hi Amit,

this is your namesake from delhi and we’re sticking out our necks to pull through a delhi barcamp successfully. Our motivations are geared towards trying to weave together a microcosm of startups in this city, which is way behind other indian IT centres like b’lore, chennai, hyd, pune etc on the startup map.

We’ve followed your posts on barcamp nyc very intently; they are a excellent resource for any wannabe barcampers .

We’d look up to you to suggest ways to get over some of our initial hiccups; for instance , lots of people are signing up to attend but not many are ready to present . Thats not entirely unexpected , since few companies make software products which they would want to demo or talk about ; people typically do services for clients where there is anyway nothing much to talk about.

still we are gung ho…

amit

Hey Amit,

I’m so glad you guys are bringing this to Delhi. I bet you’ll be surprised how many people show up and have something to contribute.

To get more presentations on the docket, I suggest you make it clear to your attendees that *everyone who attends must present*. We sent two emails out to attendees before the event, and made it very clear in each one. In our first email, we gave suggested topics (culled from existing proposals, but you could also come up with your own.)

We had very few proposed presentations on the wiki until a week or so before the event, so it was definitely a concern for us as well. Luckily, as the event got rolling, we had more presentations than we could handle! I think what you’re seeing is that people procrastinate–and they’d rather wait until the last minute to come up with a topic than plan in advance. Many of our attendees didn’t put anything on the wiki but presented something at the event anyway.

Hope that helps! Feel free to follow up with any more questions if you have ‘em!

p.s. Are you guys getting t-shirts made? I would adore a BarCamp Delhi shirt!

Amit,

We are getting T shirts made with the delhi barcamp logo; will try to keep one aside for you .

When are you in India next.

amit

Thanks, Amit! Unfortunately, probably not for quite some time! I was just in Delhi late last year with my family and my flatmate.

Hi Amit,

This is your namesake from delhi once again ..

Wanted to let you know that BarCampDelhi was a smashing success ; as you had predicted , the response actually left us quite surprised. We had about 75 attendees & 25 sessions ; people even came down from mumbai, pune & bangalore.

http://www.amitranjan.com/2006/03/06/barcampdelhi-rocks-delhis-tech-community/
http://www.amitranjan.com/2006/03/07/thanks-to-delhis-tech-community-for-barcamp/

think we shall see barcamps in mumbai , b’lore, chennai , pune pretty soon

btw, have managed to save a delhibarcamp T shirt for you ; will have to think of a way to get it to you.

thanks for your help

amit

Triggered by the Delhi Barcamp, some of us here in Hyderabad have now got together and just announced the Hyderabad Barcamp. The theme is Web 2.0 and emerging web based App Architectures. DO check it out: http://barcamp.org

Hi Amit,

Its nice to see such platform in Delhi.
This is Sumit here and i am working in a HR consulting firm based in Bangalore.
Just wanted to talk to you sometime to take this association further.
Let me know when we can talk on this.

Thanks,
Sumit