BarCamp is an open-source event where anyone can talk on any topic. Photo: Courtesy of the event organizer

 

The timetable for the BarCamp day Photo: Courtesy of the event organizer

Curious minds from across Shanghai gathered at the NYU campus in Pudong New Area Saturday to share ideas at the latest BarCamp. This open-source event is billed as an "unconference" which means anyone can get up and give a talk on a subject of their choice.

Topics ranged far and wide, with a focus on technology, entrepreneurship and socially-minded projects. Talks this time included "How I Cured My Anxiety And You Can Too," "Murder, Jazz and Gumbo - What the Streets of New Orleans Taught Me About Listening to Customers," "The Future of the Fashion Industry," "How Running 250km Across the Gobi Desert Made Me A Better Startup CEO," and "Peer to Peer Learning - What Is It and When Does It Work?"

Keynote speakers included US tech writer Clay Shirky, and Ryan Szrama, the founder of the e-commerce back-end systems Ubercart and Drupal Commerce. The Global Times was there as well and chatted to some of those present about what they'd seen and heard.

Louise Levicky, translator, France

Seems like there are a lot of interesting talks. This is the first BarCamp event I've come to. A friend came last autumn and she said it was really good. I saw a talk on how to raise money in China, tips on tricks on how to start a business, and also a filmmaking 101 talk. They were quite general, because there's only so much you can pack into 20 minutes. If I did a talk, it would be about how to freelance in China.

Saurabh Gandhi, IT, India

At the last two BarCamps I gave talks on presentation skills. At this one, I'm doing a talk about how to cure anxiety. I had a big problem the last couple of years in that I developed anxiety out of the blue. When I had to get on a plane I would start sweating, getting worried. Previously, I had taken hundreds of flights and never been scared. I didn't want to go to doctors as they would just give me anxiety pills. I tried everything from meditation to lucid dreaming, but it didn't work. The key was to make changes in my lifestyle. When I started doing that, slowly, over a couple of months, I got better. It involved getting good sleep, lots of exercise. I first came to BarCamp for networking, but then when I arrived I realized anyone could talk on anything at all. Presentation skill is in my area - I have to do presentations every day. So at my first one, I went into a room, started talking, and everyone liked it.

Joanna, finance consultant, Poland

I came here to hear some talks and find out something new. It's very casual. We attended a talk about how to find a boyfriend. Next we're going to a talk about how to get free flights. I think meeting and socializing with other people and listening to their opinions are good. Also you can learn new things - for example how to open a business in China - and learn from their experiences.

 

Philbert Nduwimfura, software engineer, Burundi

A friend of mine introduced me to this event. He said it was interesting, and he had been coming here for many years. It's good to hear about people's experiences and how they challenge themselves to achieve their goals. I've been doing some programming projects in Drupal, so I came here to attend some talks about this and see what's new - spark some ideas. I would like to do a talk at some point in the future.

Bekim Demiroski, engineer, the US

I came here to get away from the wife and kids! I'm not going to do a talk, I'm shy. I saw a talk on the public computer cloud in China. It was great - the speaker was really knowledgeable. Clay Shirky was also good - he was talking about open-source communities and how they're organized, and it made me think about them in a new way.

Gaultier Ross, analyst, Canada

I didn't know about this event until my two friends introduced me to it. It's always fun to come to these kinds of things though. You have lots of different topics presented by people from lots of different backgrounds - you have university professors, you have young professionals. They're talking about different things and giving you new perspectives on topics that you may or may not have come across in your life. It's food for thought.

Paddy, entrepreneur, the UK

I went to see Clay Shirky - he's a bit of an institution. That was a pretty interesting lecture because it had a lot of crossover with mobile gaming and peer-to-peer gaming, especially about the power of social nodes. BarCamp is a platform that gets people excited. You get a small number of people who are presenting, you get the people who are synthesized around them - the people who want to be really involved, the early adopters. But they're not the leaders. Then you have the spectators. But the entire community are not the kind of people who would want to go into a big company like Intel and just be another cog in the machine. They're much more comfortable taking risks rather than just sitting back. The most interesting moments are the conversations after the talks.

Nancy, anthropology student, Tanzania

This is my second BarCamp. The talk on window gardening and how people in cities can grow plants for themselves particularly stood out. I really enjoy environmentally friendly subjects. This event is more like a peer-to-peer learning event, so there's less pressure, you can just ask questions, meet people and it's easier to pick out people who have similar interests as you from across different industries.

Global Times