Bucketworks: Container for BarCampMilwaukee

The 06 August 2006 meeting of Fireseed was held in downtown Milwaukee at Bucketworks, "a health and fitness club for your brain."

The main goals of the 06 August meeting were to tour Bucketworks and talk with James Carlson, the Executive Director of Bucketworks, about whether it would be an effective venue for BarCampMilwaukee and whether he'd like to host the event. The meeting was a resounding success on both counts.

James led two tours during the meeting. The first was a tour of the gathered group of geeks. He asked us to each in turn explain what it is that we make. Not who we are, but, rather, what we make. It was a great way to get to know each other a little, especially since only three of the seven knew more than one other person there. One interesting thing that came out of the meeting was discovering three of the seven participants are either highly intested in cryptography or deeply involved in it. And none of the three knew anyone else in Milwaukee who was into cryptography.

When it was James' turn to talk, he said one of the things he makes is containers in which people can make things and learn. He is interested and enthused about BarCampMilwaukee and is excited about providing Bucketworks as the container for the event! In exchange for James' in-kind sponsorship of the event, it will be incumbent upon all BarCampMilwaukee participants to make something and to learn while they are at Bucketworks!

After finding out what each of the Fireseed meeting participants makes, the group briefly discussed BarCampMilwaukee, then James gave the group a tour of both the first and second floors of Bucketworks. You can see and read about some of the spaces on their website, but other areas which will likely be used for BarCampMilwaukee are not on the website. Participants may even have the chance to make some of the Bucketwork spaces a unique result of this tech event being held there. After touring the facility and listening to James explain his philosophy and the possible ways Bucketworks could be used for the event, it was unanimous that BarCampMilwaukee be held there. James pulled up the facility reservation schedule on the computer and, after a short discussion about dates, he reserved Saturday, September 30, 2006, and Sunday, October 1, for BarCampMilwaukee!

We now have a venue and a date!!

Put them both on your schedule, now.

If interested in BarCampMilwaukee, sign up today at the wiki to be a participant or organizer! (If you've never changed what a wiki page looks like, now's the time to start! Contact me if you can't figure it out and can't find someone to help you. If adding your name for BarCampMilwaukee is your first wiki change, you'll probably head right over to Wikipedia and start contributing there...)

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