamp. I went grumping because it was early Saturday morning and I just wanted to sleep — but I’m so glad I made the effort.

We were about 30 people I’d say. Presentations were planned for the whole day and topics ranged from social media (social media for social change, social translation, social media ethics) to entrepreneurship, to cloud-computing, to ultra-light start-ups. It was all live-casted using Ustream.tv; we even had a live webcast from Slywia Presley, blogger and social media consultant.

DIC provided the venue, Emirates Computers the laptops, Du the wifi; there was a coffee machine, donuts, and lunch. Attendees paid nothing and I’m sure left satisfied and inspired, I certainly did.

The highlight for me at BarCampUAE was the team Lego Serious Play session done by @disruptiveplay. We were told to build our passion with Lego bricks, then what we built was psycho-analysed.

I built a hippy-caravan. The words I associated with it were: freedom, peace, and world. I made it so badly that it just wouldn’t stand right. I was told to add a piece to it so that it would not keep falling; I just couldn’t make it stand right. Then one of the team members offered to help and fixed it by adding a support ladder. Apparently that was a lesson for me in that I need to let people help me and be find a person in my life that will help stabilize it. Heavy, eh? Lot’s more was discussed too, making it a rewarding and fascinating session.

All in all, a great day with lots of really cool people. I really look forward to the next one.

Thanks to Twitter handles @floatr, @pkgulati, @disruptiveplay to have made it possible.