The third annual Minnebar unconference, Minnesota’s own Barcamp event, definitely was the place to be for the local Internet developer/entrepreneur community yesterday. (That was an understatement.) The t-shirt we all got, below, says it all. 
More than 430 stormed the Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota, record attendance for the event (and likely for any Barcamp to date in the U.S.). It was pre-Twittered like mad in the days leading up, but the volume of tweets during the day itself — the real-time conversation — was nothing less than awesome. I think we even surprised ourselves. Check it out: just go to Summize and type "Minnebar" in the search window at the top. You’re looking at a lot of energy, folks! You can scroll through pages and pages of conversations — who knows how many! At one point yesterday, Minnebar was in the top four or five largest collective conversations going on in the whole, freaking Twitterverse! Pretty cool. (My own coverage is at www.Twitter.com/GraemeThickins, and four of us were also tweeting all day at www.Twitter.com/Minnov8.)
The event drew techies from not just the Twin Cities, but throughout the state, and even from places like Madison, Des Moines, and South Dakota, to name a few locales I heard in passing. And I know people as far away as Florida and Colorado who were really wishing they could be there. But, you know what? Thanks to the magic of the Internet and this little thing we call Twitter, there were a whole lot of people on both coasts who were noticing and wishing, too. 
Something very cool was happening on the campus of the U of MN yesterday. And everyone who was there can be damn proud. Minnesota Tech, you rock! Huuge thanks to the organizers, the awesome sponsors (I’ve never even seen so much pizza in my life!), and to everyone that showed up — who all contributed and benefited. And, doggone if the whole world wasn’t noticing while we were at it…
Here is the link to Minnebar tweets: http://summize.com/search?q=Minnebar
I like that shirt better then this years, but both events where fantastic. I would argue this one was probably better then ’08s. I do wish they would buy shirts for events that actually looked cute, or fit me better. Maybe long sleeved since we are in Minnesota? If I actually could wear my shirts maybe the events would actually get their shwag seen. Then again I digress, beggars can’t be choosers.
It was fantastic seeing you. Thanks for taking photos.
Yeah, Des, I agree: this year’s t-shirt was a real yawner. I passed on it. The event may be free, but the shwag at paid conferences is way better. (Wait till you see my “Sons Of Defrag” tee I got the week before.) Notice I didn’t write a review/recap of this year’s event. But the shwag would hardly be the only reason. The fact that I was still feeling lousy after a two-week(!) cold was the over-riding one.
Glad I at least had the strength to shoot a bunch of pix, including those two I captured of you. So, what was it you were talking to Marty Wetherall about so intently — FanChatter?