Date: October 19th 2009 6pm to 9pm
Location: Clocktower Brew Pub (downstairs), 575 Bank St (http://bank.clocktower.ca)

To sign up for the event please register at http://democampottawa12.eventbrite.com

For Event information and Demo sign up see http://barcamp.org/DemoCampOttawa12

At this point it looks like the demo slots are full. If you didn’t get on the list this time watch out for announcements about the next DemoCamp and get your name on the list early. Also put yourself down on the wait list as someone could drop out.

For this DemoCamp we’re mixing it up a bit and opening up the opportunity for anyone to be the MC. To put your name in the hat head on over to StartupOttawa and submit your name along with a line or two about why you would like to be the MC. Closer to the date a poll will go up letting the community vote.

Demos at this point are goint to be from Betidings, Twegather from TeamCamp, Squirrel (A model airplane powered by an elastic band that can fly hundreds of feet, can’t wait for this one), BattleTwip from 76design and Shiny Ads making the trip from Toronto. Looks like it’s going to be awesome.

For some additional reading be sure to check out Rob’s post

I stopped in at the open house yesterday to congratulate Ian Graham and partake in the festivities. The event had an excellent turnout and was a great opportunity to see how the space has been transformed from just a few weeks earlier when I attended the OttawaWebWeekend at the CodeFactory.

Opening speakers Scott lake from Jaded Pixel and StartupOttawa, Mike Milinkovich from Eclipse Foundation and Denzil Doyle from Doyletech represented some excellent examples of those who have been there done that and are doing it. Their words were very encouraging to the entrepreneurs in the room focusing in on great Ottawa success stories, our strong grass roots community and the importance places like the CodeFactory will play in our future.

I too am a strong believer that co-working spaces like the CodeFactory will become great catalysts as well as starting points for many good ideas and startups to come. I’ve see first hand the success that BarCamp and DemoCamp has had over the last couple years and if a place like CodeFactory can have that same electricity on a daily vs monthly basis, look out.

Here are a few pictures I took at the opening.

The CodeFactory is located on the second floor of 246 Queen Street between Bank and Kent, right above the Green Papaya. You can find out more at the CodeFactory Web site.

The demos are going to be from Stockify, SIMtone, picsphere, SCAN and OurAirports. The MC will be Alec Saunders.

I’m not very familiar with any of these companies except for the National Capitol SCAN which has given the OttawaCamp movement great coverage, so unfortunately I can’t put my finger on how the demos will go. One thing I know for sure is that the discussions before and after will be lively and worth the trip.

Something to take note of is the location change, the Velvet Room instead of the ClockTower. I love the ClockTower, it’s right near my work and the food and beer is always good. The only problem is capacity and DemoCampOttawa8 hit that and had to resort to a waiting list. Waiting lists are no fun. I haven’t been in the Velvet Room but I hear it’s a good space with more capacity and it’s not in the basement, thanks to Sonny for hooking up DemoCamp with this space.
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I’ll be working the door again checking names off the list. It’s important to track numbers for the sake of legal capacity but it’s also nice to have a list of those who made the trip. The thought of using EventBrite in the future for sign up has come up, any strong views either way?

See you there.

What a weekend. It was intense, fun and time flew by so fast.

It amazes me that a group of over thirty people can get together for the first time, triage through 20+ concepts, decide on one (that alone is amazing), rally behind it, refine it and get down to business. And a the end of two days plus an evening have accomplished so much and had so much fun in the process. Thank you Marc-Andre Plouffe for putting this together and also a big thank you to Ian Graham and theCodeFactoy for generously putting up the space for this to happen.

We had teams in Design, Development, Marking, Business and Legal. Not to mention a couple folks who could really bridge the gab between all the different groups. Overall a real professional crew.

So what did we make? well we’ve called it reBookMe, you can find a splash sign up page at www.reBookMe.com. reBookMe is a solution that aims to turn cancellations into reservations, take that empty chair, room, service, tool what ever it is that just became available through a cancellation (or just plain available) and let interested clients who know about it. Your clients can then shift to an earlier appointment or possibly be enticed by a special off you’ve put forward to fill the opening.

We’re pretty excited about the idea and are continuing to work on it.

If you get the chance to attend one of these weekends I highly recommend it, I had a blast.

I’m not going to release the concept quite yet, expect tidbits of information over the weekend.

Out of the the 35 participants I’ve only ever worked with one participant before, Franc Epton and that was at at DVS Communications back in the early days of interactive media. I feel some reminiscing coming on. I’m excited to work with the rest of the crew, some of whom I’ve wanted to work with for a while; Jay West, Mark Blevis and Marquis Cote just to name a few.

I sense that my major contributions are going to come on the design side but I also figure my experience with a lot of projects will help me play a role in segmenting tasks amongst the participants. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Want to find out more about the Ottawa Web Weekend, check out http://www.ottawaw.com/