Do we still need the confines of a massive convention center?

SXSW has already outgrown the Austin Convention Center, spilling sessions into neighboring hotels. When the conference takes over the town, why doesn’t the town take over the conference?

We were all glued to our mobile devices and the aforementioned services to track where the parties and people were, why not do the same with the sessions?

When so much value is in the hallway conversations, why not make the streets the hallway?

I realize this may be too insane to imagine for SXSW, but what about your local unconferences?

PodCamp and BarCamp Nashville have just about outgrown the Cadillac Ranch due to attendee numbers.

Why not reserve several neighboring bars, restaurants and cafes? Depending on weather, a city park would also suffice.

Then LBSs could be used to let you know where the people are using awesome services like vicarious.ly and SitBy.Us.

Thoughts?

Photo from Flickr by: Visualist Images

Please tag your photos with BCN09.

Many people asked me why I wasn’t going to Blog World Expo in Las Vegas this weekend. I would have loved to be there, but how could I possibly miss a rocking event right in my own town? Yesterday was the third BarCamp Nashville and it was bigger and better than ever.

I raise a toast to the organizers: Chuck Bryant, Scot Justice, Lucas Hendrickson, Kate O’Neill, Brad Blackman, Eric Chuff Shuff, Tom Cheredar, Andrew Duthie, Julia Corrigan, Doris Palomino, Darren Crawford, Winston Hearn, Scott Peave, Marissa Benchea, Heidi Short, Dan Cotton and Jessica Murray.

I understand that 600 people had registered for BCN09 and there were 75 registrations at the door. The Cadillac Ranch was jam packed with people in every nook and cranny, it was the perfect venue. Check out the pictures to truly get feel of the place.

It was fantastic reconnecting with old friends I hadn’t seen in ages and making so many new ones. Thanks to CentreSource and the Tennessean for the beers .

Roderick summarized it so well on his blog post, BarCamp Nashville ’09:

The takeaway of the day: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s all about relationships. Guess what? It’s (still) all about relationships. To create and nurture relationships you have to be yourself. These manufactured, overly-polished online personas are easy to see through. It’s like the guy whose hand you’re shaking while he’s looking at the next person he’s trying to get to. FAIL! Be present. Be engaged. Be yourself. You don’t have to be charming, just be sincere.

My only regret was not seeing enough sessions, there were so many incredible ones to choose from that I couldn’t attend them all. On top of this I often got caught between sessions in conversations outside of the session rooms, that however is never a regret.

I’m so excited about what’s next for Nashville technology community. I think Marcus Whitney hit the nail on the head that we need to keep bringing more talent to this town, so that we’ll continue growing and we’ll all be better off. Chris Ennis had a great presentation where he encouraged people interested in starting something to do so. Just do it people!

Thanks again to everyone involved, you all truly rock!