Barcamp Hamburg 2017
A Barcamp is a so-called un-conference. The difference to a normal conference is the lack of ties (the number of people wearing suits can be counted on one hand) and the lack of (usually expensively purchased) speakers. The program of a Barcampis designed solely by and through the participants. 4 sitegeistattended one of these unconferences and helped to shape the program.
After a hearty breakfast, the day's agenda is planned together. Everyone can present their session proposal to the audience and a show of hands is used to roughly gauge the interest of the audience.
This year's Barcamp Hamburg - one of the largest and oldest Barcamps in Germany - was once again attended by around 400 people, who filled the space provided by Otto with many interesting presentations on every conceivable topic.
This year, four sitegeistparticipants -Sven, trish, Jule and Jan - took the opportunity to take part in Barcamp Hamburg, attend exciting presentations and also get involved themselves.
Friday
The secret of violin making. Barcamps are a great opportunity to learn something about subjects outside your own field. Jule and Jan took the opportunity to learn from violin maker Anne Pelz how a violin is handmade, how much such a piece of jewelry would cost and also that a supposed bargain from the Internet can turn out to be just as expensive as a new one due to necessary repairs.
Opas erzählen vom Krieg - 20+ Jahre Internet was a charming, nostalgic look back at the beginnings of the www. Trish listened and discussed with @FrankS and @mthie about long-forgotten search engines, ancient browsers, modem noises and the exciting history of the first moving GIF.
Digital legacy. Every now and then, Jan thinks about what should happen to his Twitter and Facebook accounts after his death, not just the villa and the Maserati. This session by Andrea Koenig came in handy, especially as it wasn't just about lists of passwords, but also about image and image rights that are distributed online over the course of a lifetime.
We are also just well-trained primates by Andreas Dantz deals with human psychology and "How do we get users to do something?". Levers for influencing users can be found, for example, in the hierarchy of credibility (from "my girlfriend recommends a product to me" to "it has 3/5 stars on Amazon"), fake information such as "Today only!" or "A. from U. just bought one!" and by specifically addressing the three elementary questions that the oldest part of our brain focuses on: Can it kill me? Can I eat it? Can I reproduce with it?
Series Junkies is the perfect session for some culturally valuable post-lunch relaxation. @ScottyTM has curated a selection of 5 very different series to show the average consumer of public broadcasters what else is out there beyond their filter bubble. Surprisingly, "Babylon Berlin", a German entry, is also in the running to be broadcast on ARD next year.
Ready 2 Feel Good: Jule is not only responsible for marketing at sitegeist, but also has a knack for making employees feel good. Her session was about how employers can offer their employees more benefits than just "We've got a table football table too!" without putting the company balance sheet in the red. However, employees also have a duty to evaluate, communicate and justify their wishes and suggestions for improvement themselves.
After the last session of the day, there was a delicious evening buffet, beer and a nerd quiz to reflect on the varied day in the company of like-minded people.
Saturday
RE.A.L. - No more waste! Sven took the opportunity to tell the true fairytale of projects without estimates, specifications and contracts that we live at +sitegeist. In an exciting and captivating presentation, supplemented by a well-attended Q&A session on the topic, Sven presented our company philosophy to an enthusiastic crowd at his first real Barcamp.
Anonymous programmers' self-help group. Due to a lack of participants (Trish sat alone in the room with the speaker), it was spontaneously decided that programmers are perfect and don't make mistakes, so the topic was sufficiently discussed.
Unicorn chocolate - strategy meets hype told the logical continuation of the many fake chocolate varieties circulating on the Internet (e.g. Ritter Sport Mett). Within six weeks, Gianna Krolla and her team worked with Ritter Sport to produce a limited edition of 75,000 pieces of unicorn chocolate, which sold out within a few minutes and left the server fried. It was never about selling the product, but about reaching 4 million recipients with the first and only Facebook message.
Password management and 2nd factor authentication are a personal mission for Jan. As it became clear in yesterday's session on the digital estate that too few users still use a password manager or know what one is, he spontaneously decided to offer a session on the topic. An interesting dialog then developed with the attendees about the benefits of password managers and personal reservations about the cloud.
Web construction kits were another way for Jan to think outside the box of normal agency life. Nicolai Schwarz showed the current web construction kits that customers can buy for little money from various providers to quickly get their own website up and running. Perfect when customers with a very small budget ask a freelancer or agency for help. We can't earn money with such inquiries, but helpful information is still good for karma.
Conclusion
As always, the two days of Barcamp Hamburg 2017 were very colorful and informative. We met up with friends again, got to know exciting people and took new ideas and topics home with us.
Our thanks go to the organizers and the sponsors who threw a lot of time and money into the pot to make these two days of exchange, fun and learning possible for us. <3
