Walk into most conferences and someone hands you a schedule that got locked months ago. Walk into BarCamp Philly and the schedule is a big empty grid on the wall. By mid-morning, it won’t be.
That’s an unconference. The people who show up build the program themselves, the morning of the event. Anyone can propose a session — you write your idea on a card, pitch it to the room, and everyone votes with stickers on what they want to hear. Ideas that draw interest get a room and a time slot, and that empty grid turns into a full day of talks and workshops that didn’t exist two hours earlier. When Technical.ly previewed our 15th event, the board filled with 60 sessions across six time slots. Or as organizer Tim Allen put it in Technical.ly: “a day of programming collaboratively built by the people, for the people.”
Where the format comes from
The first BarCamp happened in Palo Alto in 2005, organized in under a week as an open alternative to an invite-only tech retreat. The idea traveled fast — hundreds of cities around the world have hosted one since. Philadelphia’s version launched in 2008 and has run nearly every year since, which makes it one of the longest-running BarCamps still going.
What do people actually talk about?
Whatever the room decides. Tech shows up every year — though often it’s only about a quarter of the board. Past boards have covered impostor syndrome, ultimate frisbee, retro gaming, and running for the zombie apocalypse. An eight-year-old once led a session on making movies with an iPad. If you’ve been sitting on a topic you think deserves 15 or 60 minutes of fame, this is the place for it. And Technical.ly has a step-by-step guide to putting a session together if you want a head start.
The ground rules
There’s really only one law at an unconference, and it’s called the rule of two feet: if a session isn’t teaching you anything and you’re not contributing, walk to another one. No apology needed. Presenters know it going in, and it keeps every room full of people who want to be there.
The other thing we hold onto is that everyone belongs in the building. Technical.lyhas written about how we approach inclusion — pronoun stickers, quiet rooms, a KidCamp space, gender-neutral facilities — and we keep tickets cheap on purpose. You don’t need a title or even a slide deck to lead a session here.
So what should you bring?
An idea, if you have one. And if you don’t, that’s fine — you’re welcome to spend your first BarCamp just listening and voting. Every session on that wall started with somebody deciding, over breakfast, to write a card. Maybe this fall that’s you.