When should I arrive?
The doors will open at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 21.  Opening remarks and introductions will start promptly at 12:00, so please arrive in time to check in, mingle, check out the session candidates along the walls.  Note that if you’re hoping to present a session, you should arrive a few minutes before 10:00 to post your Session Organizer Candidate Form.)

How do I get there?

You’re going to the offices of Synapse in downtown Seattle.  The address is 1511 6th Ave, Seattle, 98101.

This is an updated version of a post originally published on April 28, 2006

Most of you who have previously attended Seattle Mind Camp understand the free-form nature of the beast.  However, many of you will be joining us for the first time, and I wanted to try to prepare you for the kind of event you’re going to encounter.  Mind Camp is not a traditional type of gathering, and the success of the event depends in large part on the willingness of the participants to wrestle the chaotic mess into order.

Seattle Mind Camp is an “unconference,” in the style of Bar Camp or Foo Camp.  The idea of an unconference has been promulgated by Dave Winer, among others.  As I understand it, Winer’s particular insight was that, for any conference panel discussion, you could take any random group of people out of the audience, replace the panel onstage with that random group, and have an equally enlightening and worthwhile session.  The Mind Camp experience seeks to leverage that idea by completely doing away with a pre-planned program of speakers. The day’s sessions will be designed by the attendees and the schedule will be created by the attendees themselves.

We just created a Seattle Mind Camp YouTube channel, and have started uploading a bunch of content from previous Mind Camp events. You’ll find recaps of a couple of past events, clips of interesting happenings, as well as a bunch of great sessions, posted in their entirety. We will continue pushing out great content from Seattle Mind Camp events, and we’ll have a bunch of great content coming out of Mind Camp 6.0, which is now just two weeks away. If you haven’t already, be sure to pick up your tickets!

Know More About Who You Know.  Gist helps you build stronger relationships by connecting the inbox to the web to provide business-critical information about the people and companies that matter the most.

Definitely a cool service, with a superb iPhone app to boot.

Read More | Gist ]]> 2009-11-06T17:11:00+00:00 http://mindcamp.gearlive.com/mindcamp/article/mind-camp-6.0-sponsor-minds-machines/ Sponsors We always says that local happenings like Seattle Mind Camp rely on the kindness of local companies to make the events a success, and we want to give a thank you to Seattle’s Mind + Machines for being the first company to step in as a sponsor of Mind Camp 6.0. We asked them to tell us a bit about their company:

Starting a new top level domain?  We can help.  We will guide you from application to approval to operations, with expert assistance at every step. We work with corporate, geographical, market-niche, and not-for-profit TLDs.  Espresso, our registry platform, offers low flat-rate pricing, a low annual minimum, flexible contract terms, and a built-in sales channel to all the top domain registrars.  We currently help operate over a dozen ccTLDs, have decades of experience, and are a Seattle company.  Meet Jothan Frakes, COO of Minds + Machines at MindCamp 6, he’s glad to answer questions about domain names and share his experience with fellow attendees.

Awesome. Be sure to say “Hi!” to Jothan at Mind Camp, and again, big thanks to Minds + Machines.

Read More | Minds + Machines ]]> 2009-10-14T21:34:42+00:00 http://mindcamp.gearlive.com/mindcamp/article/seattle-mind-camp-6.0-nov-21-22-at-synapse-offices/ Upcoming, Announcements Hey Seattle - it’s that time again! We’ve just scheduled Seattle Mind Camp 6.0 to take place over the weekend of November 21-22, and yes, the event will once again go for 24 hours straight, and will take place at Synapse (1511 6th Ave, Seattle, 98101.) Tickets are now on sale, and we’ve already got a great group of people registered. Be sure to get your ticket, because we expect these to go fast!

Read More | Mind Camp 6.0 Registration ]]> 2009-09-24T20:50:43+00:00 http://mindcamp.gearlive.com/mindcamp/article/video-spoof-things-that-happen-at-mind-camp/ Activities, Aftermath

During Mind Camp 5.0, one of my favorite couples, Monica Guzman and Jason Preston, led the charge to create a quick spoof mockumentary showing what exactly goes on during a Seattle Mind Camp event. I think they nailed it - fairly realistic. Definitely worth watching!

We’ve gotta hand it to Lief Hansen for the way that he handled getting the ice broken and getting people talking prior to the start of Mind Camp 5.0. One of his activities involved a massive Rock, Paper, Scissors flash tournament. The losers became the cheerleaders for the winners, until we had two people battling it out, each with half of the attendees cheering them on. Awesome.

When should I arrive?
The doors will open at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 22.  Opening remarks and introductions will start promptly at 12:00, so please arrive in time to check in, mingle, check out the session candidates along the walls.  Note that if you’re hoping to present a session, you should arrive a few minutes before 10:00 to post your Session Organizer Candidate Form.)

How do I get there?

You’re going to the offices of Synapse in downtown Seattle.  The address is 1511 6th Ave, Seattle, 98101.

Windows Mobile and Online Services are two of the fastest growing businesses at Microsoft. They are creating products that could free people from the physical limitations of the office, improve efficiency and responsiveness, build return on investment and experience a wealth of business and productivity applications. Windows Mobile offers a flexible solution that includes familiar Microsoft software and adapts to existing technology and infrastructure.
 
Join us for a refreshment and take a compatibility test at Mind Camp to see if you’re a good match for a position at our new South Lake Union office in Seattle!  Anyone who participates is also eligible to win one of five HTC Diamond SmartPhones, one of the most sophisticated SmartPhones that runs Windows Mobile 6.1, which features a vibrant touch screen, an ultra-fast HSDPA internet connectivity, a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, 4GB of internal storage, an Integrated GPS along with many others.

Methodologie helps companies define, design, and develop their brand and everything it touches. They’ve built a reputation across the country for powerful and creative communications for clients such as Xbox, Sun Microsystems, and The Coca-Cola Company, The MacArthur Foundation, and Dale Chihuly.

Founded in 1988, they have an award-winning team of 29 print, interactive and brand strategy experts who will ensure your next project rises to the surface in this competitive attention economy.

LUNCH BUFFET

• Sliced Baguette
• Cold Sliced Grilled Chicken
• Soba Noodle Salad with shaved carrots, scallions, sesame vinaigrette
• Orzo Pasta with arugula pesto, cherry tomatoes and pinenuts
• Vegetable Crudite with green goddess dressing
• Freshly Baked Brownies

Did you catch that? Freshly. Baked. Brownies. I’m in. Then, of course, there’s dinner. The dinner sponsor is Nokia’s Share on Ovi, and they’ll also be giving away a Nokia N78 as well during dinnertime.

DINNER BUFFET

• Handmade Flatbread with carmelized onions
• Carrot Ginger Soup
• Salad Bar: Light Smoked Coho Salmon, Grilled Wild Prawns, Chopped Romaine, Herb Croutons, Cherry Tomatoes,  Cucumbers, Red Onion, Capers Choice of: Classic Caesar Dressing, Caper Vinaigrette
• Sliced Baguette
• Vegetarian Penne Pesto Pasta with grilled carrots, zucchini, squash, toasted garlic
• Warm chocolate-chip cookies
• Seasonal Fresh Fruit

See? Told you…delicious.

Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, has opened a new office in Puget Sound with Share on Ovi,  a new, free personal media sharing community that makes it easy to upload, manage and share photos, videos and more through a mobile phone or desktop PC.  Meaning “door” in Finnish, Ovi is Nokia’s “Internet Gateway” and Share on Ovi offers a community where anyone can socialize around the most meaningful aspects of their lives, the moments they capture every day. With unlimited free storage for media the service frees up people to share their experience anytime and anywhere.

Located in Kirkland, WA the site is host to a “technical center of excellence” where a rapidly growing development and delivery team design service and client software on the latest open source platforms. These are key components in Nokia’s broader Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment and social networks at any time, anywhere, from any connected device, in any way that you choose.  In Development and Delivery, you can be part of creating the future of all Nokia personal media sharing services!

To sign up for an account, please visit http://share.ovi.com

To be considered for career opportunities in J2ME, Web Development or Java SDET send your resume to: ext-aimee.cook@nokia.com

Bungee Labs is creator of the Bungee Connect web application development and hosting platform-as-a-service (PaaS), a single environment for building and delivering a new class of interactive rich web applications and user experiences. Bungee Connect facilitates rapid integration of web services and databases (public and private), eliminates programming for Ajax interactivity, and enables instantaneous application deployment for end-user use. Bungee Connect eliminates significant time and cost across the entire application lifecycle. Bungee-powered apps can be instantly deployed on the Bungee Grid multi-tenant grid infrastructure or on a Bungee Application Server running on self-managed infrastructure.  Bungee Connect is the most extensive implementation of a PaaS. A privately held company, Bungee Labs is backed by North Bridge Venture Partners, Venrock Associates and Epic Ventures. Visit www.bungeelabs.com.

We want to thank Microsoft’s WIndows Live division for stepping up as one of our sponsors for Mind Camp 5.0:

Live Search, http://www.live.com, is one of the leading search engines on the web helping more than 185 million people each month quickly find, view, organize and preview search results. Microsoft is committed to delivering a better search experience and value for consumers and advertisers. With a simple, easy to use design and advanced tools, Live Search provides relevant search query results across entertainment, travel, news, shopping, local, and health categories.

Read More | Live Search ]]> 2008-10-20T22:42:15+00:00 http://mindcamp.gearlive.com/mindcamp/article/seattle-mind-camp-50-november-22-23-at-synapse/ Upcoming, Announcements When you guys said you wanted us to go back to the 24-hour format for Mind Camp, we decided to make sure that happened, no matter how long it took to find the appropriate venue. Thanks to Mind Camp attendee Scott Bright, we’ve got it - Synapse, located in downtown Seattle. Never heard of Synapse? Well, that’s kinda the point - they do some amazing things there, but no one knows it. They also just happen to have an amazing space for us to use for a 24-hour Mind Camp event. So it’s on.

Seattle Mind Camp 5.0 will start on November 22 at 11:00 AM, and will conclude the following morning, November 23 at 10:00 AM.

Here’s the address:

Synapse
1511 6th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
View Google Map

Here’s the Facebook event page.

Go ahead and spread the word, we think this will be the best Mind Camp event we’ve ever done, because the space is casual, and fits in perfectly with the things we want to do. Plus, they have some really cool stuff to show off. You gonna be there?

Pathable (http://www.pathable.com/) is an easy-to-use, private on-line community / directory for events. Attendees and sponsors create short profiles, then use the system to meet other attendees and to start conversations with them, pre-networking before the conference begins. For attendees, it’s a great way to make sure you make the kind of valuable connections you go to these types of events for, and for event hosts, it’s an essential part of making sure your attendees and sponsors get the value they need out of your event.

Seriously, this is some really good stuff. Check out a video introduction of how it all works, after the break.

If we should look at other venues, suggestions are always more than welcome. Hit us in the comments with your thoughts!

I am in talks with the venue to see what date we can push back to - I am thinking it is going to be mid-March, so about an 8 week delay. This will (hopefully) give us a little more time to firm up sponsorship so we can get things paid for. As far as Mind Camp 5.0 goes, we have so far only signed one sponsor - TrenchMice at $500. A big thank you goes out to them.

If you’ve already paid for a ticket and want a refund, just drop me an email, and I will issue you one immediately. Otherwise, your ticket will simply be transferred and will be good for the newly chosen date. Once I found out when that will be, I will let you guys know.

In the meantime, if you have contacts at any local companies that you believe would benefit from supporting the event, please send them my way. Feel free to get back to me with any questions, and have a happy holiday!