Last year I attended my second BarCamp and was introduced to Sean Carey from HD Interactive. He was working on building augmented reality applications using FLEX and his demonstration consisted of the GE Smart Grid as well as a couple of things his company was working on. I was attracted to the demonstration because it lined up perfectly with what I was working on at the time for print based products. All I needed to do was figure out if we could shrink it down it a 1″x1″ image and see if GE’s app could still render. Sure enough, after a number of reductions through the copier a 1×1 image successfully showed GE’s Smart Grid. Although the render was significantly smaller it still had the detail and the interactivity necessary to push forward. After a couple of presentations with the 1×1 image taped to an existing product I started to get a lot of interest. With the ball rolling I invited Sean Carey in to present what they could do. Their presentation was pretty good and eventually led to a nationwide campaign that launched in March of 2010. If it wasn’t for the connection we made at BarCamp neither Sean nor I would have been able to bring this opportunity forward. He wasn’t pitching a product back then and in so doing was able to land a contract with national exposure.
So, even though “pitching” a product or service is banned, it is still possible to establish business connections in the local community. I think that’s one of the great benefits of BarCamps, local talent making serendipitous connections with local companies. Both benefit greatly and both become stronger because of it. If you have similar experiences, let me know or add it in the comments section.
