That was the “tag” of PMcamp 2011. It took place at Dornbirn in the Fachhochschule Vorarlberg building between November, 3rd and 5th.
Like many things on this planet, the idea for the Barcamp owes itself to a coincidence. Years ago, I met Stefan Hagen through his pm-blog. It was a typical “internet friendship“.
Reading his articles and witnessing how he worked on the internet, I immediately liked him. I found that our values, expectations, interests and needs complemented each other quite well.
On April, 10th, 2009, we met face-to-face. The meeting was a true pleasure for both of us. Consequently, we decided to meet more often.
Regardless of quite a few attempts, however, it never worked out. At one time, as we again communicated online, one of us wrote:
“We will probably have to organize a special event in order to meet again”.
From there, it was a small step towards organizing a barcamp for Projekt Management (PM).
It was to be a “free anti-conference”. Totally different from the big conferences with their several hours of often second-rate power-point presentations.
Stefan contacted a few of his PM colleagues. They were quite fascinated by our idea and immediately willing to attend. I asked my InterFace colleague Kornelia Hietmann to contribute with an InterFace effort. Kornelia, too, immediately agreed.
An organization team was established quite quickly. They met exactly once to prepare for the event. It was on a Saturday at InterFace in Unterhaching.
All the preparations were done online. The same is true for the advertising of the event. And we managed to book a full conference with extremely simple means. It is really something the organization team can be proud of. But you can also see that there is quite a demand for this sort of “alternative“ conference.
Last Thursday, November, 3rd, the day had come. PMcamp11 opened its doors. We all met and we all thou-ed and thee-ed each other from the start. The intellectual level of the presentations and discussions was extremely high. All participants were intensely motivated and focussed. And we treated each other very companionably and respectfully. Thus, PMcamp11 was a huge success.
Due to the nice co-organizers and the many good ideas presented beforehand, I had already expected to witness a special event. But PMcamp11 was a lot better than anybody could have imagined.
My special thanks go to Stefan. He managed to rent the rooms in the Fachhochschule Vorarlberg for the event. Incidentally, they were free. And of course big thanks to Fachhochschule Vorarlberg!
And, of course, much of the things to be done right there (food, organization) were left for him to do. But there were also essential things that were done in harmonious and highly efficient team work.
For me, it was at least possible to attend the Barcamp Friday, the big party at the evening and the entire Saturday. Unfortunately, I missed many good presentations.
However, I watched the entire event on my private “Twitterwall” from the beginning. And many (short) reports on the presentations I read on twitter made me call out my virtual “Bravo”.
The tweets on and of the pmcamp11 are truly impressive and they mirror what happened.
(For non-twitterers: it is quite simple and is done very quickly. Look for pmcamp11 in twitter. It is a nice opportunity for you to understand all the potential of twitter).
Yes, for me, the pmcamp11 was the best conference I ever attended. I actually had to live 61 years in order to finally witness a truely successful “anti-conference“.
Now I look forwards to the pmcamp12. And I hope the organization team will continue to work for us – and maybe even find a few new comrades-in-arms to help.
Although I believe it is hardly possible to improve, we will still try and get even better. The location was the optimum. Quite possibly, you can squeeze even a few more people in.
There is no doubt that the InterFace AG will support the next conference. And I will see to it that I have enough time to attend all three days. And I would be truly delighted to meet as many people as possible of those I grew to love at the Dornbirn PMcamp11 of 2011.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
You have to read the commentar of Stefan – down the page.
P.S. 1
The first and fourth pictures were taken by Christian Botta, the second and third by Katrin Elster.
And here some links to more reports:
Das war das PMcamp 2011 (Veranstaltungsseite)
MISC – Dr. Marcus Raitner
bpm-blog – Thomas Mathoi
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