I leave for a while the main topic of this blog to think about how BarCamp has become here in Italy.
The main concept of sharing ideas quickly faded away, leaving place for a plethora of “hey-look-at-me” kind of speeches, which were exactly the kind of stuff the people was running from in first place.

Now, I have absolutely nothing against self promotion. I believe that almost any social event is first of all a place where people try to promote themselves. Blogs are like that, also.

But hey, there’s a better way to do it. Just throwing out some slides saying “hey, that’s me and that’s my ubercool project” not only wouldn’t make you cool. That will totally annoy the audience, which will almost immediately see a big “asshole” sign over your head.

So, here’s my little advice, which comes from quite a lot frequentations in Italian BarCamps.

Do you want to promote yourself? Fine, everyone wants.
Then don’t be afraid to take the microphone (if any) and start sharing ideas. Don’t talk about your project. Nobody cares. Instead, share a new idea, a point of view, explain why you believe in it. And, guess what? People will start thinking “how cool!”. They will talk to you after the speech, asking for more information. They will exchange your business card and tell you their point of view.

So, you will obtain two positive effects: you won’t annoy your audience, and you will get a lot of precious insights about how to improve your ideas. You may find partners as well.

Don’t you have an idea to share? Then, don’t bother going to a BarCamp. It will probably be worth nothing for you.